The Village at Totem Lake, formerly Totem Lake Mall, is a
shopping center
A shopping center (American English) or shopping centre (Commonwealth English), also called a shopping complex, shopping arcade, shopping plaza or galleria, is a group of shops built together, sometimes under one roof.
The first known collec ...
in
Kirkland, Washington
Kirkland is a city in King County, Washington, United States. A suburb east of Seattle, its population was 92,175 in the 2020 U.S. census which made it the sixth largest city in the county and the twelfth largest in the state.
The city's downto ...
,
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. The center of Totem Lake Mall consisted of an enclosed shopping mall (Lower Mall), and an adjacent strip mall (Upper Mall). Collectively, the two centers were sometimes referred to as "Totem Lake Malls". Following the redevelopment of major regional malls beginning in the 1980s, Totem Lake Mall went into steady decline, losing most of its major tenants. The majority of these tenants were only accessible on the outside, shying away from the interior mall concept popular throughout the 1960s-1990s. Multiple redevelopments for the property were proposed. Village At Totem Lake, LLC purchased the mall in 2015 and in 2016 announced it would be redeveloped and reopened as The Village at Totem Lake.
Today, The Village at Totem Lake includes retail, restaurants, office space, and on-site residential to create a mixed-use center. Current tenants include
Cinemark
Cinemark Holdings, Inc. (stylized as CineMark from 1998 to 2022 and CINEMARK since 2022) is an American movie theater chain that started operations in 1984 and since then it has operated theaters with hundreds of locations throughout the America ...
,
Whole Foods Market
Whole Foods Market IP, Inc., a subsidiary of Amazon, is an upscale American multinational supermarket chain headquartered in Austin, Texas, which sells products free from hydrogenated fats and artificial colors, flavors, and preservatives. A US ...
,
Trader Joe's
Trader Joe's is an American chain of grocery stores headquartered in Monrovia, California. The chain has over 569 stores across the United States.
The first Trader Joe's store was opened in 1967 by founder Joe Coulombe in Pasadena, California ...
,
Nordstrom Rack
Nordstrom Rack is an American off-price department store chain founded in 1973. It is a sister brand to the luxury department store chain Nordstrom.
As of 2021, Nordstrom Rack operates 352 stores in 41 U.S. states and three Canadian provinces ...
,
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 stor ...
,
Ulta Beauty
Ulta Beauty, Inc., formerly known as Ulta Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance Inc. and before 2000 as Ulta3, is an American chain of beauty stores headquartered in Bolingbrook, Illinois. Ulta Beauty carries both high-end and low-end cosmetics, fragran ...
,
lululemon
lululemon athletica inc. (; styled in all lowercase) is a Canadian multinational athletic apparel retailer headquartered in British Columbia and incorporated in Delaware, United States. It was founded in 1998 as a retailer of yoga pants and ot ...
,
Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble Booksellers is an American bookseller. It is a Fortune 1000 company and the bookseller with the largest number of retail outlets in the United States. As of July 7, 2020, the company operates 614 retail stores across all 50 U. ...
,
Auto Zone
AutoZone, Inc. is an American retailer of Aftermarket (automotive), aftermarket automotive parts and accessories, the largest in the United States. Founded in 1979, AutoZone has over 6,400 stores across the United States, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Br ...
,
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 ...
,
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile tel ...
,
Key Bank,
Chipotle
A chipotle (, ; ), or ''chilpotle'', is a smoking (food), smoke-dried ripe jalapeño chili pepper used for seasoning. It is a chili used primarily in Mexican cuisine, Mexican and Mexican-inspired cuisines, such as Tex-Mex cuisine, Tex-Mex and So ...
,
Sephora
Sephora is a French multinational retailer of personal care and beauty products. Featuring nearly 340 brands, along with its own private label, Sephora Collection, Sephora offers beauty products including cosmetics, skincare, body, fragrance, n ...
,
Salt & Straw
Salt & Straw is an ice cream company based in Portland, Oregon. The company was launched in 2011 by cousins Kim Malek and Tyler Malek.
Company history
Salt & Straw began as a food cart in the Alberta Arts District of Portland, Oregon. Three mo ...
