Clackamas Town Center 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 ...

established in 1981Sorenson, Donald J. (March 7, 1981). "Clackamas Town Center opens its doors". ''

The Oregonian ''The Oregonian'' is a daily newspaper based in Portland, Oregon, United States, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the U.S. west coast, founded as a weekly by Thomas J. Dryer on December 4, 185 ...

'', p. A19. in the Portland, Oregon, metropolitan area, located on

unincorporated Unincorporated may refer to: * Unincorporated area, land not governed by a local municipality * Unincorporated entity, a type of organization * Unincorporated territories of the United States, territories under U.S. jurisdiction, to which Congress ...

land in the Clackamas area of

Clackamas County Clackamas County is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the population was 421,401, making it Oregon's third-most populous county. Its county seat is Oregon City. The county was named after the Native ...

, in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

. It is managed and co-owned by

Brookfield Properties Brookfield Properties is a North American subsidiary of commercial real estate company Brookfield Property Partners, which itself is a subsidiary of alternative asset management company Brookfield Asset Management. It is responsible for the pro ...

and is currently anchored by

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

and a separate Macy's Home/Backstage store. It also includes a 20-screen

Century A century is a period of 100 years. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c. A centennial or ...

movie theater.

Location

The mall has a

Happy Valley, Oregon Happy Valley is a suburban city in the Portland, Oregon metropolitan area. Happy Valley is near the northwest edge of Clackamas County, Oregon, United States approximately 10 miles to the southeast of downtown Portland, Oregon. The population was ...

, mailing address, but is actually located in an

unincorporated area An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

. However, the city of Happy Valley was interested in

annexing Annexation (Latin ''ad'', to, and ''nexus'', joining), in international law, is the forcible acquisition of one state's territory by another state, usually following military occupation of the territory. It is generally held to be an illegal act ...

the area that includes the mall. The nearby city of Milwaukie was also interested in annexing the area. In December 2012, mediation between officials of the two cities resulted in a draft agreement under which the mall and other land west of

Interstate 205 Interstate 205 may refer to either of two unconnected Interstate Highways in the United States, both of which are related to Interstate 5 * Interstate 205 (California), a connector in the San Francisco Bay Area * Interstate 205 (Oregon–Washingt ...

would eventually be annexed by Milwaukie.

History

Construction and early years

Tonya_Harding_Olympic_practice_at_Clackamas_Town_Center_1994

The two-level enclosed mall, with of retail space officially opened on March 6, 1981, built by Ernest W. Hahn, Inc. and designed by Seattle architects

John Graham & Company John Graham & Company, or John Graham & Associates was the name of an architectural firm, founded in 1900 in Seattle, Washington, by English-born architect John Graham (1873–1955), and maintained by his son John Graham Jr. (1908–1991). The f ...

. Prior to the mall's opening, the attached

Meier & Frank Meier & Frank was a prominent chain of department stores founded in Portland, Oregon, and later bought by The May Department Stores Company. Meier & Frank operated in the Pacific Northwest from 1857 to 2006. History Summary Meier & Frank was f ...

store opened in October 1980. Original anchors included

, Meier & Frank,

Nordstrom Nordstrom, Inc. () is an American luxury department store chain headquartered in Seattle, Washington, and founded by John W. Nordstrom and Carl F. Wallin in 1901. The original Wallin & Nordstrom store operated exclusively as a shoe store, and ...

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...

and

Montgomery Ward Montgomery Ward is the name of two successive U.S. retail corporations. The original Montgomery Ward & Co. was a world-pioneering mail-order business and later also a leading department store chain that operated between 1872 and 2001. The curren ...

. There was also an

ice rink An ice rink (or ice skating rink) is a frozen body of water and/or an artificial sheet of ice created using hardened chemicals where people can ice skate or play winter sports. Ice rinks are also used for exhibitions, contests and ice shows. The ...

; a five-screen movie theater; and a branch of the Clackamas County Library. Also featured were three large cedar sculptures carved by artist and woodsman,

Dudley C. Carter Dudley Christopher Carter (May 6, 1891 – April 7, 1992) was an artist and woodcarver from the Pacific Northwest. His works are on display in the U.S. states of Washington (U.S. state), Washington, Oregon and California. There are also works of h ...

, which were commissioned by the center in 1979, when Carter was eighty-eight. Clackamas Town Center, south central entrance close-up

TriMet TriMet, formally known as the Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon, is a public agency that operates mass transit in a region that spans most of the Portland metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Oregon. Created in 1969 ...

diverted or extended its bus service into the new mall, constructing a new transit center in the parking area on the mall's north side,Kohler, Vince (June 30, 1981). "Clackamas center builds bus facility". ''

'' ("MetroSouth" edition), p. MS1. which opened in November 1981 and by 1985 was being used by six bus routes. In the 1990s, Olympic skater

Tonya Harding Tonya Maxene Price (née Harding; born November 12, 1970) is an American former figure skater, retired boxer and a reality television personality. Born in Portland, Oregon, Harding was raised primarily by her mother, who enrolled her in ice ska ...

frequently practiced on the ice rink. The mall remained largely unchanged until Montgomery Ward went bankrupt and closed its store in 2001. Meier & Frank acquired the former Ward building and opened a home store in 2002 in the upper level, while leasing out the lower level to Copeland Sports. The ice rink closed in 2003, the original movie theater closed in 2005, and Copeland in turn closed in 2006.

reclaimed the former Copeland's space and expanded the home store into that space.

