Everett Mall is a indoor/outdoor shopping mall located in Everett, Washington, United States. Planned in the late 1960s, the mall began with the construction of two anchor stores, Sears in 1969 and

White Front White Front was a chain of discount department stores in California and the western United States from 1959 through the mid-1970s. The stores were noted for the architecture of their store fronts which was an enormous, sweeping archway with the st ...

in 1971; the mall was originally built and opened in 1974. It was plagued from the start of development: construction was stalled in 1972 due to the Boeing bust, and it suffered further misfortune with one anchor store closing before the rest of the mall could open. The mall also had a low tenant rate upon opening, only rebounding after

The Bon Marché The Bon Marché, whose French name translates to "the good market" or "the good deal", was a department store chain launched in Seattle, Washington, United States, in 1890 by Edward Nordhoff. The name was influenced by Le Bon Marché, the not ...

(later

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 wit ...

) opened in 1977; the success led to the construction of an additional north wing to the mall anchored by the upscale

Frederick & 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 ...

department store. In 2004, the mall underwent a massive expansion and renovation that included the addition of a 16-screen movie theater and outdoor stores along the south side. The mall's anchor stores are

Regal Cinemas Regal Cinemas (also Regal Entertainment Group) is an American movie theater chain headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee. A division of Cineworld, Regal operates the second-largest theater circuit in the United States, with over 7,200 screens i ...

LA Fitness LA Fitness (doing business as LA Fitness International LLC) is an American gym chain with more than 700 clubs across the United States and Canada. The company was formed in 1984 and is based in Irvine, California. History LA Fitness was found ...

, Burlington,

Floor & Decor Floor & Decor Holdings, Inc., branded as Floor & Decor, is a multi-channel American specialty retailer of hard surface flooring and related accessories that was founded in 2000 and headquartered in Smyrna, Georgia (a suburb of Atlanta). Histo ...

, Ulta Beauty, and

Party City Party City Holdco Inc. is an American publicly traded retail chain of party stores founded in 1986 by Steve Mandell in East Hanover, New Jersey. Party City’s parent organization is Party City Holdings Inc. Based in Woodcliff Lake, NJ, the comp ...

. There is one vacant anchor store that was once Sears. Mervyn's, an anchor since 1992, closed late 2006. The store was replaced with

and

Steve & Barry's Steve & Barry's was an American retail clothing chain, featuring casual clothing, footwear and accessories. By mid-2008, the chain operated 276 stores in 39 states. The company was headquartered in Port Washington, New York. The company liquida ...

in turn was closed in 2009 after its owners filed for

Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code (Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, wheth ...

and was replaced by

Burlington Coat Factory Burlington, formerly known as Burlington Coat Factory, is an American national off-price department store retailer, and a division of Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse Corporation with more than 1,000 stores in 40 states and Puerto Rico, with i ...

in 2013. Macy's closed its store in 2017 followed by Sears in early 2020.

Description

Everett Mall is located in the Twin Creeks neighborhood in southern Everett. It stands along Everett Mall Way, part of State Route 99 (SR 99), in a space bounded by West Mall Drive to the west, 100th Street Southeast to the south, and

Interstate 5 Interstate 5 (I-5) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the West Coast of the United States, running largely parallel to the Pacific coast of the contiguous U.S. from Mexico to Canada. It travels through the states of Californ ...

(I-5) to the east. It is located less than south of the Broadway Interchange, where I-5, SR 99, SR 526, and SR 527 converge. It also acts as a transit hub for

Everett Transit Everett Transit is the public transit authority of Everett, Washington, the only city in Snohomish County not to belong to Community Transit. As of 2017, Everett Transit operates 42 buses within Everett on ten routes. Its annual ridership in 2016 ...

, serving several local bus routes.