,
Pendleton Woolen Mills
Pendleton Woolen Mills is an American textile manufacturing company based in Portland, Oregon, United States. It is known for its blankets and woolen clothing.
Company origins
The company's roots began in 1863 when Thomas Lister Kay made a tran ...
,
Xfinity
Comcast Cable Communications, LLC, doing business as Xfinity, is an American telecommunications company and division of Comcast Corporation used to market consumer cable television, internet, telephone, and wireless services provided by the com ...
,
MOD Pizza
MOD Pizza is a Seattle, Washington-based fast casual pizza restaurant chain based in the United States. Founded in 2008, MOD has more than 500 locations in the United States and Canada (one location). MOD is a company that is claimed by its own ...
,
Verizon
Verizon Communications Inc., commonly known as Verizon, is an American multinational telecommunications conglomerate and a corporate component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company is headquartered at 1095 Avenue of the Americas in ...
,
T-Mobile
T-Mobile is the brand name used by some of the mobile communications subsidiaries of the German telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom AG in the Czech Republic (T-Mobile Czech Republic), Poland (T-Mobile Polska), the United States (T-Mobile ...
,
Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo & Company is an American multinational financial services company with corporate headquarters in San Francisco, California; operational headquarters in Manhattan; and managerial offices throughout the United States and intern ...
, 203°F Coffee Co, All The Best Pet Care, Anthony Vince' Nail Spa, Athleta, Due' Cucina, Evereve, Joe's Burgers, Mayweather Boxing, Lady Yum, Urban Tread, Vida Integrated Health, Yuan Spa.
History
Development
![Totem lake mall sign](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/08/Totem_lake_mall_sign.jpg)
Originally called the Totem Lake Center, the mall was first proposed in early 1968 to take advantage of a prominent site along the newly constructed
Interstate 405 and ground was broken in June 1972. The mall was the second phase of a larger Totem Lake center project including the
EvergreenHealth
EvergreenHealth is an American regional healthcare system based in the Seattle metropolitan area of Washington state. It has two general hospitals in Kirkland and Monroe, and several smaller clinics and urgent care facilities in King and Sno ...
campus and nearby apartment complexes, all developed by Totem Lake, Inc. around the
small lake of the same name, originally known as Lake Watstine. The mall itself and much of the surrounding properties were built on reclaimed wetlands connected to the lake. The mall was designed with an "Indian longhouse theme" featuring elements of
Northwest Coast art
Northwest Coast art is the term commonly applied to a style of art created primarily by artists from Tlingit, Haida, Heiltsuk, Nuxalk, Tsimshian, Kwakwaka'wakw, Nuu-chah-nulth and other First Nations and Native American tribes of the Northwest ...
by Richard C. Bouillon & Co., the same firm that designed the Lake Forest Park Center in 1964 in a chalet theme.
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 ...
were in charge of designing the interior. Although the opening of the mall was originally scheduled for April 1, 1973, the first stores in the mall wouldn't open until May 2, and the rest of the lower mall until May 31, 1973. The mall's
Lamonts
Lamonts was a chain of department stores founded in Seattle, Washington. The chain was started in 1970 when Pay 'n Save renamed its suburban branches of Rhodes, a department store chain the company acquired in 1965. Lamonts remained a division of ...
Anchor tenant
In retail, an "anchor tenant", sometimes called an "anchor store", "draw tenant", or "key tenant", is a considerably larger tenant in a shopping mall, often a department store or retail chain. They are typically located at the ends of malls. Wit ...
/
department store
A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic app ...
, the sixth in the
Pay 'n Save
Pay 'n Save was a retail company founded by Monte Lafayette Bean in Seattle, Washington in 1940. Over the years, Pay 'n Save was the leading drugstore chain in Washington and was the owner of several Washington-based retailers including Lamonts ...
Corporation-owned chain, was still under construction at the time, and would not open until October 17 of that year. Additional anchor stores at the mall included other divisions of the Pay 'n Save Corporation including
Ernst Home & Nursery,
Schuck's Auto Supply, still existing until recently, a Pay 'n Save Drug store and Sportsland, later acquired by
Big 5 Sporting Goods
Big 5 Sporting Goods is a sporting goods retailer headquartered in El Segundo, California with 434 stores in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington ...
