Cupertino Square

Cupertino Square (formerly Vallco Fashion Park) is a three-level shopping mall located in Cupertino, California, USA. It is anchored by J.C. Penney, Macy's, and Sears. The mall is managed by Jones Lang LaSalle and majority owned by Orbit Resources, a global investment company. Other owners include a group of local investors led by Alan Wong, Emily Chen, and John Nguyen.

Vallco Park started as a business park in the 1960s, formed from land owned by 25 Cupertino property owners. It was named for the primary developers: Varian Associates, and the Leonard, Lester, Craft, and Orlando families.cite book
last = Fuller | first = David W
chapter = Vallco Park: From Orchards to Industry
editor = Linda Sharman Schultz (ed.)
title = Cupertino Chronicle (2002 Edition)
publisher = [http://www.cupthistory.org/ Cupertino Historical Society]
edition = 2002
pages = pp. 155-165 ] [Vallco Business Park still exists and is the home of the Cupertino campus of Hewlett-Packard and a future campus for Apple.]

In the early 1970s, the Cupertino City Council held public hearings on the possible locations of a regional shopping center in the city. After it decided the city could only support one center, the Vallco group found itself competing with another group led by orchard owner Paul Mariani, Jr. In 1973, the city council decided it wanted the regional shopping center on the edge of the city and gave the proper zoning to Vallco.

Vallco Fashion Park opened in September 1976. In its first years, the mall's main walkway was punctuated by several parks showcasing aspects of local history, ranging from 'cots to Klystron tubes. [Citation
title = Doyle's passion for history: how they named it Cupertino
newspaper = Sunnyvale Scribe
date = 1977-12-07
year = 1977
url = http://www.cupertino.org/downloads/Pdf/Cupertino_historical_articles.pdf ] Vallco was one of the largest shopping centers in Silicon Valley and soon drew customers from all over the region. However, increased competition from other regional malls, such as Westfield Valley Fair and Stanford Shopping Center, took its toll on Vallco in the 1990s, and it started to decline. One major reason for this was the fact that the mall's selection of stores (mid-range) did not at all reflect the demographics of the surrounding area (affluent and upscale). By 2006, Vallco had the lowest occupancy rate of any mall in the area, at just 24 percent which was lower than the Sunnyvale TownCenter Mall which closed in 2003 with a 34 percent occupancy rate.

Alan Wong, Emily Chen, and John Nguyen bought Vallco and began renovation of the mall in 2005. At present, two new parking structures and a 16-screen AMC movie theater, and an upscale bowling alley have been finished. Future plans include a food court, shops facing the street at the corner of Wolfe Road and Vallco Parkway, a seismic upgrade of the parking garage west of the theatres as well as the main mall structure, as well as two new hotels.

In 2006, Cupertino voters prevented rezoning of part of the Vallco property for condominiums, by overturning a rezoning ordinance that was passed by the city council. The loss of the revenue that was expected from the sale of this parcel contributed to the financial problems of the owners. The contractor for the movie theater, DPR, filed a mechanics lien against the owners for approximately 10 million dollars in July 2007 which was settled in Sep 07 when Orbit Resources acquired Vallco.

Vallco Fashion Park's name was changed to Cupertino Square in 2007.Citation
last = Kraatz | first = Cody
title = Vallco gets new name to go with its new look, shop
newspaper = Cupertino Courier
date = 2007-02-14
year = 2007
url = http://www.community-newspapers.com/archives/cupertinocourier/20070214/news1.shtml ] Later that year, the owners sold three parcels of land to Evershine Property Management and sold a controlling stake of the mall to Orbit Resources [Citation
last = Lu| first = Crystal
title = Cupertino Square and 3 parcels are bought by local investors
newspaper = Cupertino Courier
date = 2007-10-03
year = 2007
url = http://www.community-newspapers.com/archives/cupertinocourier/20071003/news1.shtml ] , which switched managing agents from Landmark Property Management to Jones Lang LaSalle [Jones Lang LaSalle press release, [http://www.jllretail.com/en-US/news/2007/Cuppertino.htm Jones Lang LaSalle Named Leasing and Managing Agent for Cupertino Square] , (2007-10-09)] .

Recent issues

In September 2008, the two owners of the complex filed for bankruptcy to prevent the primary financier Gramercy Capital from foreclosing on their property. According to Gramercy, the assets of the company fall well below the amount they are in debt to, though the consortium disputes this.cite news | last = Simonson | first = Sharon | title = Cupertino Square owners file for bankruptcy | work = San Jose Business Journal | publisher = San Jose News | date = 2008-09-04 | url = http://sanjose.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2008/09/01/daily39.html | accessdate = 2008-09-21]

Farmers' market

Cupertino Square is also host to the city's weekly farmers' market. Running every Friday throughout the year, it is popular with the local residents of Cupertino and has been there for over a decade. It is considered unusual, given that the city is better known for its high-tech industry and not its agriculture. The farmers' market is host to many regional and local growers and producers.-

Anchors and Majors

*JC Penney
*Macy's (previously Bullock's)
*Sears
*AMC Theatres
* [http://www.bowlatstrike.com/ Strike Bowling]

References and Footnotes

External links

* [http://www.cupertinosquare.com/ Cupertino Square home page]
* [http://www.amctheatres.com/cupertino/ AMC Cupertino Square 16 home page]
* [http://www.vta.org/services/park_ride_lots/vallco_shopping_center.html Park & Ride Lots - Vallco Shopping Center] at VTA