Orange County Plaza, later Garden Grove Mall, Garden Promenade, now The Promenade at Garden Grove, was, upon its expansion in 1959, with sixty stores, the largest shopping center in
Orange County, California
Orange County is located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area in Southern California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,186,989, making it the third-most-populous county in California, the sixth-most-populous in the United States, a ...
, and at the time billed itself as "Orange County's first regional shopping center". However,
Anaheim Plaza
Anaheim Plaza, originally Broadway Orange County Center, then Anaheim Center, in Anaheim, California, was the first shopping mall in Orange County. It was a regional mall from 1955 to 1993 and is now a power center anchored by big-box stores.
...
had in fact already opened In 1955, four years prior, and had an anchor department store (
The Broadway
The Broadway was a mid-level department store chain headquartered in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1896 by English-born Arthur Letts Sr., and named after what was once the city's main shopping street, the Broadway became a dominant reta ...
).
The open-air shopping center is located at Chapman Avenue and Brookhurst Street in
Garden Grove, California, a
Los Angeles suburb of 171,644 (2019 estimate).
History
The center was announced in 1956 and was to cost $10,000,000. In 1956 and 1958, the project announced that Penney's, Newberry's and Grant's would locate in the Plaza, as well as the first branch of
Rankin's department store of Santa Ana, which was to measure – however, Rankin's never did wind up opening a branch there.
First phase (opened 1956)
The center first opened in 1956 with 20 stores and of gross leasable area on ,
[ including:
*Thriftimart supermarket
*Economart drugstore
]
Second phase (opened 1959)
Phase II added 40 stores and of gross leasable area on an additional . This phase added the anchor stores:
* a J. C. Penney (scaled down from as originally announced)[
* a ]W. T. Grant
W. T. Grant or Grants was a United States-based chain of mass-merchandise stores founded by William Thomas Grant that operated from 1906 until 1976. The stores were generally of the variety store format located in downtowns.
History
In 1906 the ...
variety store
A variety store (also five and dime (historic), pound shop, or dollar store) is a retail store that sells general merchandise, such as apparel, automotive parts, dry goods, toys, hardware, home furnishings, and a selection of groceries. It u ...
* a Safeway
Safeway is an American supermarket chain founded by Marion Barton Skaggs in April 1915 in American Falls, Idaho. The chain provides grocery items, food and general merchandise and features a variety of specialty departments, such as bakery, d ...
supermarket, which moved from across the street
* a Thrifty Drug Store
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 pa ...
(later became Rite Aid
Rite Aid Corporation is an American drugstore chain based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1962 in Scranton, Pennsylvania, by Alex Grass under the name Thrift D Discount Center. The company ranked No. 148 in the Fortune 500 l ...
in 1998)
* a Hartfield's junior department store
1979 renovation
in 1979 the center was known as Garden Grove Mall. There was a $5 million renovation of the mall in 1979 with new anchors National Lumber
National may refer to:
Common uses
* Nation or country
** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen
Places in the United States
* National, Maryland, c ...
, and a new branch of Huntington Park-based Wineman's
Wineman's was a chain of department stores in Southern and Central California which started in Ventura in 1890, and later became iconic local department stores of Oxnard and, later, Huntington Park.
Origins (1890-1920)
Wineman's first opened a s ...
Department Store that opened in the east end of the mall in the fall of that year.Boston Stores
Boston Stores, originally and later still often called The Boston Store, was a chain of department stores based in Inglewood, California, just southwest of Central Los Angeles, that operated from 1934 through 1996.
Ira Kaufman started the chain ...
in 1984, when some of their branches were converted to Boston Stores. Additional stores that were added were McDonald's
McDonald's Corporation is an American multinational fast food chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechristened their business as a hambur ...
, Straw Hat Pizza, Citizens Savings and Loan, Bank of America
The Bank of America Corporation (often abbreviated BofA or BoA) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered at the Bank of America Corporate Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. The bank ...
and See's Candies
See's Candies is an American manufacturer and distributor of candy, particularly chocolates. It was founded by Charles See, his wife Florence, and his mother Mary in Los Angeles, California in 1921. The company is now headquartered in South San ...
. The gross leasable area at that time was .[
]
The Promenade at Garden Grove today
The site continues to function as a shopping center called The Promenade at Garden Grove. With of gross leasable area it classifies as a community shopping center
A neighborhood shopping center (Commonwealth English: neighbourhood shopping centre) is an industry term in the United States for a shopping center with of gross leasable area, typically anchored by a supermarket and/or large drugstore.
Versu ...
a.k.a. "large neighborhood center".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 ...
(opened July 16, 2014, formerly Costco
Costco Wholesale Corporation (Trade name, doing business as Costco Wholesale and also known simply as Costco) is an American multinational corporation which operates a chain of membership-only Big-box store, big-box retail stores (warehouse c ...
which opened in 1987 and relocated in 1994),[ a 16-screen ]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 ...
, Marshalls
Marshalls is an American chain of off-price department stores owned by TJX Companies. Marshalls has over 1,000 American stores, including larger stores named Marshalls Mega Store, covering 42 states and Puerto Rico, and 61 stores in Canada. M ...
, Ross Dress for Less
Ross Stores, Inc., operating under the brand name Ross Dress for Less, is an American chain of discount department stores headquartered in Dublin, California. It is the largest off-price retailer in the U.S.; as of 2018, Ross operates 1,483 sto ...
, 24 Hour Fitness, Aldi
Aldi (stylised as ALDI) is the common company brand name of two German multinational family-owned discount supermarket chains operating over 10,000 stores in 20 countries. The chain was founded by brothers Karl and Theo Albrecht in 1946, when ...
, 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, ...
and Dollar Tree
Dollar Tree, Inc. is an American multi-price-point chain of discount variety stores. Headquartered in Chesapeake, Virginia, it is a ''Fortune'' 500 company and operates 15,115 stores throughout the 48 contiguous U.S. states and Canada. Its ...
.
References
{{Shopping malls in California
Shopping malls in Orange County, California
Buildings and structures in Garden Grove, California
History of Orange County, California