Vallco Shopping Mall

Vallco Shopping Mall (formerly called Cupertino Square and Vallco Fashion Park) is a three-level dead mall located in Cupertino, California, United States. It was formerly anchored by Macy's, Sears, and J.C. Penney, all of which have departed. As of May 2017, the mall is almost entirely vacant, with AMC Theatres, Cupertino Ice Center, Bowlmor Lanes, Cold Stone Creamery, Dynasty Seafood Restaurant, Benihana, and Dr. Fred Slater, Optometrist as the only remaining tenants.

A plan to rebuild Vallco as a mixed-use development with retail, housing, and office space appears to be indefinitely suspended after Cupertino voters rejected Measure D on the November 2016 ballot.^[1] After obtaining community input in the planning phase,^[2] the project ran into significant push-back from citizens who wanted to freeze the site as retail-only, citing concerns about traffic and schools.^[3]

Major stores and activities

Vallco was formerly anchored by the following large department stores:

• J. C. Penney (closed April 8, 2016)
• Macy's (closed March 15, 2015)
• Sears (closed October 4, 2015)

Presently, the primary attractions are:

• AMC Theatres
• Bowlmor Lanes
• Cupertino Ice Center

Winter morning at the farmers' market

Vallco also formerly hosted the Pacific Coast Farmers' Market in the parking lot behind J. C. Penney. The market has since relocated to the nearby Creekside Park, with its last day at Vallco being December 30, 2016.^[4]

History

Vallco Park started as a business park in the 1960s, formed from land owned by 25 Cupertino property owners. It was named for the primary developers: Varian Associates, and the Leonard, Lester, Craft, and Orlando families.^[5] Vallco Business Park is now the home of the Cupertino campus of Hewlett-Packard and a campus for Apple.

Origins and expansion

In the early 1970s, the Cupertino City Council held public hearings on the possible locations of a regional shopping center in the city. After it decided the city could only support one center, the Vallco group found itself competing with another group led by orchard owner Paul Mariani, Jr. In 1973, the city council decided it wanted the regional shopping center on the edge of the city and gave the proper zoning to Vallco.^[5]

Vallco Fashion Park opened in September 1976. In its first years, the mall's main walkway was punctuated by several parks showcasing aspects of local history, ranging from apricots to Klystron tubes.^[6] Vallco was one of the largest shopping centers in Silicon Valley and soon drew customers from all over the region.

One of the early features of the mall was the ice skating rink attached to the shopping center. The Ice Capades Chalet, open for almost ten years, began to encounter trouble in 1986, when proposals to close it and replace it with movie theatres emerged (not to be confused with the more recent AMC Theatres, which was instead built on a new third level over the central portion of the mall). By June 3, 1988, the rink faced imminent closure, until the Cupertino city council stepped in and kept the rink open when faced with vocal protest. At the time, the ice rink was one of two year-round skating rinks nearby – the other being the identical Ice Capades Chalet at San Mateo Fashion Island.

It was also the first place that sold San Jose Sharks merchandise, before the SAP Center, formerly known as the San Jose Arena and HP Pavilion, was built.

Increased competition from other regional malls, such as Stanford Shopping Center, and in particular Valley Fair (opened 1986) began to cause Vallco trouble. In July 1988, an $20 million expansion for the mall was announced, which would add a lower level and 50 stores, increasing the total store count from 140 to 190.^[7] Ultimately, this expansion was completed in August, 1988, adding a total of 60 stores.^[8]

Another large tenant arrived at the mall on the weekend of August 11, 1990, with the addition of the Tilt Family Entertainment Center.^[9]

Deterioration and renovation

Occupancy began deteriorating in the 1990s, and the emptying of the mall continued into the mid 2000s. One reason for this decline was that the selection of mid-range stores didn't reflect the affluence of the surrounding populace.

Early 2000s

Alan Wong, Emily Chen, and John Nguyen bought Vallco and began renovation of the mostly empty mall in 2005. By 2006, Vallco had the lowest occupancy rate of any mall in the area, at just 24 percent. One of the changes made to Vallco as part of these new renovations was to completely close the first of the mall's two levels in 2005, leaving the focus on the second floor. From there, new tenants were pulled in over the next few years.

