The Shops at Tanforan is a regional
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 ...
in
San Bruno
San Bruno (Spanish for " St. Bruno") is a city in San Mateo County, California, United States, incorporated in 1914. The population was 43,908 at the 2020 United States Census. The city is between South San Francisco and Millbrae, adjacent to ...
,
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
, United States. It is located on the
San Francisco Peninsula
The San Francisco Peninsula is a peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area that separates San Francisco Bay from the Pacific Ocean. On its northern tip is the City and County of San Francisco. Its southern base is Mountain View, south of Palo Alt ...
, south of San Francisco city limits.
The site was originally used as a horse racing track from 1899 until 1964, when the grandstand was destroyed by fire. During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
the track was used as the
Tanforan Assembly Center where
Japanese American citizens, primarily from the
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...
, were interned until more permanent War Relocation Centers were opened. A shopping mall was built on the site and opened in 1971. The mall underwent a 3-year
renovation
Renovation (also called remodeling) is the process of improving broken, damaged, or outdated structures. Renovations are typically done on either commercial or residential buildings. Additionally, renovation can refer to making something new, ...
, and reopened in 2005.
[ In 2022, Alexandria Real Estate completed its acquisition of the site and announced the mall would be demolished and replaced with a biotech campus.][
]
History
The site that The Shops at Tanforan mall is built on has served at various times as a racetrack
A race track (racetrack, racing track or racing circuit) is a facility built for racing of vehicles, athletes, or animals (e.g. horse racing or greyhound racing). A race track also may feature grandstands or concourses. Race tracks are also use ...
, airfield
An aerodrome ( Commonwealth English) or airdrome (American English) is a location from which aircraft flight operations take place, regardless of whether they involve air cargo, passengers, or neither, and regardless of whether it is for pub ...
, a military training center, a Japanese American internment camp, and a golf course
A golf course is the grounds on which the sport of golf is played. It consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a tee box, a fairway, the rough and other hazards, and a green with a cylindrical hole in the ground, known as a "cup". ...
.
Racetrack
The Tanforan Racetrack
Tanforan Racetrack, also known as Tanforan Park, was a thoroughbred horse racing facility in San Bruno, on the San Francisco Peninsula, in California. It was in operation from November 4, 1899, to 1964. The horse racing track and buildings were con ...
was built in 1899. It was named after Toribio Tanforan, the grandson-in-law of Jose Antonio Sanchez, the grantee of Rancho Buri Buri Rancho Buri Buri (also called Sánchez Rancho) was a Mexican land grant in present-day San Mateo County, California, given in 1835 by Governor José Castro to José Antonio Sánchez. The name derives from the Urebure village of the Ramaytush spe ...
; the name was corrupted to Tanforan shortly. The Western Turf Association acquired of land and began construction of the grandstand by September 1899, which was estimated to cost and scheduled to open in time for the season in November. Approximately 700 men were laboring to complete the track, and by late September, paving work had begun for the road servicing the new track, requiring of gravel.
Horse
The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million yea ...
, dog
The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it is derived from the extinct Pleistocene wolf, and the modern wolf is the dog's nearest living relative. Do ...
, motorcycle
A motorcycle (motorbike, bike, or trike (if three-wheeled)) is a two or three-wheeled motor vehicle steered by a handlebar. Motorcycle design varies greatly to suit a range of different purposes: long-distance travel, commuting, cruising ...
, and auto
Auto may refer to:
* An automaton
* An automobile
* An autonomous car
* An automatic transmission
* An auto rickshaw
* Short for automatic
* Auto (art), a form of Portuguese dramatic play
* ''Auto'' (film), 2007 Tamil comedy film
* Auto (play), ...
races were held year-round at the track. One of Tanforan's most famous residents while it was used as a racetrack was Seabiscuit
Seabiscuit (May 23, 1933 – May 17, 1947) was a champion thoroughbred racehorse in the United States who became the top money-winning racehorse up to the 1940s. He beat the 1937 Triple Crown winner, War Admiral, by four lengths in a two-horse ...
, who was stabled there for a time. Today, a statue of Seabiscuit
Seabiscuit (May 23, 1933 – May 17, 1947) was a champion thoroughbred racehorse in the United States who became the top money-winning racehorse up to the 1940s. He beat the 1937 Triple Crown winner, War Admiral, by four lengths in a two-horse ...
may be found on the grounds of the Tanforan mall.
The site found other uses after 1909, when the state of California banned all gambling at racetracks. Races were held at Tanforan until the racetrack was destroyed by fire on July 31, 1964.
Airfield
Tanforan Racetrack was occasionally used as an airfield, with the center of the racetrack used as a runway. On January 25–26, 1910, the Tanforan Racetrack served as the site for the Second International Air Meet in America, organized by the Pacific Aero Club and attended by aviation notables Louis Paulhan
Isidore Auguste Marie Louis Paulhan (; 19 July 1883 – 10 February 1963), was a French aviator. He is known for winning the first ''Daily Mail'' aviation prize for the first flight between London and Manchester in 1910.
