Bellevue Square
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Bellevue Square | |
| Mall facts and statistics | |
|---|---|
| Location | Bellevue, Washington, USA |
| Opening date | 1946 |
| Developer | Kemper Freeman Sr |
| Management | Kemper Development Co. |
| Owner | Kemper Development Co. |
| No. of stores and services | 200 |
| No. of anchor tenants | 3 |
| Total retail floor area | 1.3 million square feet (GLA) |
| No. of floors | 2 |
| Website | http://www.bellevuesquare.com |
Bellevue Square is a shopping mall in Bellevue, eight miles east of Seattle. The mall is home to 200 retailers, including anchors JCPenney, Macy's, Macy's Home Store, and Nordstrom, specialty stores like Pottery Barn, Apple Computer, and Williams-Sonoma, and restaurants like P.F. Chang's China Bistro and Ruth's Chris Steak House. Bellevue Square also offers concierge services, valet parking, a local shuttle bus, and children's play areas.
Bellevue Square attracts over 16 million visitors annually who individually spend nearly two hours per trip spending $126, well above the national average. Over $600 is spent for every square foot of retail space each year.[1]
[edit] History
Bellevue Square was first opened in 1946, trading under the name "Bellevue Shopping Square"[2], with the first suburban department store opened by Marshall Field & Co., through its Seattle-based subsidiary, Frederick & Nelson.
With its name shortened to Bellevue Square a few years later, JCPenney opened a store in 1955. Nordstrom, then a local shoe store, added apparel and became the third major anchor in 1966.[2]
In the 1980's the center, then led by the original developer's son, Kemper Freeman Jr., expanded in several phases, finally adding a location for the dominant Seattle department store The Bon Marché in 1984. In 1992 with the bankrupcty and closure of the Frederick & Nelson chain, and collapse of a deal to lease part of the vacated space to Saks Fifth Avenue, the center used the opportunity to reconfigure the vacant anchor as mall shop space. 1994 saw the addition of a separate The Bon Marché Home Store, while Nordstrom expanded the size of their store by half. In 2003 The Bon Marché stores were renamed Bon-Macy's, and in 2005 they adopted the name Macy's.
Bellevue Square continues to be owned by Kemper Freeman Jr. and his family, one of the few shopping centers in the United States that have not been purchased by a Real Estate Investment Trust/REIT.
[edit] References
- ^ "A new Bellevue rising: Big-thinking Kemper Freeman Jr. thinking even bigger" Seattle P-I article published on April 6, 2005. Retrieved May 30, 2006.
- ^ a b http://bellevuesquare.com/aboutus_history.php, accessed August 18, 2006