History

Development and early construction: 1968–1972

The plan for a modern shopping mall in Everett was first formulated in the mid-1960s under the moniker "Broadway Mall". In 1968, developers Norman L. Iverson & Associates of Tacoma and Earl Cohen & Associates of

Beverly Hills Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California. A notable and historic suburb of Greater Los Angeles, it is in a wealthy area immediately southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Bev ...

purchased a lot south of downtown in the diagonal area bound by

US 99 U.S. Route 99 (US 99) was a main north–south United States Numbered Highway on the West Coast of the United States until 1964, running from Calexico, California, on the US–Mexico border to Blaine, Washington, on the U.S.-Canada border ...

, and an earlier alignment of 99 known as the Broadway cutoff, now known as Everett Mall Way. of the property nearest to the interstate would be the focus of future mall development. The first merchant they attracted to the new site was the

Sears, Roebuck and Company 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 ...

department store, who would leave their location of 40 years at 2701 Colby Street in downtown Everett to build the first store on the property. Robert Freidenrich, soon-to-be manager of the new store, discussed the rationale of the store's exodus to the suburbs with '' The Seattle Times'': The store, which opened to the public on February 12, 1969, contained arranged into 50 different departments. The store also contained a 14-stall automotive repair center, an outdoor garden center, a tailor shop and a 40-seat

coffee shop Coffee shop may refer to: Shops and establishments * Coffeehouse or café, an establishment where coffee is served * Coffeeshop (Netherlands), a place where cannabis products are sold and consumed * Coffee shop, in the U.S., a casual, popular-pri ...

. The Richardson Associates were the architects and engineers. Sears was joined by another large anchor store on the property with the grand opening of the California-based

discount department store A discount store or discounter offers a retail format in which products are sold at prices that are in principle lower than an actual or supposed "full retail price". Discounters rely on bulk purchasing and efficient distribution to keep down cost ...

chain,

on May 13, 1971. It was the chain's fifth store in the Puget Sound region. The Iverson and Cohen firms soon began planning for the construction of an enclosed mall to connect Sears and White Front as well as a planned third anchor store but construction was halted when massive cutbacks at

Boeing The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and produc ...

threatened the economic stability of the entire region.

Hackensack, New Jersey Hackensack is a City (New Jersey), city in and the county seat of Bergen County, New Jersey, United States.

New construction and further setbacks: 1973–1977

Construction of the mall continued on and by March 1973, Hanson claimed that 21 leases had been signed with tenants, filling about 60% of the of retail planned for the mall upon completion, projected for sometime that Summer. The Law Company of Wichita, Kansas handled construction of the mall from its own architectural plans. Local firms Wick Construction Co. and Douglas Mulvanny, Seattle architect, were in charge of the construction and design of tenant spaces. In late 1973 came the announcement of a new triplex theater at the mall by General Cinema Corporation of

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- most p ...

, who operated theaters in Renton and the

Overlake Overlake is the name for a region comprising parts of eastern Bellevue and southern Redmond, Washington. It is in the vicinity of Microsoft's main corporate campus and is officially defined as a neighborhood consisting of the parts of Redmond ly ...

area of Redmond. It was billed as Washington's first triple-auditorium indoor theater. The Everett Mall Cinemas I, II and III opened on February 13, 1974, with a seating capacity of 1,300. The opening attractions were ''

The Sting ''The Sting'' is a 1973 American caper film set in September 1936, involving a complicated plot by two professional grifters (Paul Newman and Robert Redford) to con a mob boss ( Robert Shaw).''Variety'' film review; December 12, 1973, page ...

'', '' Serpico'' and ''

American Graffiti ''American Graffiti'' is a 1973 American coming-of-age comedy-drama film directed by George Lucas, produced by Francis Ford Coppola, written by Willard Huyck, Gloria Katz and Lucas, and starring Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard (billed as Ronny H ...

