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Lakewood Towne Center
Lakewood Towne Center is a shopping center located in Lakewood, Washington, a suburb of Tacoma. Lakewood Towne Center was created when MBK Northwest bought and demolished the enclosed portion of the failing Lakewood Mall in 2001, and turned the site into an open air destination by creating four distinct components, including a civic center with a city hall as its centerpiece, a power center, entertainment center, and a neighborhood center. Lakewood Mall itself had been a replacement for the outdoor Villa Plaza Shopping Center. Villa Plaza Villa Plaza Shopping Center opened in 1957 on the site of the former Roman Catholic girls’ school, Visitation Villa. Visitation Villa was open from 1923 to 1954. On May 3, 1958, former boxing heavyweight champions Joe Louis and Max Baer visited and signed autographs before being flown by helicopter to the B & I Circus Store in Tacoma. Lakewood Mall In 1985 developer Basil Vyzis acquired Villa Plaza and developed the enclosed Lakewood Mall w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shopping Center
A shopping center (American English) or shopping centre (Commonwealth English), also called a shopping complex, shopping arcade, shopping plaza or galleria, is a group of shops built together, sometimes under one roof. The first known collections of retailers under one roof are public markets, dating back to ancient times, and Middle Eastern covered markets, bazaars and souqs. In Paris, about 150 covered passages were built between the late 18th century and 1850, and a wealth of shopping arcades were built across Europe in the 19th century. In the United States, the widespread use of the automobile in the 1920s led to the first shopping centers of a few dozen shops that included parking for cars. Starting in 1946, larger, open air centers anchored by department stores were built (sometimes as a collection of adjacent retail properties with different owners), then enclosed shopping malls starting with Victor Gruen's Southdale Center near Minneapolis in 1956. A shopping mall ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
