Westfield Southcenter
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Westfield Southcenter | |
| Mall facts and statistics | |
|---|---|
| Location | Tukwila, Washington, USA |
| Opening date | July 31, 1968 |
| Developer | Allied Stores |
| Management | The Westfield Group |
| Owner | The Westfield Group |
| No. of stores and services | 157 |
| No. of anchor tenants | 5 |
| Total retail floor area | 1,270,000 sq. ft. |
| Parking | 7,143 |
| No. of floors | 1 |
| Website | http://westfield.com/southcenter |
Westfield Southcenter, formerly known as Southcenter Mall, is an upscale shopping mall located in Tukwila, Washington, USA. It is currently anchored by JC Penney, Macy's, Nordstrom, and Sears and owned by The Westfield Group. A Rainforest Cafe is also at the mall.
[edit] History
Opened July 31, 1968, and developed by Allied Stores, Southcenter Mall was anchored by Allied's The Bon Marché, Frederick & Nelson, JCPenney and Nordstrom Best. Over the years the anchor stores changed, as Nordstrom truncated its name in 1973, a Mervyn's store was added as a fifth anchor in 1984, Frederick & Nelson went bankrupt and sold its store to Sears in 1992, The Bon Marché was renamed Macy's Northwest in 2005 before Mervyn's closed at the end of 2006.
The mall was eventually acquired by Jacobs, Visconsi and Jacobs Co. of Cleveland, Ohio in 1985, which later, after being renamed The Richard E. Jacobs Group, sold it to The Westfield Group in early 2002. At that time it was renamed "Westfield Shoppingtown Southcenter". The unwieldy "Shoppingtown" was dropped from the name in June 2005. Westfield acquired full ownership of the property when it acquired the underlying leasehold in 2006. Westfield acquired the former Mervyn's location in 2007 and has not announced its plans for the vacant site.
Westfield Southcenter is undergoing a $200 million expansion that will add 400,000 square feet and two parking garages. The existing food court closed on January 28, 2007, and has since been demolished. The redevelopment will add 75 specialty stores, a new atrium and food court with views of Mount Rainier, six new sit-down restaurants and an AMC Theatres multiplex on top of the center. The renovation is expected to be completed in 2008.
[edit] Trivia
The original marketing campaign in the late '60s and early '70s featured a very young, relatively unknown KIRO "assistant" anchor, Sandy Hill. In fact, KIRO partnered with Southcenter in the '70s, occasionally broadcasting the noon news from a set near the Bon Marche (now Macy's)). The advertising jingle focused on "one hundred stores and all that room...Southcenter...it's always a beautiful day!". It attempted to lure people in out of the proverbial continual rain in the Seattle area.
