Faded Mall Facing a Brighter Future After Demolition : Retail: The enclosed Anaheim Plaza, in decline for years, will be transformed into an open-air discount shopping center.
As the giant steel jaws of a wrecking crane clamped down Friday on the remains of the county’s oldest mall, Fran Wiseman didn’t know whether to be happy or sad. So she was both.
“This used to be such a wonderful place in the old days. Everyone came here to shop,” said Wiseman, who witnessed the demolition of Anaheim Plaza at a groundbreaking ceremony. “But then it all went downhill. Now we’re looking at a new beginning.”
In place of the mall, city officials and developers are building a $30-million, open-air discount shopping center to be anchored by Wal-Mart, Mervyn’s, and a Ross clothing store.
“We would have loved to have had a Nordstrom’s in here, but under the circumstances this was the best solution,” said Wiseman, an Anaheim resident who has lived near the plaza for 30 years.
Built in 1955, the mall was one of the most prestigious retail centers in the county. It enjoyed much success throughout the 1960s, and a renovation in the early 1970s kept the crowds coming.
But by the late 1980s, the plaza’s earlier allure started to fade. Shoppers shunned the center in favor of newer, more attractive malls in neighboring cities. The competition forced two of the plaza’s main department stores--the Broadway and Robinson’s--to pull out as tenants.
The department store departures created an unpleasant ripple effect. Smaller retail stores, which relied on the likes of Broadway and Robinson’s to bring customers to the mall, could no longer survive. Ultimately, the plaza became a retail ghost town with only a handful of shops remaining. The plaza’s decline worried residents and frustrated city officials who fretted over plummeting sales tax revenue.
City officials criticized the plaza’s owner, the California State Teachers Retirement System, saying it was content with just holding onto the valuable property, refusing to make the necessary investment to make the plaza competitive.
The plaza’s owner blamed the decline on the competition from malls in Brea and Santa Ana, property management problems and poor freeway access to the mall, which is near the Santa Ana Freeway at Euclid Street.
After much finger-pointing and heated threats by some council members to condemn and acquire the land, the city and property owner entered into a joint redevelopment agreement in 1991 to revitalize the plaza.
During the planning phase, it became clear to both parties that the new center should position itself as a “value-oriented” plaza aimed at bargain shoppers, thus avoiding the competition from other malls. It was also agreed that improvements to the Santa Ana Freeway off-ramps would have to be made.
Some residents were initially concerned about the image and impact of having a discount center in their neighborhood, but ultimately most accepted the plans.
Under those plans, the once-enclosed mall will be converted into an open-air shopping center lined with palm trees and old-fashioned trellises adorned with flowering vines.
An outdoor eating area for shoppers will be lighted at night. Mervyn’s department store and Marie Callender’s restaurant, which are tenants of the old plaza, will remain. In addition to clothing, book, record and other specialty stores, plans include retail space for a market and drugstore.
The grand opening for the new plaza is slated for fall, 1994.
Anaheim officials estimate that the rejuvenated center will funnel about $800,000 annually into the city’s general fund, about $400,000 more than the plaza contributed before the Broadway department store pulled out in 1992.
At Friday’s groundbreaking, the 50-acre project was widely praised by residents and city officials.
“I don’t think I’ve seen as much excitement over a demolition project since the Berlin Wall came down,” said Elisa Stipkovich, director of the city’s Redevelopment Agency. “This is going to be a win-win project not only for the city but also for the property owners and community.”