''. Things began to fall apart for the developers when, in 1974, White Front declared

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debto ...

and shuttered its large store at the mall, the last one in the state to close. Investors soon became wary of opening stores at the mall. After much delay, the Everett Mall finally opened in October 1974 with only one anchor tenant and little more than half of its stores occupied. The mall resembled a ghost town and was not actively promoted by its owners. The atmosphere of the mall at the time was described by ''The Seattle Times'' in 1977:

Turnaround and expansion: 1977–1992

Fortunes began to turn around when

purchased the former White Front store in 1976 with plans of moving their store from downtown Everett. An opening was set for February 25, 1977. Soon after the Bon's announcement, new retailers began to move to the mall. At the same time, Roebling Management Company, who managed the mall as a subsidiary of the Hanson group (later known as the Titanic Associates) announced plans to carry out the originally intended plans for the mall, including the third anchor store. In August 1977, construction began on the second triplex theater at the mall just west of Sears, to be operated but not owned by General Cinema. At that time the theater was a stand-alone building. Construction of the mall's new $20 million east wing began in the fall of 1979 and was completed by the fall of 1980. The new addition officially opened on August 1, 1980, fully leased. The centerpiece of the expanded mall was the two-story,

department store, the Marshall Field subsidiary's 15th store, designed by

architects Martinez, Takeda & Hahn. The addition also contained a

Payless Drug Thrifty PayLess Holdings, Inc. was a pharmacy holding company that owned the Thrifty Drugs and PayLess Drug Stores chains in the western United States. The combined company was formed in April 1994 when Los Angeles-based TCH Corporation, the p ...

store and of mall shops. The mall's tenant mix remained stable until 1991, when Frederick & Nelson declared bankruptcy and subsequently closed its Everett store on September 22; it sold the lease to California-based Mervyn's, which then had a store at a

strip mall A strip mall, strip center or strip plaza is a type of shopping center common in North America where the stores are arranged in a row, with a sidewalk in front. Strip malls are typically developed as a unit and have large parking lots in front. ...

along Evergreen Way in South Everett. Remodeling commenced in December once legal issues surrounding the bankruptcy were settled, with that store opening to much fanfare on July 19, 1992.

Financial troubles and new owners: 1998–2002

In 1998, Everett Mall's management, Hampshire Management Co., submitted plans to the City of Everett for a major expansion that, if carried out, would rival

Alderwood Mall Alderwood, formerly Alderwood Mall, is a regional shopping mall in Lynnwood, Washington. It is anchored by JCPenney, Macy's and Nordstrom and comprises both a traditional enclosed mall and two open-air areas known as The Village and The Terrace ...

in size. Under the plan, of retail space would be added as well as a new multiplex theater, a hotel and multiple restaurants. These plans soon became jeopardized when a financial crises hit the owners. During the fall of 2000, the Everett Mall was placed into receivership by the Snohomish County Superior Court after finding that its owners, Titanic Associates of

Morristown, New Jersey Morristown () is a town and the county seat of Morris County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. ...

had defaulted on a loan. By 2001, Titanic had amassed $61 million of debt and were facing foreclosure of the property. To eliminate the debt, they deeded the mall to the Equitable Life Assurance Society of New York, who assumed operations. By the end of the year, Equitable hired

Madison Marquette Madison Marquette Real Estate Services is a Washington D.C.-based investor, developer and operator of mixed-use real estate. Madison Marquette provides investment management, development, leasing and property services to a diverse portfolio of 3 ...

to manage the mall and direct its expansion.

Village expansion and decline: 2003–present

In 2003, expansion plans resumed. This time with over of new retail space including a new "power center", the Everett Mall Village, and major exterior renovations planned. Construction began in 2004. In June 2004, Equitable sold Everett Mall for $50.2 million to Steadfast Commercial Properties of

Newport Beach, California Newport Beach is a coastal city in South Orange County, California. Newport Beach is known for swimming and sandy beaches. Newport Harbor once supported maritime industries however today, it is used mostly for recreation. Balboa Island draws v ...

, who proceeded to replace Madison Marquette with their own management company to carry out the expansion. The expansion project known as Everett Village broke ground in November 2004 with

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 rebr ...

, PetSmart,

Old Navy Old Navy is an American clothing and accessories retailing company owned by multinational corporation Gap Inc. It has corporate operations in the Mission Bay neighborhood of San Francisco, California. The largest of the Old Navy stores are its ...

