Vallco Mall Redevelopment

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Alpha8472
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Vallco Mall Redevelopment

Post by Alpha8472 »

The former Vallco Mall is being turned into a housing development with some mixed use space. There will be expensive housing, office space, and some dining/retail. The new name will be The Rise.

Vallco Mall in Cupertino, California was once a thriving mall in the 80s. Then it went downhill. They tried to rename it and put in a 16 screen movie theater, but they never quite managed to get people to go there. The nearby outdoor shopping center of Santana Row took away some of the customers. Other outdoor strip malls with movie theaters also drained some customers.

Cupertino is where Apple is based. There are tons of rich people who have money to spend. However, the owners decided to close down the mall and demolish most of it. The main goal was the million dollar condos that would be built on the location. The land in this area is so valuable due to all of the rich tech workers. They let the mall decay and go downhill. It was a shame as this mall used to have it all. There was an ice skating rink, multiplex cinema, Macy's, Sears, JCPenney, etc. The midrange selection of stores did not match the affluent taste of the surrounding community.

The new center will be mostly housing and a token amount of dining and retail. It has taken so long, because many neighbors wanted a pure retail center. They did not want tons of housing bringing in traffic. They were also concerned about the strains on local schools. There are many nearby malls that are doing great business with upscale stores. The owners of the shopping center instead wanted to make money off of the real estate instead of running a proper mall. In this case it was a hatred of retail and the desire of real estate money.
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