2007 renovations and expansion

General Growth Properties acquired a 50% interest in the property in 2002 and assumed management. A major redevelopment began in 2005 to add to the center. As part of the construction the area formerly occupied by the ice rink was gutted, and the Carter sculptures were removed. Designed by architectural firm

DLR Group DLR Group is an employee-owned integrated design firm providing architecture, engineering, planning, and interior design. Their brand promise is to elevate the human experience through design. A self-described advocate for sustainable design, the ...

, the renovation and expansion added approximately 40 new stores and restaurants, many in a new lifestyle center on the south side, and a new , 20-screen

multiplex theater. The renovation also put in tranquility ponds, new flooring, lighting, furniture, escalators, elevators, handrails, and exterior upgrades. It was completed in late 2007. The new, larger movie theater opened in December 2007. In September 2009, a new

MAX Light Rail The Metropolitan Area Express (MAX) is a light rail system serving the Portland metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Oregon. Owned and operated by TriMet, it consists of five color-designated lines that altogether connect the six sections ...

station opened at the mall, with the opening of the Green Line. The

Clackamas Town Center Transit Center The Clackamas Town Center Transit Center is a bus transit center and MAX Light Rail station on the MAX Green Line, located in Clackamas County, Oregon, in the southeastern part of the Portland metropolitan area. It is the southern terminus for th ...

station is the southern terminus of the Green Line and is located on the east side of the mall's parking area. It is also served by several bus lines and it replaced the original transit center, which had closed in 2006 and temporarily been replaced by simple bus stops pending construction of the new facility.

2012 shooting

A shooting occurred on December 11, 2012, which left three people, including the gunman, dead, and one person seriously wounded. At approximately 3:28 p.m. PST., 22-year-old Jacob Tyler Roberts opened fire near

at the upper level of the mall with an

AR-15 An AR-15-style rifle is any lightweight semi-automatic rifle based on the Colt AR-15 design. The original ArmaLite AR-15 is a scaled-down derivative of Eugene Stoner's ArmaLite AR-10 design. The then Fairchild Engine and Airplane Corporation d ...

rifle. Roberts was wearing a

hockey mask A goaltender mask, commonly referred to as a goalie mask, is a mask worn by goaltenders in a variety of sports to protect the head and face from injury from the ball or puck, as they constantly face incoming shots on goal. Some sports requiring th ...

and was heard by witnesses shouting out "I am the shooter!" while he fired shots. A 45-year-old man and a 54-year-old woman were killed, and Roberts died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. A fifteen-year-old girl suffered gunshot wounds to the chest and was hospitalized at

Oregon Health & Science University Hospital Oregon Health & Science University Hospital (OHSU Hospital) is a 576-bed teaching hospital, biomedical research facility, and Level I trauma center located on the campus of Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) in Portland in the U.S. state ...

in serious, stable condition. A total of 17 rounds were fired from Roberts' rifle, and there were about 10,000 shoppers present at the mall at the time of the attack. The manager of Justice was a pregnant woman who secured shoppers in their backroom as they hid from the shooter. As a result of the stress & trauma, she was hospitalized and put on life support. They were able to save her baby, but the woman passed, so there were in total actually 3 innocent lives lost due to this shooting, and the gunman himself makes 4 dead.

2018 Sears closure and 2020 opening of Dick's Sporting Goods

In 2015,

Sears Holdings Sears Holdings Corporation was an American holding company headquartered in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. It was the parent company of the chain stores Kmart and Sears and was founded after the former purchased the latter in 2005. It was the 20th-l ...

spun off 235 of its properties, including the Sears at Clackamas Town Center, into Seritage Growth Properties. On August 22, 2018, Sears announced that its store would be closing as part of a plan to close 46 stores nationwide. The store closed in November 2018. In early 2020, remodeling of the former

space began to replace the site with a

location. The Dick's Sporting Goods held its grand opening in the former Sears space on October 10, 2020.

2020 closure of Nordstrom

On May 7, 2020, it was announced that Nordstrom would also be closing as part of a plan to close 16 stores nationwide. The store closed in June 2020. It had already been closed temporarily since March 2020, due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

Anchor stores

Current

(, opened 1981) * Macy's Apparel Store (, opened 1980 as

, renamed 2006) * Macy's Home Store (, opened 1981 as Montgomery Ward, closed 2001, renamed as Meier & Frank Home, renamed Macy's 2006) *

Former

*Copeland Sports, (, opened 2002 in lower level of former

, closed 2006, space reclaimed by Macy's Home 2007) *

(opened October 1980,"New M&F store lures huge crowd". (October 2, 1980). ''The Oregonian'', p. D1. rebranded as Macy's 2006) *

(, opened 1981, closed 2001, subdivided 2002 into Meier & Frank Home, Copeland Sports) *

(, opened 1981, closed 2020, now vacant) *

(, opened 1981, closed November 2018, converted to Dick's Sporting Goods in 2020)

Notes

References

External links

* {{Shopping malls in Oregon 1981 establishments in Oregon Buildings and structures in Clackamas County, Oregon Shopping malls established in 1981 Brookfield Properties Shopping malls in Oregon Tourist attractions in Clackamas County, Oregon