Del Amo Fashion Center

Del Amo Fashion Center

Location	Torrance, California
Opening date	1961/1975
Developer	Guilford Glazer
Management	Simon Property Group
Owner	JPMorgan Fleming Funds (50%), Simon Property Group (25%), & Farallon Cap. Mgt. (25%)
No. of stores and services	300 [1]
No. of anchor tenants	7
Total retail floor area	3,000,000 sq ft (280,000 m2) [1]
Parking	12,000
No. of floors	2
Website	www.delamofashioncenter.com

Del Amo Fashion Center is a two-level regional shopping mall in Torrance, California, USA. It is currently managed and co-owned by Simon Property Group.

With a current gross leasable area (GLA) of 3.0 million ft², it is one of the largest shopping malls in the United States. The mall features the world famous International Food Court, seven anchor stores, including three Macy's locations, JCPenney & Sears, more than 314.5 retailers, multiple full-service restaurants, a fitness center and an AMC Theatres multiplex. It is currently the 14th largest mall in the US.

History

Del Amo Fashion Center has evolved from an amalgamation of several developments on the eastern side of the intersection of Hawthorne Boulevard and Carson Street in Torrance, California by Guilford Glazer (#384 on Forbes Richest 400).[2] From 1981 to 1992 it was the largest shopping mall in the US, reaching 3 million ft² in size at its largest. It was eclipsed as the largest with the opening of Mall of America on August 11, 1992.

In 1959 The Broadway opened the first store at what was to be known as Del Amo Mall. The actual mall itself, as well as J.C. Penney and Sears, opened in 1961 at the southeast corner of Carson Street and Hawthorne Boulevard. In 1966 Bullock's opened at a small open-air shopping center it had developed across Carson Street called Fashion Square (Bullock's developed several similarly named Fashion Squares, including ones in Sherman Oaks, La Habra and Santa Ana). I. Magnin, an affiliate of Bullock's opened a store in 1967 at Fashion Square, before the center was acquired in 1971 by Guilford Glazer and a major redevelopment begun.

In 1975, Del Amo Fashion Square, as the center on the north side of Carson Street was now called, reopened as a second mall and included additional anchors Montgomery Ward and Ohrbach's as well as an expanded I. Magnin. Glazer acquired neighboring Del Amo Mall in 1978. In November 1981 [3] the two formerly separate centers were officially merged to form Del Amo Fashion Center with the opening of a mall concourse over Carson Street that linked the former Fashion Square to a new J. W. Robinson's built at the northern end of the former Del Amo Mall that same year. The existing infrastructure was also renovated at this time and included a food court (the "International Food Court") and a then-state-of-the-art computerized help system. Del Amo became the largest indoor shopping center in the world.

The center continued to evolve over the years as Ohrbach's closed in 1987 and became Swedish style furniture retailer STØR. When STØR went out of business in the early nineties, the property was used as a clearance center for STØR merchandise before being subdivided into Marshall's and TJ Maxx. I. Magnin followed in 1989 with part of their store eventually occupied by Old Navy, while Burlington Coat Factory opened in the basement of the former Del Amo Mall. J. W. Robinson's became Robinsons-May in 1993, while in 1996 with Bullock's and The Broadway's merger into Macy's, the former Bullock's became Macy's Apparel store and two floors of the original The Broadway were subdivided as a new Macy's Home & Furniture store. Faced with a change in consumer shopping patterns, the consolidation of the department store industry, the existence of too many malls fragmenting the greater Los Angeles retail marketplace, lack of highway access and competition from the neighboring Nordstrom-anchored South Bay Galleria that opened in 1985, Del Amo began to suffer. Montgomery Ward dealt another blow when it closed following the chain's bankruptcy. This resulted in the closure of an entire wing of the mall.

In 2003 The Mills Corporation acquired Del Amo Fashion Center from the Guilford Glazer Family for $420 million (USD).^[2] Subsequently Mills sold a half-interest in the property to institutional investor funds managed by JPMorgan Fleming,[4] before initiating a $160 million redevelopment including demolition and redevelopment the former northeast wing where Montgomery Ward had been located, the renovation of 670,000 ft² (62,000 m²) of existing space and the addition of another 100,000 ft² (9,300 m²). Robinsons-May converted to a second full-line Macy's on September 9, 2006. This second store, called Macy's South Del Amo, is expected to be closed in the future and be rehabilitated as mall retail space. No definitive commitments have been made as to a timeline for these events. Many consumers have agreed that there is no need for three Macy's stores in the same mall.

The new open-air lifestyle center opened on September 14, 2006, bringing new specialty stores, dining, entertainment, and an AMC Theatres 18-screen multiplex to the mall. Crate & Barrel opened a home furnishings store along the mall perimeter in spring 2007.

In 2007, The Mills Corporation was jointly acquired by Simon Property Group and Farallon Capital Management. Simon assumed management of Del Amo Fashion Center at this time. In April 2008, the mall's website is under the Simon.com format along with sister Simon/Mills malls, like Ontario Mills, Hilltop Mall, the Block at Orange and Great Mall.

In Movies and Television

The Del Amo Fashion Center has been used as a backdrop for several movie and television productions. The mall's "International" food court was used in a scene from the 1983 romantic comedy movie Valley Girl, starring Nick Coppolla, who later changed his name to Nicolas Cage. The mall was also the setting for an important scene in the Quentin Tarantino film, Jackie Brown. In the movie, a subtitle erroneously stated that the "Del Amo Mall" was the "largest indoor mall in the world". The 2003 movie Bad Santa, co-starring John Ritter, had most of its mall scenes filmed at the mall. Del Amo Mall was part of the set for the movie Year of the Dog starring Molly Shannon. The Comedy Central show Reno 911 has used Del Amo Mall for both interior and exterior shooting. The Old Navy was also featured in the movie Sleepover with Steve Carell and Alexa Vega. An episode of Medium starring Patricia Arquette was filmed inside of Kelly's coffee and fudge. The show Life filmed part of an episode at this location. The mall was also a location of at least one episode of The Event, a series about an international conspiracy.

Anchors & Major Tenants

A typical Del Amo sign

• AMC Del Amo 18 (opened 2006)
• Burlington Coat Factory (106,211 ft²)
• JCPenney (163,346 ft²; opened 1961)
• Jo-Ann etc. (72,288 ft²; located in bottom level of the former The Broadway)
• L.A. Fitness (47,671 ft²; outparcel)
• Macy's
  • Macy's North (251,892 ft²; opened 1966 as Bullock's)
  • Macy's South (171,415 ft²; opened 1981 as J. W. Robinson's; closing date TBD)
  • Macy's Home & Furniture Store (145,776 ft²; opened 1959 as The Broadway, reduced 1996)
• Marshalls (42,761 ft²)
• Old Navy (20,318 ft²)
• Sears (313,495 ft²l opened 1961)
• TJ Maxx (44,422 ft²)
• Urban Outfitters (unknown) Opened on 2006
• Crate & Barrel (38,000 ft²; opened May 17, 2007)

See also

• List of the world's largest shopping malls
• List of largest shopping malls in the United States

References

1. ^ http://www.icsc.org/srch/about/impactofshoppingcenters/TenLargest.pdf
2. ^ Mills buys Del Amo Fashion Center for $442 million, accessed July 25, 2006

External links

• Del Amo Fashion Center

Coordinates: 33°49′41″N 118°20′59″W / 33.8280715°N 118.3497956°W / 33.8280715; -118.3497956