Before becoming a modern power center, El Paseo de Saratoga was one of San Jose’s quirkiest and most distinctive shopping malls. Opened in mid-1975, it stood apart from typical malls of its era—not just in design, but in philosophy.
A different kind of mall
Built at a cost of $18.5 million by developer Chan Chrisman of Palo Alto, El Paseo was no ordinary enclosed mall. Spread across 31 acres at the intersection of Saratoga Avenue, Campbell Avenue, Hamilton Avenue, and Lawrence Expressway, it was strategically positioned across from Westgate Mall, but made a conscious decision not to compete directly.
Instead of relying on department stores as regional anchors, El Paseo de Saratoga opted for an open-air, lifestyle-inspired format that emphasized small retailers, boutiques, and open courtyards. It offered 325,000 square feet of retail space and aimed to house up to 150 stores—ambitious for a mall with no anchors.
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| November 1976 holiday ad for El Paseo de Saratoga — For that hard-to-please person, unique gifts from specialty retailers like The Booksellers, The Snob, Village Woodshed, Sakiyama’s, and Don Quixote. A curated collection of charm in San Jose’s most distinctive mall. |
Architectural personality: town & country style
Designed by Bakke & Page Associates of Cupertino, El Paseo featured a triangular footprint, with two levels of shops wrapped around landscaped courtyards and walkways. The architecture embraced a "town and country" feel, with tile roofs, native oak trees, sculptures, waterfalls, and a sense of openness and casual sophistication.
Its most memorable feature? A landmark 35-foot clock tower that once helped define the area’s skyline—later demolished when the mall was replaced.
No anchors, no problem—until there was a problem
While the center never had a traditional department store anchor, it served its purpose as a neighborhood destination—offering food, fashion, and services in a walkable, scenic environment. Over time, Heald College established a large campus on-site, shrinking the footprint available for commercial tenants. But by the early 1990s, as larger regional malls expanded and big-box retailers reshaped suburban retail, El Paseo struggled to compete.
Demolition and reinvention
In 1996, after just over 20 years in operation, El Paseo de Saratoga was demolished. In its place rose a modern power center, anchored by large-format national retailers—more in line with the prevailing retail trends of the late ’90s.
Today, while the site is still called El Paseo de Saratoga, little remains of the original mall except the name. The distinctive triangle layout, open-air courtyards, and unique local charm have been replaced by large parking lots and chain stores.
A forgotten chapter in San Jose’s mall history
El Paseo de Saratoga may not have lasted long compared to other Bay Area malls, but it stood as a reminder of a time when shopping centers weren’t all cut from the same cloth. Its blend of thoughtful architecture, local landscaping, and community-scale ambition made it one of San Jose’s more unique experiments in suburban retail—one that is now preserved only in memory and a few surviving photos (that I'd love for you to send me).
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