. Construction of the separate eastern portion of the mall continued into 1974, and the East Mall was opened in July 1974. Construction of the mall would lead to the annexation of the Totem Lake Neighborhood by the city of Kirkland in 1974. The adjacent Totem Lake Cinemas opened in 1980.
Decline
In the summer of 1988, the upper and lower malls' original exposed wood facades and finishes were covered and the buildings were re-sheathed with a white
Exterior insulation finishing system
Exterior insulation and finish system (EIFS) is a general class of non- load bearing building cladding systems that provides exterior walls with an insulated, water-resistant, finished surface in an integrated composite material system. In Europe ...
as part of a renovation project that was intended to modernize and brighten the appearance of the malls. Many people criticized this new look deeming it boring and bland in contrast to the previous eclectic theme.
A huge snow storm in 1997 caused part of the lower mall's roof to cave in, triggering the sprinklers and flooding the entire building in of water. Because of water damage, the mall's original wood
parquet floor
Parquet (; French for "a small compartment") is a geometric mosaic of wood pieces used for decorative effect in flooring.
Parquet patterns are often entirely geometrical and angular—squares, triangles, lozenges—but may contain curves. T ...
ing was replaced with ceramic tile.
A
totem pole
Totem poles ( hai, gyáaʼaang) are monumental carvings found in western Canada and the northwestern United States. They are a type of Northwest Coast art, consisting of poles, posts or pillars, carved with symbols or figures. They are usually m ...
from the mall's original construction was thought to be hidden inside a sign tower on the mall's west side, though in reality what remained were plain wooden poles that once held the malls' original sign featuring an eagle with outstretched wings in the Northwest Coast art tradition. The poles were left in place during redevelopment to take advantage of a
grandfather clause
A grandfather clause, also known as grandfather policy, grandfathering, or grandfathered in, is a provision in which an old rule continues to apply to some existing situations while a new rule will apply to all future cases. Those exempt from t ...
in the city's sign height limits but the fate of the original hand-carved sign is unknown.
The first blow to the mall occurred in late 1996 when anchor Ernst Home & Nursery closed as part of the company's
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 debtor ...
. The space eventually was divided into three stores,
Ross Ross or ROSS may refer to:
People
* Clan Ross, a Highland Scottish clan
* Ross (name), including a list of people with the surname or given name Ross, as well as the meaning
* Earl of Ross, a peerage of Scotland
Places
* RoSS, the Republic of Sou ...
,
Famous Footwear
Famous Footwear is a nationwide chain of retail stores in the United States dealing in branded footwear, generally at prices discounted from manufacturer's suggested prices. The chain is a division of the St. Louis-based Caleres and had more th ...
and
Cartoys
Car Toys, Inc. is a medium-sized chain of stores, founded and headquartered in Seattle. There are currently 50 stores, distributed throughout Washington, Oregon, Colorado, and Texas. Car Toys currently has over 1,000 employees, some of whom work ...
, and given a remodel that contrasted greatly with the rest of the mall. This part of the mall remained consistently occupied while the rest of the lower mall continued to languish. Due to the financial struggles of its owners and a steady loss of inside tenants since the early 2000s the shopping center was becoming known as a
dead mall
A dead mall (also known as a ghost mall, zombie mall, or abandoned mall) is a shopping mall with a high vacancy rate or a low consumer traffic level, or that is deteriorating in some manner.
Many malls in North America are considered "dead ...
and very little maintenance was done to fix the leaking roofs and other problems. The deteriorating mall had been described as a "
white elephant
A white elephant is a possession that its owner cannot dispose of, and whose cost, particularly that of maintenance, is out of proportion to its usefulness. In modern usage, it is a metaphor used to describe an object, construction project, sch ...
" and was seen as an eyesore by locals and city planners. The East mall in contrast still thrived thanks to the traffic generated by
Trader Joe's
Trader Joe's is an American chain of grocery stores headquartered in Monrovia, California. The chain has over 569 stores across the United States.
