Long Beach Towne Center is a large power center in northeastern

Long Beach, California Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporate ...

at Carson St. and the

I-605 Interstate 605 (abbreviated I-605, officially known as the San Gabriel River Freeway) is a major north–south auxiliary Interstate Highway in the Greater Los Angeles urban area of Southern California. It runs from I-405 and State Route& ...

, with of retail space on a site. It is the largest shopping center in Long Beach."Site plan, Long Beach Towne Center", Vesta website
/ref> Long Beach Towne Center entrance Carson St

Long Beach Towne Center entrance Carson St

Tenants

Tenants include: *Retail stores:

Walmart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...

Sam's Club Sam's West, Inc. (doing business as Sam's Club) is an American chain of membership-only retail warehouse clubs owned and operated by Walmart Inc., founded in 1983 and named after Walmart founder Sam Walton as Sam’s Wholesale Club. , Sam's C ...

, Barnes & Noble, Ashley Furniture HomeStore, Bob's Discount Furniture,

Petsmart PetSmart is a privately held American chain of pet superstores, which sell pet products, services, and small pets. It is the leading North American pet company, and its direct competitor is Petco. Its indirect competitors are Amazon, Walmart, ...

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 ...

, Michaels Stores, IKEA Design Studio, Lowe's *Restaurants:

TGI Fridays TGI Fridays (operating in the UK as FRIDAYS) is an American restaurant chain focusing on primarily American cuisine and casual dining. The restaurant's founder said the name stood for "Thank God It's Friday", although some television commercial ...

In-N-Out Burger In-N-Out Burger is an American regional chain of fast food restaurants with locations primarily in California and the Southwest. It was founded in Baldwin Park, California, in 1948 by Harry (1913–1976) and Esther Snyder (1920–2006). The ...

, Chick-fil-A, Lucille's Smokehouse ( barbecue), Roadhouse Grill (steakhouse) *Entertainment:

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 ...

Dave & Buster's Dave & Buster's is an American restaurant and entertainment business headquartered in Dallas. Each Dave & Buster's has a full-service restaurant and a video arcade. As of October 2022, the company has 151 locations in the United States and two ...

History

The site was empty until 1960, when the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

opened a military hospital on the site. In 1995, operations were transferred to the

Veterans Administration The United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is a Cabinet-level executive branch department of the federal government charged with providing life-long healthcare services to eligible military veterans at the 170 VA medical centers a ...

, which closed the hospital and moved patients to the

VA Long Beach Healthcare System VA Long Beach Healthcare System, former Naval Hospital Long Beach is a large medical treatment facility in Long Beach, California. The Veterans Administration Hospital operates the hospital on 100 acres of land at 5901 E 7th St, Long Beach. Th ...

facility near California State University, Long Beach. After disputes with the city of Lakewood over reuse plans, construction began in 1997 and finished in 1999. In 2019, the center's food court - which had tenants such as

Panda Express Panda Express is an American fast food restaurant chain that serves American Chinese cuisine. With over 2,200 locations, it is the largest Asian-segment restaurant chain in the United States, where it was founded, and is mainly located in North ...

, Subway, and

Wetzel's Pretzels Wetzel’s Pretzels is an American chain of fast-food restaurants, specializing in pretzels and hot dogs. The chain has more than 370 locations across the United States, Canada and Central America, mostly located in shopping malls, airports, them ...

as tenants at various times - was torn down to make way for the arcade/restaurant. It was originally scheduled to open in mid-2020, but work was halted 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 identi ...

. Work resumed in the summer of 2021 with an announced opening date of September 26, 2022; however, D&B missed that deadline. It finally opened on October 3, 2022. In 2021, IKEA announced that it would open a smaller-format, "planning studio" stores in the center, which opened in 2022.https://lbbusinessjournal.com/news/ikea-planning-studio-to-open-at-towne-center-next-week

References

{{Coord, 33.8294, -118.0867, type:landmark_region:US-CA, display=title Shopping malls in the South Bay, Los Angeles Buildings and structures in Long Beach, California Power centers (retail) in the United States