Borders Books Borders Group, Inc. (former NYSE ticker symbol BGP) was an American multinational book and music retailer based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. In its final year, the company employed about 19,500 people throughout the U.S., primarily ...

and

Bed Bath & Beyond Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. is an American chain of domestic merchandise retail stores. The chain operates many stores in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Puerto Rico. Bed Bath & Beyond was founded in 1971. It is counted among the Fortune 5 ...

announced as future tenants. Borders and Old Navy would occupy spaces within the mall's north wings rather than at the Village. Once completed in 2007, Steadfast sold the Village for $21.7 million to SJ Realty Investments of Ohio. SJ Realty sold the Village for $22.5 million in 2015 to San Francisco-based

Stockbridge Capital Group Stockbridge Capital Group is a private-equity real estate investment company based in San Francisco, led by Terry Fancher and Sol Raso. In 2020 the company had over $16 billion in assets under management. The company owns the Hollywood Park Casi ...

, which then sold it to another California-based company, Argonaut Investments, for $24.85 million in 2018. With the expansion,

also committed to building a 16-screen cinema. Regal had taken over the triplex theater at the mall after

AMC Theatres AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. ( d/b/a AMC Theatres, originally an abbreviation for American Multi-Cinema; often referred to simply as AMC and known in some countries as AMC Cinemas or AMC Multi-Cinemas) is an American movie theater chain fo ...

backed out of the mall's theater operations in January 2003 with the end of their lease approaching, abandoning the standalone seven-screen theater in the process; AMC had assumed operations via its acquisition of General Cinema in early 2002. The theater officially opened to the public on July 14, 2006, replacing the triplex theater as well as a nine-screen theater two blocks west of the mall; the latter had opened on April 23, 1993, under the ownership of Act III Cinemas and was taken over by Regal when it acquired the company in 1998. In late 2006, Mervyn's announced that it would shutter all of its Oregon and Washington locations; it later declared bankruptcy and underwent liquidation in 2008 during the

Great Recession The Great Recession was a period of marked general decline, i.e. a recession, observed in national economies globally that occurred from late 2007 into 2009. The scale and timing of the recession varied from country to country (see map). At t ...

. The Everett store was divided between

and national discount family clothing chain

, with the latter taking up the entire second floor as well as half of the first floor with the portion facing the mall. Steve & Barry's opened in June 2007, but it also declared bankruptcy and closed all locations just over a year later; its space remained vacant until

took over, opening on September 20, 2013. Borders underwent liquidation in 2011, with its space subsequently taken over by a local bookstore. Steadfast defaulted in 2012 on a 10-year, $98 million loan for the mall which it took from the Royal Bank of Canada in 2007. Steadfast avoided foreclosure on the mall, having Canyon Partners, a Los Angeles-based investment group, join ownership over it the following year. The Canyon Partners investment allowed the mall to attract Burlington Coat Factory as well as

and Ulta Beauty. Macy's closed its store at the Everett Mall in 2017 and was replaced by

the following year. In October 2017, Brixton Capital, an affiliate of Brutten Global, purchased the property for an undisclosed price from Steadfast Companies and Canyon Partners, with JLL taking over the mall's management and leasing; the sale did not include the then-former Macy's space nor the Village. On August 31, 2019, it was announced that Sears would be closing their Everett location in December 2019. The Village did not fare any better; Bed Bath & Beyond followed suit after Sears, announcing on September 18, 2020, that they would close their store in Everett at the end of the year. A major redevelopment of the original mall was announced by Brixton Capital in August 2022, proposing demolition of the central portion and food court. An outdoor parking area would be added in their place, along with new shops that would result in a 20 percent reduction in overall space. The Sears store is also planned to be demolished and replaced with an At Home store.

References

External links

Official website
{{Shopping Centers WA Shopping malls in Snohomish County, Washington Shopping malls established in 1971 Buildings and structures in Everett, Washington Tourist attractions in Everett, Washington