Broadway Plaza (Walnut Creek)
 Broadway Plaza before its 2016 renovation. | |
 | |
| Location | Walnut Creek, California, United States |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 37°53′44″N 122°03′28″W / 37.89551°N 122.05786°W |
| Address | 1275 Broadway Plaza |
| Opening date | October 18, 1951 |
| Developer | Graeme McDonald[1] |
| Management | Macerich |
| Owner | Macerich |
| No. of stores and services | 80 (as of Jan 2017) [2] |
| No. of anchor tenants | 4 |
| Total retail floor area | 776,000 sq ft (72,100 m2)[3] |
| No. of floors | 1 (2 in Macy's, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, Zara, H&M, Arhaus, and Parking Garage) |
| Parking | 2,451 [4] |
| Website | broadwayplaza |
Broadway Plaza is an outdoor shopping mall located in downtown Walnut Creek. The shopping center opened on October 11, 1951 and is owned and operated by Macerich. The mall is anchored by Nordstrom and Macy's, and features nearly 80 stores including Crate & Barrel, flagship H&M and ZARA stores, a standalone Apple store with an adjoining outdoor plaza, an Industrious co-working space, a Life Time Fitness sports club, and a planned Pinstripes entertainment center and restaurant.
History
[edit]Broadway Plaza opened on October 18, 1951 with 38 stores.[5] JCPenney, Sears, Woolworths, Joseph Magnin (later I. Magnin), and a Lucky Supermarket were the mall's original anchors.[6] In 1954, Oakland-based department store Capwell's opened as the center's fifth anchor.[7]
Lucky was replaced by Northern California's second Bullock's department store in 1973,[8] which was in turn converted to Nordstrom in 1984.[9]
Capwell's became Emporium-Capwell in 1979,[10] and was converted to Macy's in 1995;[11] while I.Magnin was converted to a separate Macy's Men's store that same year.[12] A renovation occurred at the property in the early 1990s, adding a unified architectural and landscaping scheme to the property when it previously had none. Crate & Barrel opened a two-level store at the property in 1992. A former parking lot adjacent to Crate & Barrel was replaced with a pedestrian plaza in 1994, with a fountain, a retail building, and a stand-alone California Pizza Kitchen restaurant. Finally, a new, multi-floor parking structure was built in the southwest corner of the property behind the Macy's Men's store.
After a protracted legal battle, a Neiman Marcus department store opened at the property in 2012, the first of several major changed to occur at the property.[13]
Expansion
[edit]Plans for an extensive renovation of the mall, including the addition of 300,000 sq ft (28,000 m2) of new retail space, were approved in December 2013.[14] The expansion consolidated the two Macy's stores into the Macy's Women's store building, which was expanded and remodeled, and replaced the former single-level retail space and parking structure between Macy's and Nordstrom with a two-level retail building and multi-level parking structure. The first tenants in the expansion opened in September 2016.[15] Additional tenants and a two-level Zara store (located on a partial portion of the land once home to the Macy's Men's store) opened for business before the Christmas shopping season.[15]
California Pizza Kitchen moved elsewhere in the city in 2016, with tenants of the adjacent stand-alone building moving into the mall's expansion wing that same year.[16] A new stand-alone Apple store and a revitalized pedestrian plaza were then proposed for the land occupied by the two vacant buildings. Apple and the new plaza commenced construction in early 2017, and opened in Summer of 2018.[17] Life Time Fitness, an upscale large-format sports club, began construction on the remainder of the former Macy's Men's footprint in 2021 after a series of delays related to the COVID-19 pandemic, and opened in September of 2023.[18]
In mid-2020, Neiman Marcus announced it would close its Walnut Creek store as part of a bankruptcy filing.[19] Neiman Marcus closed in January of 2021, and the building sat vacant until the following year when Crate & Barrel temporarily moved into the space.[20] The former Crate & Barrel store would then be converted to Pinstripes, a restaurant and entertainment concept, scheduled to open in 2024.[21] Crate & Barrel exited the former Neiman Marcus building for a new, permanent store elsewhere in Walnut Creek in mid-2023, leaving the building vacant.[22] Property owner Macerich purchased a retail building adjacent to the former Neiman Marcus and a then-operating P.F. Chang's locations in 2022, giving Broadway Plaza management control of a contiguous city block.[23] P.F. Chang's later closed in 2023, paving the way for a potential redevelopment.[24]
References
[edit]- ^ "Broadway Plaza Turns the Big 6-0". 11 June 2011.
- ^ "Broadway Plaza Directory". Macerich.
- ^ "Broadway Plaza Leasing Brochure" (PDF). Macerich. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-05-25. Retrieved 2015-05-25.
- ^ "Parking Downtown". City of Walnut Creek. Retrieved April 16, 2018.
- ^ "A Timeline of Walnut Creek History". Walnut Creek Historical Society.
- ^ "Broadway Plaza Turns 60". Diablo Magazine.
- ^ Evers, Anne (2014). Emporium Department Stores. ISBN 9781467132503.
- ^ "Bullocks Department Stores". Department Store Museum.
- ^ "Overstocking By Retailers In Apparel Slows Nordstrom Stock Recovery". NewsOK.com.
- ^ "Emporium Company, 835 Market Street Department Store #2, San Francisco, CA". Pacific Coast Architecture Database (PCAD).
- ^ "Broadway to Convert 40 in Store Chain to Macy's". Los Angeles Times.
- ^ "Macy to Let I. Magnin Pass Into History". Los Angeles Times.
- ^ "Neiman Marcus Joins List of Big Name Retailers in Walnut Creek". CBS SF Bay Area. 9 March 2012.
- ^ "City Council Approves Plan for Broadway Plaza Renovation". Patch. 11 December 2013.
- ^ a b "Macerich Officially Opens Expanded Broadway Plaza in Walnut Creek". September 1, 2016.
- ^ "CPK relocating in Walnut Creek (With new menu)". 22 June 2016.
- ^ "Walnut Creek: State-of-the-art store planned for Broadway Plaza entrance". 13 June 2016.
- ^ "Life Time Opens First Bay Area Athletic Country Club in California at Walnut Creek's Broadway Plaza". 22 September 2023.
- ^ "Neiman Marcus adds two more stores to its closing list". 29 August 2020.
- ^ "COVID retail: Neiman Marcus closes Walnut Creek department store". 19 January 2021.
- ^ "Macerich to Welcome Pinstripes to Broadway Plaza".
- ^ "Crate & Barrel Wants to Give You Design Services for Free—and Its New Store Is the Future of Furniture Shopping". 29 August 2023.
- ^ "Real estate giant buys retail site next to high-profile East Bay mall". 13 October 2022.
- ^ "P.F. Chang's is closing another Bay Area restaurant". 2 June 2023.