Broadway Plaza is an outdoor

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 ...

located in downtown

Walnut Creek A walnut is the edible seed of a drupe of any tree of the genus ''Juglans'' (family Juglandaceae), particularly the Persian or English walnut, ''Juglans regia''. Although culinarily considered a "nut" and used as such, it is not a true bo ...

. The shopping center opened on October 11, 1951 and is owned and operated by

Macerich Macerich ( ) is a real estate investment trust that invests in shopping centers. It is the third-largest owner and operator of shopping centers in the United States. As of December 31, 2020, the company owned interests in 52 properties comprisi ...

. The mall is anchored by

Nordstrom Nordstrom, Inc. () is an American luxury department store chain headquartered in Seattle, Washington, and founded by John W. Nordstrom and Carl F. Wallin in 1901. The original Wallin & Nordstrom store operated exclusively as a shoe store, a ...

and

Macy's Macy's (originally R. H. Macy & Co.) is an American chain of high-end department stores founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. It became a division of the Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores in 1994, through which it is affiliated wi ...

, and features nearly 80 stores including

Crate & Barrel Euromarket Designs Inc., doing business as Crate & Barrel (stylized as Crate&Barrel), is an international furniture and home décor retail store headquartered in Northbrook, Illinois. They employ 8200 employees across over 100 stores in the Uni ...

, flagship H&M and ZARA stores, a standalone

Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, ' ...

store with an adjoining outdoor plaza, an Industrious co-working space, a planned

Pinstripes Pinstripes are a pattern of very thin stripes of any color running in parallel. The pattern is often found in fashion. The pinstripe is often compared to the similar chalk stripe. Pinstripes are very thin, often in width, and are created with ...

entertainment center and restaurant, and a planned

Life Time Fitness Life Time, Inc. is a chain of health clubs in the United States and Canada. History The company was founded by chairman and chief executive officer, Bahram Akradi. The company was incorporated in 1990 as FCA, Ltd., a Minnesota corporation, and ...

sports club. FountainBP

History

Broadway Plaza opened on October 18, 1951 with 38 stores.

JCPenney 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 ...

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 ...

, Woolworths,

Joseph Magnin The Joseph Magnin Company was a high-end specialty department store founded in San Francisco, California, by Joseph Magnin, 4th son of Isaac Magnin founder of the I. Magnin department store. Joseph Magnin Co. and I. Magnin Co. were rivals. Hist ...

(later

I. Magnin I. Magnin & Company was a San Francisco, California-based high fashion and specialty goods luxury department store. Over the course of its existence, it expanded across the West into Southern California and the adjoining states of Arizona, Oregon, ...

), and a Lucky Supermarket were the mall's original anchors. In 1954, Oakland-based department store Capwell's opened as the center's fifth anchor. Lucky was replaced by Northern California's second

Bullock's Bullock's was a chain of full-line department stores from 1907 through 1995, headquartered in Los Angeles, growing to operate across California, Arizona and Nevada. Bullock's also operated as many as seven more upscale Bullocks Wilshire specialty ...

department store in 1973, which was in turn converted to Nordstrom in 1984. Capwell's became

Emporium-Capwell The Emporium, from 1980 to 1995 Emporium-Capwell, was a mid-line department store chain headquartered in San Francisco, California, which operated for 100 years—from 1896 to 1996. The flagship location on San Francisco's Market Street was a de ...

in 1979, and was converted to Macy's in 1996; while I.Magnin was converted to a separate Macy's Men's store that same year. A renovation occurred at the property in the early 1990s, adding a unified architectural and landscaping scheme to the property when it previously had none.

opened a two-level store at the property in 1992. A former parking lot adjacent to Crate & Barrel was replaced with a pedestrian plaza in 1994, with a fountain, a retail building, and a stand-alone

California Pizza Kitchen California Pizza Kitchen (CPK) is an American casual dining restaurant chain that specializes in California-style pizza. The restaurant was started in 1985 by attorneys Rick Rosenfield and Larry Flax in Beverly Hills, California, United States ...

restaurant. Finally, a new, multi-floor parking structure was built in the southwest corner of the property behind the Macy's Men's store. After a protracted legal battle, a

Neiman Marcus Neiman Marcus Group, Inc. is an American integrated luxury retailer headquartered in Dallas, Texas, which owns Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman, Horchow, and Last Call. Since September 2021, NMG has been owned by a group of investment compani ...

department store opened at the property in 2012, the first of several major changed to occur at the property. Plans for an extensive renovation of the mall, including the addition of of new retail space, were approved in December 2013. The expansion consolidated the two Macy's stores into the former Women's store building, which was expanded and remodeled, and replaced the former single-level retail space and parking structure between Macy's and Nordstrom with a two-level retail building and multi-level parking structure. The first tenants in the expansion opened in September 2016, while additional tenants and a two-level Zara store (located on a partial portion of the land once home to the Macy's Men's store) opened for business during the Christmas shopping season. California Pizza Kitchen moved elsewhere in the city in 2016, with tenants of the adjacent stand-alone building moving into the mall's expansion wing that same year. A new stand-alone

store and a revitalized pedestrian plaza were then proposed for the land occupied by the two vacant buildings. Apple and the new plaza commenced construction in early 2017, and opened in Summer of 2018.

, an upscale large-format sports club, began construction on the remainder of the former Macy's Men's footprint in 2021 after a series of delays related to the COVID-19 pandemic, with a planned opening in 2023. On May 31, 2020, amidst the

George Floyd protests The George Floyd protests were a series of protests and civil unrest against police brutality and racism that began in Minneapolis on May 26, 2020, and largely took place during 2020. The civil unrest and protests began as part of internat ...

, several stores at the center were looted. In mid-2020, Neiman Marcus announced it would close its Walnut Creek store as part of a bankruptcy filing. Neiman Marcus closed in January of 2021, and the building sat vacant until the following year when Crate & Barrel temporarily moved into the space. The former Crate & Barrel store would then be converted to

, a hybrid restaurant/bowling alley entertainment concept, scheduled to open in 2023.

References

External links

Broadway Plaza Homepage
{{Shopping malls in California Contra Costa County, California Macerich Walnut Creek, California Shopping malls in the San Francisco Bay Area Shopping malls established in 1951 1951 establishments in California