Almaden Plaza in San Jose, California originated as Almaden Fashion Plaza, opening in August 1968 as part of a brief Emporium retail development experiment in which The Emporium functioned as both anchor tenant and direct developer of a suburban shopping center.
This project represents a transitional moment in suburban retail development, occurring at the end of Emporium’s suburban expansion phase and before department store–led development gave way to developer-assembled regional mall construction in the early 1970s.
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| Ad for Almaden Fashion Plaza in San Jose when it had its grand opening on August 8, 1968. As the headquarters for fashion, the 35-acre site hosted 20 curated stores. |
Suburban expansion context (1950s–1960s)
The Emporium’s suburban expansion began in the early 1950s and included multiple Bay Area retail developments prior to Almaden.
One of the earliest was the Emporium at Stevens Creek Plaza, where the store opened in 1957 and the surrounding shopping center followed in 1963. This earlier development reflected a pattern in which department stores extended into suburban markets as both anchors and early organizing retail nodes.
By the 1960s, this expansion model had evolved into more structured shopping center development approaches.
1967 corporate restructuring
In 1967, Broadway-Hale acquired a 50% stake in Emporium Capwell Co. This period coincided with broader consolidation in department store retail and changes in suburban expansion strategy.
Following this acquisition, Hale’s operations in San Jose were closed, reflecting internal consolidation within the broader corporate structure.
Almaden Fashion Plaza (1968)
Almaden Fashion Plaza opened in August 1968 on a 35-acre site in southern San Jose. It was designed as an open-air shopping center organized around The Emporium as its primary anchor.
Unlike earlier suburban locations where Emporium functioned primarily as a tenant within independently developed centers, Almaden was developed with direct corporate involvement in both site planning and anchor operation.
This makes Almaden one of the clearest examples of Emporium functioning as both developer and anchor operator within a single suburban retail project.
In February 1969, a second phase expanded the center with additional tenants, extending the original layout while maintaining the same anchor-centered structure.
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| Ad for The Emporium’s grand opening at Almaden Fashion Plaza on August 8, 1968, featuring its distinctive Mission-style roof. This store was a twin to their Fremont location. |
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| February 1969 ad announcing the grand opening of Unit Two at Almaden Fashion Plaza, featuring 33 new shops including Harry’s Delicatessen, Baskin-Robbins, and Evelyn’s Coiffures. |
Structural shift in retail development
By the early 1970s, Emporium Capwell’s role in suburban retail development had shifted. Rather than directly developing shopping centers, the company increasingly operated as an anchor tenant within regional malls constructed by external developers.
This transition aligned with broader changes in retail real estate development models during this period.
1970 note: The Emporium opened a standalone store in Mountain View, where plans for an accompanying shopping center were announced but never realized.
Almaden Plaza in 2005
By 2005, the site operated as Almaden Plaza. The original open-air circulation system remained in place, with a mix of national chain retailers and service-oriented tenants occupying the center.
The spatial layout of the site continued to reflect the original 1968 design structure, despite changes in tenant composition over time.
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| Open-air interior of the mall inside Almaden Plaza in San Jose, photographed in 2005. |
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| Covered walkway at Almaden Plaza in 2005, with overhanging signs including See’s Candies and other local retailers. |
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| The faded “E” label scar from The Emporium, still visible in 2005—a decade after the department store’s closure. |
Costco addition and continued use
In 1996, Costco opened on a portion of the original parking area. This introduced a warehouse retail format into the site and increased the role of automobile access within its circulation patterns.
The addition of Costco maintained the site’s function as an active retail node within the Almaden Valley area, while altering its internal distribution of retail activity.
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| Front of Almaden Plaza in 2005, with active storefronts and visible signage for popular retailers. |
Legacy of Almaden Plaza
Almaden Plaza represents The Emporium’s 1968 experiment in direct suburban shopping center development. As part of a short-lived “Fashion Plaza” development approach, the project reflects an early attempt by department store operators to extend retail control into suburban site planning.
While the model was not widely repeated, Almaden Plaza remains a physical record of this transitional period in retail development, where department store expansion briefly extended beyond tenancy into full-site development before shifting toward regional mall participation in the early 1970s.
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