The first Trader Joe's store was opened in 1967 by founder Joe Coulombe in Pasadena, California ...
, the theater, and several specialty stores.
The main mall had many vacant spaces where
anchor tenant
In retail, an "anchor tenant", sometimes called an "anchor store", "draw tenant", or "key tenant", is a considerably larger tenant in a shopping mall, often a department store or retail chain. They are typically located at the ends of malls. Wit ...
s used to be, such as
Lamonts
Lamonts was a chain of department stores founded in Seattle, Washington. The chain was started in 1970 when Pay 'n Save renamed its suburban branches of Rhodes, a department store chain the company acquired in 1965. Lamonts remained a division of ...
(later
Gottschalks
Gottschalks (former NYSE ticker symbol GOT) was a middle-tier American department store that operated 58 department stores and three specialty apparel stores in six western states (California, Washington, Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Nevada); some ...
). In November 2006, the
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 lis ...
drugstore moved out of the mall to a free standing location up the street.
CompUSA
CompUSA was a retailer and reseller of personal computers, consumer electronics, technology products and computer services. Starting with one brick-and-mortar store in 1986 under the name Soft Warehouse, by the 1990s CompUSA had grown into a natio ...
closed in May 2007. The
Old Country Buffet
Old or OLD may refer to:
Places
*Old, Baranya, Hungary
*Old, Northamptonshire, England
*Old Street station, a railway and tube station in London (station code OLD)
*OLD, IATA code for Old Town Municipal Airport and Seaplane Base, Old Town, Mai ...
closed in September 2008 due to chapter 11 bankruptcy consolidation leaving only one store with an entrance into the mall. The last major vacancy occurred in March 2010 when one of the mall's only original remaining tenants, Schuck's Auto Parts, acquired and renamed by
O'Reilly Auto Parts
O’Reilly Automotive, Inc. is an American auto parts retailer that provides automotive aftermarket parts, tools, supplies, equipment, and accessories to professional service providers and do-it-yourself customers. Founded in 1957 by the O’Reil ...
, relocated off the mall property. The
economic downturn of 2008
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 ...
prevented any attempts to revive the mall as it stood and its only new tenants during this time consisted of flea markets and seasonal pop-up stores.
Sale and redevelopment
![The Village at Totem Lake October 2017](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/db/The_Village_at_Totem_Lake_October_2017.jpg)
In January 2004, the mall was sold by
CalPERS
The California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) is an agency in the California executive branch that "manages pension and health benefits for more than 1.5 million California public employees, retirees, and their families".CalPERSFac ...
to
Developers Diversified Realty (DDR) for $37 million.
DDR had discussed plans to tear it down and redevelop a multistory, mixed residential-retail complex.
As of February 2008, the City of Kirkland had not received an application for design review and did not know the planned mix of tenants, although the city did receive a conceptual master plan. In February 2009, it was revealed that due to the
harsh economic climate, DDR had postponed its redevelopment plans for the mall indefinitely and was searching for someone to buy the property.
In early 2015, Totem Lake Mall was sold to Village at Totem Lake LLC, a joint venture between CenterCal and PCCP, LLC. A $200 million, 12-month redevelopment of the mall was announced to begin in mid-2016, with the new mall opening in the summer of 2017. In March 2016, the mall's owner began demolishing the lower mall, with the exception of the former Ernst space which is now occupied by Car Toys and Ross; Trader Joe's took up the remaining space after construction was completed in December 2017. The upper mall and its former movie theater are next in line for demolition. The new complex, named The Village at Totem Lake, will include 800+ residential units, office spaces, and entertainment venues in addition to retail space.
Since opening its first new tenants, Nordstrom Rack and Trader Joe's, in October 2017, The Village at Totem Lake has continued to expand and open new retailers, restaurant, offices, movie theater, plus on-site residential communities opened.
References
External links
*
Blog post with photos of the 2007 state of the mall
{{DEFAULTSORT:Village at Totem Lake
Buildings and structures in Kirkland, Washington
Shopping malls in King County, Washington
Shopping malls established in 1973
1973 establishments in Washington (state)