Capital Mall is a

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a North American term for a large indoor shopping center, usually anchored by department stores. The term "mall" originally meant a pedestrian promenade with shops along it (that is, the term was used to refe ...

located in

Olympia, Washington Olympia is the capital of the U.S. state of Washington and the county seat and largest city of Thurston County. It is southwest of the state's most populous city, Seattle, and is a cultural center of the southern Puget Sound region. European ...

. The anchor stores are

REI Rei or REI may refer to: Arts and entertainment *Rei, a story arc of the anime ''Higurashi When They Cry'' *Rei, a shapeshifting godlike dragon in the Australian webcomic series ''Vainglorious'' *Rei I, II and III, episodes of ''Neon Genesis Eva ...

Total Wine & More Total Wine & More is a family-owned privately held American alcohol retailer founded and led by brothers David and Robert Trone. The company was named Retailer of the Year by ''Market Watch'' in 2006, ''Beverage Dynamics'' in 2008, and ''Wine En ...

Macy's Macy's (originally R. H. Macy & Co.) is an American chain of high-end department stores founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. It became a division of the Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores in 1994, through which it is affiliated wi ...

Dick's Sporting Goods Dick's Sporting Goods, Inc. (stylized as "DICK'S Sporting Goods") is an American sporting goods retail company, based in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania. The company was established by Richard "Dick" Stack in 1948, and has approximately 854 stores an ...

JCPenney Penney OpCo LLC, doing business as JCPenney and often abbreviated JCP, is a midscale American department store chain operating 667 stores across 49 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. Departments inside JCPenney stores include Mens, Womens, Boys, Gir ...

Best Buy Best Buy Co. Inc. is an American multinational consumer electronics retailer headquartered in Richfield, Minnesota. Originally founded by Richard M. Schulze and James Wheeler in 1966 as an audio specialty store called Sound of Music, it was rebra ...

, and

Century Theatres Century Theatres is a movie theater chain that operates many multiplexes in the western United States, primarily in California, Colorado, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona. In its later years, it had expanded into the inter-mountain states, ...

. The mall was known as Westfield Capital from 1998 to 2013, when it was owned by the

Westfield Group Westfield Group was an Australian shopping centre company that existed from 1960 to 2014, when it split into two independent companies: Scentre Group, which owns and operates the Australian and New Zealand Westfield shopping centre portfolio; ...

. In 2013,

Starwood Capital Group Starwood Capital Group is an investment firm headquartered in Miami Beach, Florida. It is managed by Barry Sternlicht. It was co-founded by Sternlicht and Robert Faith in 1991. In 1993, Faith left Starwood to found Greystar Real Estate Partners ...

purchased the mall and it is now managed by Pacific Retail Capital Partners.

History

Capital Mall opened on October 5, 1978 and was developed by

The Hahn Company The Hahn Company, San Diego, California, alternately known as Ernest W. Hahn, Inc., was a major American shopping center owner and developer from the 1950s to the 1980s. Purchased by the Trizec Corp. in 1980 (which then took the name TrizecHahn), ...

. A 1978 article in ''The Spokesman-Review'' stated that Capital Mall was an integral factor in development of the city of Olympia. Concurrently with the mall, a number of retail developments and fast-food restaurants were also built around the mall. Construction of the mall required the city of Olympia to spend $3 million on road and traffic improvements, as the mall's development was predicted to more than triple the amount of traffic in the area. The mall began with four anchor department stores:

The Bon Marche ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

Frederick and Nelson Frederick & Nelson was a department store chain in the northwestern United States, based in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1891 as a furniture store, it later expanded to sell other types of merchandise. The company was acquired by Marshall Field ...

, and

Lamonts Lamonts was a chain of department stores founded in Seattle, Washington. The chain was started in 1970 when Pay 'n Save renamed its suburban branches of Rhodes, a department store chain the company acquired in 1965. Lamonts remained a division o ...

. J. C. Penney's store cost about $2.7 million to build and was designed by the

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

firm of Burke Nicolais Archuleta. On August 18, 1991, a fire broke out on the mall's roof, causing over $3 million in damage. Frederick & Nelson was sold to

Mervyns Mervyn's was an American middle-scale department store chain based in Hayward, California, and founded by Mervin G. Morris (1920–2021). It carried national brands of clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, electronics, ...

in 1992. The mall was acquired in 1998 by Westfield America, Inc., a precursor of the

, which renamed it "Westfield Shoppingtown Capital", dropping the "Shoppingtown" from the name in 2005. Upon acquisition by Westfield, it underwent a $50 million expansion and renovation. One facet of the expansion opened in 2002, when the vacated Lamonts store was replaced by a

and a

food court A food court (in Asia-Pacific also called food hall or hawker centre) is generally an indoor plaza or common area within a facility that is contiguous with the counters of multiple food vendors and provides a common area for self-serve dinner. I ...

. Mervyns closed its store on December 31, 2006 and the space has since been divided into smaller sections:

Forever 21 Forever 21 is a multinational fast fashion retailer headquartered in Los Angeles, California, United States. Originally founded as the store Fashion 21 in Highland Park, Los Angeles in 1984,Forever 21History & Facts, n.d. Retrieved 27 April 2014 ...

opened in August 2010,

opened in May 2011, and

opened July 2013. Forever 21 closed for good in September 2018. In October 2013, Westfield sold a controlling interest in several malls in the United States to Starwood Retail Partners, which included Capital Mall In 2013, for 1.6 billion. In October 2016,

opened a new store in the mall.

References

External links

Capital Mall Official Site
{{Shopping Centers WA Shopping malls in Washington (state) Shopping malls established in 1978 Buildings and structures in Olympia, Washington Tourist attractions in Thurston County, Washington 1977 establishments in Washington (state) Pacific Retail Capital Partners