 Walkway at Stanford Shopping Center | |
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| Location | Palo Alto, California |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 37°26′35″N122°10′16″W / 37.44306°N 122.17111°W /37.44306; -122.17111 |
| Opening date | 1955 |
| Developer | Stanford University |
| Management | Simon Property Group |
| Owner | Simon Property Group (94.4%) |
| Stores and services | 152 |
| Anchor tenants | 4 |
| Floor area | 1,347,935 sq ft (125,227.3 m2) (GLA) |
| Floors | 1 |
| Public transit | Stanford Marguerite Shuttle: MC, X and SE Menlo Park shuttle: M1 Caltrain:Palo Alto station VTA: 22, 522 Dumbarton Express |
| Website | www |
Stanford Shopping Center is an upscale open airshopping mall located onRoute 82 (El Camino Real) atSand Hill Road inPalo Alto, California. It is on the campus ofStanford University although the university only owns the land and not the actual buildings or stores. Also, unlike the main academic campus, the shopping center and the neighboringStanford University Medical Center are part of the city of Palo Alto, not thecensus-designated place (CDP) ofStanford, California. The shopping center buildings are 94.4% owned bySimon Property Group, which manages the property and leases the land from the university.
The outdoor center is 1,347,935 square feet (125,227.3 square meters) and includes four majordepartment stores:Bloomingdale's,Macy's,Neiman Marcus, andNordstrom. Retailers at the shopping center includeLouis Vuitton,Tiffany & Co.,Burberry,Ermenegildo Zegna, andFrette, as well as the firstVictoria's Secret retail store.[1]
In 1954, excavators broke ground on what was once Leland Stanford's vineyards. Nine buildings housing 45 businesses were built. The Roos Brothers clothing store opened as the first retailer in September 1955 and Blum's restaurant opened on October 22, 1956, marking the completion of the center. Board of trustees Chair Lloyd Dinkelspiel and university PresidentJ. E. Wallace Sterling presided at the opening andShirley Temple Black cut the first slice of a nine-tiered cake.San Francisco department storeThe Emporium and luxury specialty department storeI. Magnin & Co. were the original anchors.
The center opened with great success and became one of the largest sources of unrestricted income for the university.
Macy's California joined the center in 1961 andSaks Fifth Avenue opened a store in 1962. Further expansion came again in 1972 with the addition ofLos Angeles-basedBullock's, owned byBloomingdale's parent companyFederated Department Stores. Bullock's only lasted 11 years, closing its northern California stores in 1983 and selling its Stanford location toNordstrom, which opened in November 1984.Neiman Marcus became the sixth anchor in August 1985.
A department store shuffle occurred in the mid-1990s:
In 1997, the vacant Saks Fifth Avenue building was split into two tenants:Crate & Barrel and anAndronico's gourmet market.[5] Andronico's closed in 2011,[6] and was replaced byThe Container Store in 2013.[7]
On March 18, 2020, Stanford was among 7 Bay-area malls owned by theSimon Property Group which closed until March 29, 2020 due to theCOVID-19 pandemic.[8]
Throughout the years, the center has continued to evolve in terms of both tenants and construction and was managed by the university through its investment affiliateStanford Management Company since 1991. However, in 2003, taking advantage of the high prices that shopping centers were fetching, the university'sboard of trustees agreed to sell the center for $333 million toSimon Property Group which, in turn, leases the underlying land from the university under a 51-yearlease. The university's lease includes an annual rent equal to 25% percent of the center'snet profits.
In 2012, Bloomingdale's announced plans to move into a new three-level 120,000 square foot store, vacating its existing building.[9] The new Bloomingdale's opened in 2014,[10] and the original building was demolished to make way for a new wing of retailers. That new wing, anchored by a multi-levelAnthropologie store and a True Food Kitchen restaurant, opened in mid-2016.
In early 2019, Simon Property Group submitted plans to the city of Palo Alto to tear down the former Macy's Men's building and replace it with a 40,000 square-foot, three-levelRH gallery with a rooftop restaurant, a duo of smaller restaurant buildings, and a new, larger 29,000 square-footWilkes Bashford store.[11] The project was approved in late 2019, with demolition commencing in 2021 and continuing into 2021.[clarification needed][citation needed]
The I. Magnin stores in Walnut Creek and Stanford will reopen in June as Macy's specialty stores.
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