Anaheim Plaza, originally Broadway Orange County Center, then Anaheim Center, in Anaheim, California, was the first shopping mall in Orange County. It was a regional mall from 1955 to 1993 and is now a power center anchored by big-box stores.
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| Coordinates | 33°50′20″N 117°56′23″W / 33.8388832°N 117.9396274°W |
|---|---|
| Address | 510 North Euclid Street, Anaheim, CA 92801, USA |
| Opening date | October 14, 1955 (Broadway), as power center 1994 |
| Management | Kimco Realty[1] |
| Architect | Welton Becket |
| No. of stores and services | 28 |
| No. of anchor tenants | 5 |
| Public transit access | OCTA Route 37 |
| Website | shopanaheimplaza.com |
The Broadway was the original anchor department store opening October 14, 1955,[2] with the mall shops opening gradually in the following weeks and months. Both The Broadway and the center as a whole were designed by renowned Los Angeles architect Welton Becket.[3] The store cost $8.5 million to build, was 208,000 square feet (19,300 m2) in size, employed around 1,000 people and had parking for 5,000 cars. Brown McPherson was the first store manager[4]
In February 1963, a J.W. Robinson's was added as the mall's second anchor store.
In 1974, the center's owner, Prudential Life Insurance Co., completed a $4 million renovation, including enclosing the center and renaming it Anaheim Plaza.[5][6] In July 1977, a Mervyn's was added as the mall's third anchor store.
By the 1980s, better-off patrons had moved out of the surrounding area for Anaheim Hills and southern Orange County and the area were becoming more working-class and Hispanic.[5] In September 1987, business at Anaheim Plaza started to decline which was caused by the grand opening of MainPlace Mall in nearby Santa Ana, California. Robinson's opened a store at MainPlace Mall also in September 1987 and closed its Anaheim Plaza store in January 1988. By 1992, the mall was only 35% occupied. In January 1993, the mall's original anchor store The Broadway closed for good and in August of that same year, the mall was bulldozed except for the Mervyn's store.[7]
A new strip mall, all new except for the Mervyn's, was opened in November 1994, 547,000 square feet (50,800 m2) in size and costing $30 million. Mervyn's closed in late 2008 due to the chain being liquidated and has been replaced by Forever 21 (now closed since 2020, now Burlington). [7]
Currently (as of 2023), anchor stores include El Super (formerly OSH and Gigante), Smart & Final (formerly OfficeMax), Petco, Ross, TJ Maxx (formerly CompUSA), Walmart (which opened in January 1995), and Burlington Coat Factory (former Mervyn's and Forever 21).[8]
References
edit- ^ "Anaheim Plaza, Anaheim, California".
- ^ "Anaheim Fetes New Broadway Store Opening". Los Angeles Times. October 15, 1955.
- ^ "Work Begun on Large Building". Los Angeles Times. August 12, 1956.
- ^ "Broadway to Open Anaheim Store Today". Los Angeles. October 14, 1955.
- ^ a b Anaheim Plaza: Mall That's Been Mauled", Los Angeles Times, December 2, 1990
- ^ "Anaheim Plaza - Once an Indoor Mall?", Orange County Register
- ^ a b Jennifer Lowe, "Orange County`s 1st Mall Faces An Overhaul", Chicago Tribune, August 16, 1992
- ^ Anaheim Plaza official website