Biography
Paulhan was b ...
and John J. Montgomery
John Joseph Montgomery (February 15, 1858 – October 31, 1911) was an American inventor, physicist, engineer, and professor at Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, California, who is best known for his invention of controlled heavier-than-air ...
.
On January 18, 1911, aviator Eugene Ely
Eugene Burton Ely (October 21, 1886 – October 19, 1911) was an American aviation pioneer, credited with the first shipboard aircraft take off and landing.
Background
Ely was born in Williamsburg, Iowa, and raised in Davenport, Iowa. Having c ...
made naval aviation history when he took off from Tanforan and made a successful landing on the USS ''Pennsylvania'' anchored in San Francisco Bay. This marked the first successful shipboard aircraft landing (and the second successful take-off). A plaque on the grounds commemorates this event.
Tanforan was temporarily converted into a military training center during World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
.
Tanforan Assembly Center
During World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, Tanforan was used as the Tanforan Assembly Center, an internment camp
Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...
for Japanese Americans, nearly all from the San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...
. Tanforan was the second most populous of the 17 "civilian assembly centers" where internees were detained before being relocated to more permanent (and remote) "relocation centers;" most internees at Tanforan were sent to the Topaz War Relocation Center
The Topaz War Relocation Center, also known as the Central Utah Relocation Center (Topaz) and briefly as the Abraham Relocation Center, was an American concentration camp which housed Americans of Japanese descent and immigrants who had come t ...
near Delta, Utah. Twenty-six of the 180 "apartment" barracks were converted from horse stalls. 8,003 people were held at Tanforan from April 28 to October 13, 1942, with a peak population of 7,816 in July. A plaque outside the mall notes this history.[Lewis Kawahara]
"Tanforan"
''Densho Encyclopedia''. Retrieved June 20, 2014.
When the Assembly Center closed in 1942 the site became the US Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...
's Camp Tanforan. At the camp were the California Field Artillery Regiments. In 1944, the camp became the Naval Advance Base Personnel Depot, San Bruno, which closed on October 10, 1946. A number of soldiers who were once stationed at camp are buried at the Golden Gate National Cemetery
Golden Gate National Cemetery is a United States national cemetery in California, located in the city of San Bruno, south of San Francisco. Because of the name and location, it is frequently confused with San Francisco National Cemetery, which ...
, which is located on a nearby hill that overlooks the Tanforan site.
After the war, Tanforan returned to its former role as a race track, with a golf course
A golf course is the grounds on which the sport of golf is played. It consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a tee box, a fairway, the rough and other hazards, and a green with a cylindrical hole in the ground, known as a "cup". ...
in the center of the track. The track went into decline in the 1950s due to competition from Bay Meadows
Bay Meadows was a horse racing track in San Mateo, California from 1934 until 2008, in the San Francisco Bay Area in the United States.
History
Built on the site of an old airfield, Bay Meadows Racecourse was the longest continually operating t ...
, and then burned down on July 31, 1964.[
]
Shopping Mall
In 1971, the Tanforan Park Shopping Center was built on the Tanforan racetrack site. The mall was designed by Victor Gruen Associates
Victor David Gruen, born Viktor David Grünbaum
retrieved 25 February 2012 (July 18, 1903 – February 1 ...
; the second floor was built as a mezzanine to allow a two-story ceiling above the center of the ground floor. Under the First Phase, the central mall and Sears store were scheduled for completion by February 1971. The mall was developed b
The Hapsmith Company
led by Hap Smith and Frederick M. Nicholas, and built by Ernest W. Hahn, Inc. The two major anchor tenants in the First Phase were Sears with and J.C. Penney with . The First Phase also included of leasable area with space for 65 stores. The planned Second Phase would expand leasable area to with space for more than 100 stores. The Tire, Brake, and Accessory Section of 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 ...
was the first store to open at Tanforan, on October 7, 1970.
The mall is bounded by El Camino Real (to the west), Sneath Lane (north), Huntington Avenue (east), and Interstate 380 (south). Property ownership was split between Sears, which owned the northern portion of the site; Hapsmith, which owned the central ; and JC Penney
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 ...
, the southern . The Sears building was ; the Emporium (later Target) building was , and the JC Penney building was .[
The Emporium was the site's third anchor, opening that location in 1971; following the chain's acquisition by ]Federated Department Stores
Macy's, Inc. (originally Federated Department Stores, Inc.) is an American conglomerate holding company. Upon its establishment, Federated held ownership of the regional department store chains Abraham & Straus, Lazarus, Filene's, and Shillito ...
in 1995, the Tanforan Emporium was closed and the building was purchased by Target Stores
Target Corporation (doing business as Target and stylized in all lowercase since 2018) is an American big box department store chain headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the seventh largest retailer in the United States, and a compon ...
in 1996. By that time, the dated mall was perceived as "dark and ugly" and occupancy had fallen to less than half, although anchor tenants continued to perform well.[ In 1999, the mall was purchased from Hapsmith by real estate investment firm Wattson Breevast LLC, who planned to redevelop it; Hapsmith retained a portion of the mall.][ There were many issues the new owners had to overcome: an eminent domain lawsuit involving ]BART
Bart is a masculine given name, usually a diminutive of Bartholomew, sometimes of Barton, Bartolomeo, etc.
