Once a vibrant shopping hub in the heart of downtown Sacramento, Downtown Plaza began its heyday in 1993. With a goal of duplicating the success of San Diego's Horton Plaza, developer Ernest Hahn breathed new life into the struggling K Street corridor, transforming it into a 1.2 million square foot retail destination. A signature steel-framed rotunda anchored the design, once hosting dazzling nighttime laser shows that lit up the city skyline.
At its peak, the mall housed major flagship stores, including the region's largest Macy's, complete with separate Men's and Furniture locations. Yet over time, cracks began to show. Retail giants such as Banana Republic pulled out, and the eastern wing fell into near-total vacancy, even as the western side maintained a degree of foot traffic.
The mall’s architecture, while ambitious, worked against it. The interplay between bright sunlight and shaded overhangs created visibility issues for storefronts, discouraging window shopping and impulse visits. While part of the mall—the southern corridor near the Rotunda—was enclosed, it seemed untouched since the 1980s. The corridor even had a second level, once filled with shops, now sealed off and forgotten.
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| An enclosed corridor north of the Rotunda court. Note the fancy woodwork on the ceiling. |
Downtown Plaza never quite decided what it wanted to be: a regional fashion center or a festive tourist draw akin to San Francisco’s Pier 39. Compounding the identity crisis was a lack of nearby residential density—or lack of interest in the mall.
By 2014, demolition of the mall began. Most of the stores had already closed. In its place, an arena rose—marking the end of Downtown Plaza, and the end of an era.
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