BIGMallrat | Retail history of Northern California

A snapshot of Sunnyvale Town Center in 1990, showing the mall's stores, restaurants, and services during its early years. Front cover Front cover of the 1990 Sunnyvale Town Center directory. Mall map & directory Mall map and store directory from Sunnyvale Town Center, 1990. Fast facts Date : 1990 Location : Sunnyvale, California Anchors : Macy's, Montgomery Ward Stores and services:  Around 125 Layout : Two levels Source : Contemporary mall directory Highlights Macy's and Montgomery Ward were the mall's only department store anchors. The future JCPenney appears on the map simply as "Future Expansion." Stores are organized by level rather than by retail category. The mall elevator was located in the outdoor courtyard. The directory captures a classic early-1990s mix of bookstores, record shops, electronics retailers, and mall food-court favorites. About this direct...

In the 1970s, many cities believed enclosed shopping malls could save aging downtowns. Sunnyvale embraced that idea on a grand scale. Eight blocks of downtown were cleared for a $60 million redevelopment project that would transform 34 acres into Sunnyvale Town Center, an enclosed regional shopping mall anchored by Macy's and Montgomery Ward. At the time, Sunnyvale was one of the largest cities in California without a department store or regional shopping center. City leaders hoped the project would bring shoppers back to downtown and create a new civic centerpiece. Modeled in part after a similar redevelopment in Santa Maria, Sunnyvale Town Center represented the prevailing wisdom of the era: if downtown was struggling, build a mall. For a time, the strategy seemed to work. But over the following decades, Sunnyvale would discover an unexpected problem. The mall built to save downtown ultimately became an obstacle to the kind of downtown the city wanted to create. From an Octobe...