Great Mall of the Bay Area

The Great Mall of the Bay Area (often simply called The Great Mall) is a large outlet shopping mall in Milpitas, California built by Ford Motor Land Development and Petrie Dierman Kughn in 1994, then acquired by Mills Corporation in 2003, and is now owned by the Simon Property Group since April 2007.

History

Formerly a Ford automobile assembly plant that was founded in the 1950s. Ford Mustangs were produced at this plant and Mustangs bearing the name San Jose as the assembly location were in fact built in Milpitas. The plant closed down in the early 80's in part due to increasing competition with Japanese auto manufacturers aptly narrated in David Halberstam's book, The Reckoning. In the early 1990s, developers resized the former plant and converted it into a mall. Today, an oak tree with a plaque commemorating Great Mall's history stands in the southwest section of its parking lot.

The Great Mall of the Bay Area, which opened on September 22, 1994, was developed as a joint venture between Ford Motor Land Development Corporation of Dearborn, MI and Petrie Dierman Kughn of McLean, VA.

Location

The Great Mall of the Bay Area sits at the intersection of Great Mall Parkway (which becomes Capitol Avenue when it crosses Montague Expressway) and Montague Expressway. The Parc Metropolitan apartments lie to the north of the mall. A few inns are also located at the south entrance of the mall.

Layout

Great Mall, unlike many other malls (but like most Mills malls), is a "flat" mall and the 2nd largest mall in northern California — it has only one story but takes up a large amount of land. The mall is currently laid out in this fashion because the existing main structure used to be a Ford automobile assembly plant and was not designed to serve as a shopping center.

Various major retailers are represented in the mall, including Home Depot, Off 5th - Saks Fifth Avenue Outlet, Marshalls, Dave and Buster's, Sears Appliance Outlet and a new Last Call Neiman Marcus clearance center. The mall used to house a Vans Skatepark which closed in 2004 and was replaced by Kohl's. In addition, it houses a Century Theatres multiplex with 20 screens.

Based on gross leaseable area, the Great Mall of the Bay Area was once the largest mall in Northern California, but has now been surpassed by others. It still remains the largest outlet mall in Northern California, but not all of its stores are outlets. Great Mall also has a food court, which can be accessed through Entrance 4.

Transit Center

The Great Mall of the Bay Area is close to the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority's Great Mall/Main transit center. Many VTA bus routes and also one by AC Transit stop at this transit center. The light rail station is elevated in the median of Great Mall Parkway.

Anchors & Majors

• Banana Republic (10,000 sq ft (1,000 m²))
• Bed Bath & Beyond
• Beverages & More (10,566 sq ft (982 m²))
• Burlington Coat Factory (90,096 sq ft (8,370 m²))
• Century Theatres (71,734 sq ft (6,664 m²))
• Dave & Buster's (65,079 sq ft (6,046 m²))
• Forever 21 (20,920 sq ft (1,944 m²))
• The Gap Outlet (16,050 sq ft (1,491 m²))
• Group USA (20,754 sq ft (1,928 m²))
• Kohl's (91,843 sq ft (8,532 m²))
• Last Call Neiman Marcus (33,120 sq ft (3,077 m²))
• Marshalls Superstore (52,526 sq ft (4,880 m²))
• Nike (17,352 sq ft (1,612 m²))
• Off 5th Saks Fifth Avenue (27,423 sq ft (2,548 m²))
• Old Navy (20,138 sq ft (1,871 m²))
• Sears Outlet (29,491 sq ft (2,740 m²))
• Sports Authority (55,871 sq ft (5,191 m²))

External links

• Great Mall of the Bay Area