In 2006, Cupertino voters prevented re-zoning of part of the Vallco property for condominiums by overturning a re-zoning ordinance that was passed by the city council. The loss of the revenue that was expected from this sale contributed to the financial problems of the owners. The contractor for the movie theater, DPR, filed a mechanic's lien against the owners for approximately US$10 million in July 2007, which was settled the following September when Orbit Resources acquired the mall.

Vallco Fashion Park's name was changed to Cupertino Square in 2007.^[10] Later that year, the owners sold three parcels of land to Evershine Property Management and sold a controlling stake of the mall to Orbit Resources,^[11] which switched managing agents from Landmark Property Management to Jones Lang LaSalle.^[12]

On May 4, 2007, a new 16-screen AMC movie theater opened in the center of the mall, coinciding with the theatrical release of Spider-Man 3. The grand opening of this highly anticipated film and the theater was heavily marketed towards the students of the nearby Cupertino High School.

Renovation of the mall that began in 2005 continued. By 2009, two new parking structures, the movie theater, a food court, and Strike Bowling (at the former location of Tilt Family Entertainment Center) had been added to the complex. Future plans included shops facing the street at the corner of Wolfe Road and Vallco Parkway and a seismic upgrade of the parking garage west of the theaters as well as the main mall structure, two new hotels and a Hofbrau Beer Hall adjacent the theaters. The bankruptcy filing in 2008 derailed all the future plans (hotel retail and the beer hall).

In September 2008, the two owners of the complex filed for bankruptcy to prevent the primary financier, Gramercy Capital, from foreclosing on their property. According to Gramercy, the assets of the company fell well below the debt owed, though the consortium disputed this.^[13]

In September 2009, Vietnamese food processing company Son Son Co. purchased Cupertino Square for US$64 million in an all-cash transaction. The new owners restored the name Vallco Shopping Mall.^[14]

Current ownership

In October 2014, Sand Hill Property Co. purchased the Macy's, J. C. Penney, and Sears sites at approximately US$200 million.^[15] In November 2014, Sand Hill Property Co. completed purchase of the entire mall for a total of US$320 million, the first time the entire mall including the anchor stores had been under the same ownership.^[16][17][2]

In January 2015, J. C. Penney and Macy's announced plans to close their Vallco locations^[18][19] Sears also announced that its store would close in October 2015.^[2] The remaining mall tenants have been notified their leases are up to prepare for the mall's shutdown in 2016. Some of the stores will be relocated into Sand Hill's nearby development, Main Street Cupertino.

In August 2015, Sand Hill announced a plan to demolish the mall structures and make it into The Hills at Vallco, a retail, office, and residential development based on a street grid. It was to be covered with the world's largest green roof, which is to be occupied by a city park. Rafael Viñoly Architects and OLIN Landscape Architects have been selected as chief designers of the project.^[2]

In November 2016, voters rejected two ballot initiatives related to Vallco:^[20] Measure C, which would have attempted to freeze Vallco as a retail center without offices or housing, in addition to imposing additional restrictions on development options throughout the city, and Measure D, which would have approved the proposed Hills at Vallco project, bypassing standard city approval processes.^[1][21][22] In the wake of the votes, Sand Hill announced it would stop investing in the mall. Managing Director Reed Moulds said the company "will not sell the land nor make investments into the current failed asset. In order for us to invest in Vallco we have to be certain it will be a worthwhile investment and not just the Band-Aid approaches that have failed Vallco for decades. Until Cupertino is ready for that approach, we have no choice but to stop".^[1] In a follow-up statement, he said current tenants' leases would be honored so long as they remained at the mall; AMC Theatres, Bowlmor Lanes, Ice Center Cupertino, and Benihana all indicated their intention to stay. However, all vacant areas of the mall are to be closed for security reasons, and remaining tenants without lease terms are to be evicted.^[23] In May 2017, Sand Hill began implementing the closure of vacant areas, with seven new interior walls erected, including one adjacent to Dr. Fred Slater's clinic.^[24]

References