Anaheim’s GardenWalk is at last open for business
Marking another step in its long struggle to scrap a kitschy past and conjure up a modern resort city, Anaheim on Saturday officially opened GardenWalk, an upscale multimillion-dollar retail and entertainment center where an abandoned musical theater-turned-Christian church once stood in the shadow of Disneyland.
“The last thing we wanted to have happen,” developer Bill Stone told about 100 people gathered for the grand opening, was for tourists to say, “ ‘Yeah, we’ve got that back in Des Moines too.’ ”
Built in the mold of outdoor shopping malls like nearby Downtown Disney and the Block at Orange, the complex of shops and restaurants is slated to eventually feature nearly 100 outlets with brand names such as Harley-Davidson and Ann Taylor Loft.
The development was a long time coming.
Just over a decade ago, streets around Disneyland were decidedly Space Age. In 1950s and ‘60s retro-futuristic style, neon signs cast a bright glow of man-made light, and eateries out of “The Jetsons” dotted the sidewalks. Melodyland, a musical theater converted into a Christian church, stood abandoned with its flying-saucer-like roof.
At GardenWalk, the transformation is dramatic. In place of the flying saucer and chrome-inspired decor, GardenWalk is replete with chain stores, some of which have yet to open. A series of new mini-gardens grows throughout the center.
And although most of the stores can be found in similar new malls across the country, developers say this project is unique, pointing to, among other things, plans for a mega-theater and bowling alley set amid the gardens.
The city embarked on an ambitious resort makeover in the mid-1990s with plans to eradicate the neon signs, themed hotels and Space Age diner architecture around the Disney resort in favor of a sleek urban center of upscale retail, residential and hotel development.
GardenWalk is one of the projects that has grown out of that effort.
Disney Co. now plans to operate two hotels at GardenWalk. But in the late ‘90s, when a mall project was first proposed, the entertainment giant did nearly everything it could to block construction.
Shortly after an outdoor project, then called Pointe Anaheim, was proposed, Disney lawyers filed hundreds of pages of objections.
The company also funded groups that criticized the plans and sponsored public meetings to air its complaints. At the time, Downtown Disney was still in the works.
Disney later withdrew its opposition when developers agreed to limit signs, increase parking and change traffic routes. But the project stalled again a few years ago, in part because of an economic downturn after the Sept. 11 attacks, and the demolished site sat as an empty fenced lot.
In 2005, a new set of developers took over, paying $30 million for the land and starting construction a short time later.
At Saturday’s long-awaited grand opening, Karen Eger, 32, and her mother, Pat Eger, 58, visitors from Canada, said they were glad to find a mall right next to their hotel. The family, along with niece Kirsten Popowich, 6, planned to stay eight days in Anaheim, including four days spent at the Disney resort and one day at SeaWorld in San Diego. If the mall weren’t there, Karen Eger said, they would probably be “sitting by the pool at the hotel.”
Nearby, longtime Anaheim residents Kelly White, 26, and her grandmother, Doris Marshall, 76, were like tourists in their own city, snapping pictures in the gardens and in front of the new shops. They struggled to recall what was on the land before.
“It’s been under construction for so long,” White said, “I don’t remember.”
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