Expensive Restaurants Taking Over Abandoned Department Stores

[Alpha8472]

These food halls and expensive restaurants are all the rage now instead of department stores.

https://www.sfgate.com/food/article/bay ... 468563.php

[Brian Lutz]

In this case it sounds like a Korean grocer is moving in, and those often tend to be followed by a number of other related Asian restarants and other businesses. For example, probably around 10 years ago the lower floor of the former Mervyn's store at Southcenter Mall in Tukwila WA (south of Seattle) got turned into a Seafood City (Filipino grocery) store, and when they moved in they brought a number of Filipino restaurants like Jolibee, Chow King and Red Ribbon Bakeshop, and other Asian based stores such as a Daiso and 85c (a Taiwanese bakery) have gradually taken over that portion of the mall, and a number of other Asian restaurants (including a Japanese ramen/Izakaya place, a Dim Sum place and Korean BBQ) are found elsewhere in the mall. The upper floor of the former Mervyn's is also now a Round 1 Arcade and bowling center. Similarly, the Uwajimaya store in the International District of Seattle also includes a food court with 8 different restaurants plus the stores deli, and there are a couple others in the building as well.

Here in Greensboro where I live now there's one particular shopping center on Market Street called Fanta City where a lot of the international businesses have congregated, forming around an Asian grocer called Super G Mart (not really tied to any specific ethnicity the way a lot of them like 99 Ranch or H Mart tend to be, but probably mostly Japanese and Korean.) The rest of the shopping center is mostly filled with other Asian businesses (again mostly Japanese and Korean, but there's a separate Indian grocer, a couple of Middle Eastern Restaurants and even a Hispanic place or two. That said, Hispanic Tiendas tend to be scattered all over the city in various places, and generally don't end up in these places.

Over in Bellevue when the second phase of the Lincoln Square development opened it included a more high end food hall with currently 6 different options. I get the impression that they've had some trouble getting that one off the ground though, although The Bellevue Collection as a whole has a fair number of high end restaurants so that probably doesn't help. It probably also doesn't help at all that Crossroads Bellevue has had their "Public Market" of highly diverse counter service restaurants a few miles away for decades now with many loyal customers, and I suspect most people would just go there instead.

One concept I've heard of taking over larger mall spaces is Eataly, which builds larger stores basically covering all the bases when it comes to Italian cuisine. You get counter service, high-end table service, a marketplace and a cooking school all in one building. Currently there are eight of these in the US (3 in NYC plus locations in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas and Los Angeles.

[Alpha8472]

There is a San Francisco area Eataly in San Jose, California at Westfield Valley Fair Mall. It really brings in many people to the mall. These food halls and restaurants are keeping many of these malls in business.

A Korean grocery store, H Mart, is being planned in a suburb of San Francisco called Dublin. It is being built in a former Orchard Supply Hardware store. These grocery stores are bringing new life to buildings that have been abandoned for years.

I know of a Circuit City in Concord, California that was converted to Seafood City and retail space. It is now a huge mini-mall with Asian restaurants and shops. Business is booming. I didn't think that there would be so much demand for Asian groceries and restaurant food.

[BillyGr]

Not exactly the same, though on the same thought - we have one (called the Scarlet Knife) outside of Albany, NY, that is in a portion of a former Kmart store.