Bellevue Square
 Interior Shot of the Mall | |
| Location | Bellevue, Washington, USA 47°36′56″N 122°12′14″W / 47.61555°N 122.20392°W |
|---|---|
| Opening date | 1946 |
| Developer | Kemper Freeman Sr |
| Management | Kemper Development Co. |
| Owner | Kemper Development Co. |
| No. of stores and services | 180 |
| No. of anchor tenants | 3 |
| Total retail floor area |
1.3 million square feet (GLA) |
| No. of floors | 3 |
| Website | Official Website |
Bellevue Square is a shopping center in Bellevue, Washington. The mall has 180 retail stores, with anchors JCPenney, Macy's, and Nordstrom, and specialty stores such as Tiffany's, Hugo Boss, Armani Exchange, Lego, Victorinox Swiss Army, and the Microsoft Store. Restaurants include P.F. Chang's, The Cheesecake Factory, Red Robin, and Ruth's Chris Steak House. Bellevue Square also offers concierge services, valet parking, and children's play area.
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]
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 the mall's name shortened to Bellevue Square a few years later, JCPenney opened a store in 1955. Nordstrom, then a local shoe store, opened in 1958, before adding apparel and becoming the third major anchor in 1966, initially under the name Nordstrom Best.[2]
In the 1980s, the mall, then led by the original developer's son, Kemper Freeman Jr., expanded in several phases, finally adding a location for the Seattle department store The Bon Marché in 1984. In 1992, with the bankruptcy and closure of Frederick & Nelson 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.
In 2007, Bellevue Square was linked by a skybridge to Lincoln Square, another Kemper Freeman owned property.
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).
In September 2014, JCPenney announced that it was closing its store after staying in the mall for 55 years. The 200,000 square foot area is planned to be converted into smaller retail stores in time for the following holiday season. [3]
Anchors
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.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 http://bellevuesquare.com/aboutus_history.php, accessed August 18, 2006
- ↑ http://seattletimes.com/html/businesstechnology/2024455311_jcpenneyclosingxml.html