Bart is a Dutch and Ashkenazi Jewish surname, and derives from the name ''Bartholomäus'', a German form of the biblical name ''Bartho ...
, getting consent from the three existing anchors, each of which owned their property, moving out long-term tenants, existing building materials, and other city issues. It would be four years before the project's operations were ready to begin. After resolving a string of legal, construction, and administrative issues, renovations finally began in 2003. The existing stores were closed and the structure was gutted, retaining only the exterior walls, with the exception of the three main anchors (Target, Sears, and J.C. Penney), all of which remained open throughout the major reconstruction. A groundbreaking ceremony for the reconstruction was held on February 9, 2004. BART's new station opened in 2003 on what was part of the original mall's property; in 2001, the four property owners received $34 million as a settlement from the eminent domain proceedings of BART, which was used to fund the three-level parking structure.[
]
Reconstruction
Altoon + Porter Architects was hired for the mall's new design,[ and Brio Engineering Associates performed consulting engineering for the remodel and expansion. The US$140 million project was completed after 20 months. On October 7, 2005, the mall reopened as The Shops at Tanforan, adding of shops and restaurants, including a new main entrance (facing El Camino Real) and food court.] As reconstructed, the mall portion was , a expansion compared to the structure as completed in 1971.[ The total floor area as reconstructed was .] A two-level Barnes & Noble bookstore and a BJ's Chicago Brewhouse flank the new glass atrium entrance facing El Camino.[ The mall was also scheduled to add a new parking garage and movie theater.][ The increased sales tax revenue for the city of San Bruno helped to offset the closure of a longtime Ford dealer. On April 18, 2008, ]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, t ...
held its grand opening for a new 20-screen theater complex at this location, with a skybridge connecting the mall to the new building. The bottom floor of the garage also serves as a walkway to both a new substation of th
San Bruno Police Department
and the adjoining San Bruno BART station.
Decline
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- ...
spun off 235 of its properties, including the Sears at The Shops at Tanforan, into Seritage Growth Properties. The mall property was sold by Breevast to Queensland Investment Corporation
QIC (Queensland Investment Corporation) is a Government owned investment company owned by the Queensland Government. It was founded on 1 July 1991 pursuant to the ''Queensland Investment Corporation Act 1991'' to serve the long-term investment r ...
(QIC), an Australian investment firm, in August of that year for $174 million. The property's Sears store was sold to mall ownership in 2018. The store later closed in early 2020. It was later sold to Alexandria Real Estate in late 2021 for $128 million.
At approximately the same time, the retail apocalypse
A retail apocalypse is the closing of numerous brick-and-mortar retail stores, especially those of large chains worldwide. It began around 2010, and was severely exacerbated by the mandatory closures during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2017, over ...
of shifting shopping online, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic in California
Ten of the first twenty confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United States occurred in California, the first of which was confirmed on January 26, 2020. All of the early confirmed cases were persons who had recently travelled to China, as testing wa ...
hurt the mall's businesses and foot traffic. On July 2, 2019, a shooting occurred on the upper level of the food court; as a precaution, the mall and nearby BART
Bart is a masculine given name, usually a diminutive of Bartholomew, sometimes of Barton, Bartolomeo, etc.
Bart is a Dutch and Ashkenazi Jewish surname, and derives from the name ''Bartholomäus'', a German form of the biblical name ''Bartho ...
station were evacuated. Four people were injured during the shooting, which left some reluctant to return to the mall. Four teenagers were arrested in connection with the shooting. Later that year, retailer Forever 21 went bankrupt and announced plans to close the company's San Bruno location at Tanforan. As part of JCPenney's 2020 bankruptcy process, the company's store in San Bruno was sold to Alexandria Real Estate for $105 million, though the store remained in operation.
Closure
On July 27, 2021, the San Bruno City Council adopted the ''Reimagining Tanforan Land Use Fact Sheet'', encouraging potential land owners to explore non-retail options at the site, including office, residential, and hotel uses. In February 2022, Alexandria announced it had purchased the remaining central portion of the mall property from QIC, including the mall's Target
Target may refer to:
Physical items
* Shooting target, used in marksmanship training and various shooting sports
** Bullseye (target), the goal one for which one aims in many of these sports
** Aiming point, in field artillery, f ...
store, and confirmed it would transform the property into a "megacampus" of biotech and technology firms.
Gallery
File:The Food Court at the Shops at Tanforan.jpg
References
External links
Official site
which reveals some of Tanforan's history
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shops At Tanforan
Shopping malls in San Mateo County, California
History of the San Francisco Bay Area
Internment camps for Japanese Americans
Shopping malls in the San Francisco Bay Area
San Bruno, California
Shopping malls established in 1971