Abella Center formerly International Marketplace and originally El Portal Shopping Center is a mixed-use city services, business, shopping center and housing village

transit-oriented development In urban planning, transit-oriented development (TOD) is a type of urban development that maximizes the amount of residential, business and leisure space within walking distance of public transport. It promotes a symbiotic relationship between ...

that was formerly a mall in

San Pablo, California San Pablo (Spanish for "St. Paul") is an enclave city in Contra Costa County, California, United States. The city of Richmond surrounds nearly the whole city. The population was 29,139 at the 2010 census. The current Mayor is Rita Xavier. Curr ...

History

Origins

The mall opened in the 1960s anchored originally by Simon's Department store which later became a

Mervyn's Mervyn's was an American middle-scale department store chain based in Hayward, California, and founded by Mervin G. Morris (1920–2021). It carried national brands of clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, electronics, ...

department store,

HomeBase Homebase is a British home improvement retailer and garden centre with stores across the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland. Founded by Sainsbury's and GB-Inno-BM in 1979, the company was owned by Home Retail Group from October 2006, unti ...

home improvement store and

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. The mall declined with the exit of Safeway in the 1990s, relocation of Mervyn's to the new

Pinole Vista Shopping Center Pinole (Spanish for "cornmeal") is a city in Contra Costa County, California, United States. The population was 18,390 at the 2010 census. History The name derives from "pinole", a Nāhuatl word for a kind of flour made from the seeds of ...

and the bankruptcy of and closure of Home Base stores. The mall began to decline due to its relative distance from the freeway entrances and exits along Interstate 80 even though the highway passes very close by. This decline was also compromised by the rise of the giant

Hilltop Mall Shopping Center Hilltop Horizon, formerly known as Hilltop Mall, East Bay Science and Technology Center and The Shops At Hilltop, was a regional shopping center in the Hilltop neighborhood of Richmond, California. Hilltop is managed and co-owned by Prologis, ...

in nearby

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, ...

Redevelopment

In the early 2000s the city began a redevelopment plan to revitalize the shopping center with a consulting firm specialized in reviving dead shopping malls. The commercial center was rebranded International Marketplace and touted as an ethnic niche destination shopping area. The former Safeway was remodeled and reopened as an

Asian Supermarket In the West or non-Asian countries, an Asian supermarket largely describes a category of grocery stores that focuses and stocks items and products imported from countries located in the Far East (e.g. East, Southeast and South Asia). These stor ...

. The ex Home Base location was edited into a two-story shopping bazaar with small shop locations. The department store spot and portions of the eastern edge of the mall were demolished and combined with the new business zone as a mixed-use urban village with apartments, condominiums, and attached single-family homes called Abella. A gateway was built over San Pablo Avenue with the name of the center. The city also added its city hall to the center and attracted the

Contra Costa County ) of the San Francisco Bay , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1 = State , subdivision_name1 = California , subdivision_type2 ...

social services department and library locations to the marketplace. The project was criticized for not displaying "San Pablo" on the archway over the avenue. The city of San Pablo began hosting public events here such as halloween events.

Re-creation

By the late 2000s the city became frustrated with high vacancies and the inability of the consulting firm to attract a multiplex movie theater as promised and henceforth fired the firm. The San Pablo City Council approved a new plan demolishing more of the shopping center, adding a strip of restaurant and commuter services along San Pablo Avenue and more housing better connected with the rest of the development. At this point the city changed the signage on the gateway to state "Welcome to San Pablo" and renamed the mall to Abella Shopping Center.

Neighborhood

Abella is located adjacent to

Contra Costa College Contra Costa College is a public community college in San Pablo, California. It is the west campus of the Contra Costa Community College District. It is part of the California community colleges system, one of the three college systems in Californ ...

and its transit center and has feeder, commuter, student, and late night service from

AC Transit AC Transit (Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District) is an Oakland-based public transit agency serving the western portions of Alameda and Contra Costa counties in the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area. AC Transit also operates "Transbay" ro ...

bus lines 71, 72, 72R, 74, 76, 376, 607, 609, 669, 673, 674, 676, 677, and 679 these lines connect the center with the surrounding areas including

and El Cerrito del Norte BART stations. There is a BRT station at San Pablo Avenue and the Abella Center. There is also the addition of

WestCat WestCAT is a public transportation service in western Contra Costa County (north of Oakland, CA). It is a service of the Western Contra Costa Transit Authority. The Western Contra Costa County Transit (WestCAT) was established in August 1977 as a ...

services on line C3.C3 schedule
. WestCat website. 2011. Retrieved 04-06-2011. The city has rebranded the area as the "Abella District".

Notes

{{Shopping malls in California San Pablo, California Shopping malls in the San Francisco Bay Area Shopping malls in Contra Costa County, California