Westfield Mission Valley, formerly Mission Valley Center, is a shopping mall in Mission Valley area of San Diego, California, owned by The Westfield Group. Its anchor stores are Michaels, Bed Bath and Beyond, Macy's Home & Furniture Store, Nordstrom Rack, Bloomingdale's Outlet Store and Target. There is also an AMC Theatres multiplex.
Today, the same endeavor would require environmental impact statements, traffic studies, community forums and a number of other costly -and time-consuming- measures. Moreover, there would be the possibility of community opposition to such a project that would need to be overcome.
Even in 1957, there was a great deal of controversy involved with the May Company shopping center plan. Many citizens did not want to see the pristine Mission Valley inundated with suburbanization. Likewise, the city's downtown merchants were none too pleased with the prospect of a huge, suburban retail center potentially siphoning off their customer base.
The open-air mall was designed by the San Diego-based Deems, Lewis, Martin & Associates and Frank Hope & Associates firms. It would be a bi-level structure. The first floor would house a parking garage and pastoral Center Court. The upper floor would be devoted entirely to retail.
This design was conceived because the shopping center site was located on a flood plain of the San Diego River. It was thought that a sufficient amount of rain could flood the area, with the ground floor of a structure being submerged in several feet of water.
History[]
AMC Theatres
In early 1958, May Centers proposed rezoning 90 acres (360,000 m2) in the then sparsely-populated Mission Valley area of San Diego to build a shopping mall. In June 1958, the San Diego City Council unanimously voted in favor of rezoning the 90 acres (360,000 m2) for the May plan.
Macy's
By 1959, the mall was under construction, and completed in late 1960, with a grand opening on February 20, 1961. Designed by the San Diego-based architectural firm Deems-Lewis, the mall contained two large anchor spaces, occupied by Montgomery Ward, and May Company, 70 inline stores, as well as a large central courtyard. Due to its location in the floodplain of the San Diego River, the mall was designed with the stores on the level above the parking garage. Presumably, in the event of a flood, only the parking garage would be flooded, with the retail level untouched. It was San Diego's second mall, following the opening of the College Grove Center in 1960. The western sector of the Mission Valley Center site was developed soon after the mall was completed. An outparcel Ice Arena was built in the parking area west of Ward's in 1963 (it closed in the early 1970s). The National General Theatres Valley Circle Theater, part of the Mission Valley Center strip center, showed its first feature December 23, 1966.
The mall underwent its first expansion in 1975, with the completion of a new 3-story Bullock's, and 11 new stores. Eight years later, in 1983, the mall underwent a significant remodel, with a new Northeast wing built, which also added a two-story Saks Fifth Avenue.
Bed Bath & Beyond
In 1994, Westfield Group acquired the mall. Along with this acquisition, another major renovation of the mall was undertaken, with a new AMC Theatres 20-screen multiplex built atop the south parking lot. The renovation project also retrofitted several new stores in existing space in the northeast wing, including Michaels, Nordstrom Rack, Loehmann's, and Bed Bath & Beyond. Additionally, a large center courtyard, originally constructed as a children's playground, was covered over to provide space for a Ruby's Diner. Around this time, Macy's acquired the Bullock's chain of department stores, which led to a rebranding of the Bullock's as a Macy's. Borders Books & Music, Marshalls, DSW, The Good Guys, and Old Navy were added as a separate location in 1995 also. The Good Guys closed in 2005, and it replaced by Golfsmith a year later. Borders Books & Music was converted into Giant Book Sale until 2012. Trader Joe's and Ulta Beauty opened up in the former Borders Books & Music in 2013. Golfsmith converted into a Golf Galaxy in 2017 also.
Meanwhile, May Company had absorbed all Los Angeles-based J.W. Robinson's department stores. Existing May Company and Robinson's locations were rebranded as Robinsons-May on January 31, 1993. The mall's Bullock's re-opened, as a Macy's Home Store, May 1, 1996.
In November 1998, Westfield renamed the mall Westfield Shoppingtown Mission Valley. The "shoppingtown" moniker, which had been added to the names of all Westfield-owned malls, was dropped in June 2005. Henceforth, the shopping venue would be known as Westfield Mission Valley.
Mission Valley's Target
In 2001, one of the malls original tenants, Montgomery Ward, was shuttered when the chain went bankrupt. A year later, Target opened in the former Ward's space. In 2006, Macy's completed its acquisition of May Company, and the former Robinsons-May space was subsequently rebranded as a Macy's.
By January 2016, there were -once again- rumblings about some type of mall remodeling. Westfield began a process to purchase the 55-year-old May Company (Macy's) building. The Historical Resources Board of the City of San Diego sprang into action. They evaluated the Mission Valley May Company building and concluded that it "retains integrity as it relates to the original design".
Furthermore, the structure was deemed "historically significant". It has been said that this action could prevent the Mid-Century Modern store from being torn down as part of a mall renovation. Westfield finalized the purchase of the building in March 2016 and appealed to the City of San Diego to revoke its designation as an historic structure. In 2017, Macy's revealed that they were closing 68 stores including Macy's Westfield Mission Valley.
Future plans[]
In August 2008, Westfield Group filed an application for a major renovation to the Westfield Mission Valley shopping center. The project envisions a 500,000 sq ft (46,000 m2) expansion of retail space for stores, 50,000 sq ft (4,600 m2) of commercial space, adjacent condominiums and parking. Real estate industry experts expect the project to be long-term, and development to last five to ten years. 10 years later (2018) no renovations has been done to Westfield Mission Valley Shopping Center.