Montclair Place is a indoor

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a North American term for a large indoor shopping center, usually Anchor tenant, anchored by department stores. The term "mall" originally meant pedestrian zone, a pedestrian promenade with shops along it (that ...

in Montclair, California. The mall is anchored by

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, Gi ...

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 ...

. The mall was known as Montclair Plaza until 2015.

History

At opening

The mall opened on November 5, 1968, at a cost of $50 million, with 69 stores on a single level, representing over of retail space, on a lot of with parking space for 6,000 cars. Montclair Plaza was developed by contractor Ernest W. Hahn; the architect of the overall mall and shops was Burke, Kober, Nicolais & Archuleta. Three department stores anchored Montclair Plaza at, or shortly after its opening: *

, ; Burke, Kober, Nicolais & Archuleta, architects * The Broadway at the east end, ;

Charles Luckman Charles Luckman (May 16, 1909 – January 26, 1999) was an American businessman, property developer, and architect known for designing landmark buildings in the United States such as the Theme Building, Prudential Tower, Madison Square Garden, ...

and Associates, architects * May Company at the west end, ;

Welton Becket Welton David Becket (August 8, 1902 – January 16, 1969) was an American modern architect who designed many buildings in Los Angeles, California. Biography Becket was born in Seattle, Washington and graduated from the University of Washin ...

and Associates, architects Other stores open at the Plaza's launch included branches of the junior department stores: *

Silverwoods Silverwoods, originally promoted as F. B. Silverwood, after its founder, was a men's clothing store chain founded in Los Angeles in 1894 by Francis Bernard (F.B. "Daddy") Silverwood, a Canadian-American originally from near Lindsay, Ontario. He was ...

(Burke, Kober, Nicolais & Archuleta, architects), as part of an expansion at the time that also included stores Las Vegas,

La Habra Fashion Square La Habra Marketplace, formerly La Habra Fashion Square, is an open-air regional mall in La Habra, California, built by the Bullock's department store chain. Welton Becket and Associates were the architects. It was the last and largest of the "Fash ...

, and Palm Springs. *

Mullen & Bluett Mullen & Bluett was a Los Angeles-based department store specializing in men's clothing. Founding It was founded by Andrew Mullen and W. C. Bluett in the 1880s, at the corner of First and Spring streets in Downtown Los Angeles. Arthur R. Mullen ...

There was a

General Cinemas General Cinema Corporation, also known as General Cinema, GCC, or General Cinema Theatres, was a chain of movie theaters in the United States. At its peak, the company operated about 1,500 screens, some of which were among the first cinemas certif ...

theater complex. A

United California Bank First Interstate Bancorp was a bank holding company based in the United States that was taken over in 1996 by Wells Fargo. Headquartered in Los Angeles, it was the nation's eighth largest banking company. The name (along with the company logo) ...

Crocker Bank Crocker National Bank was a United States bank headquartered in San Francisco, California. It was acquired by and merged into Wells Fargo Bank in 1986. History The bank traces its history to the Woolworth National Bank in San Francisco. Charles ...

, Van de Kamp's Holland Dutch Bakery, drugstore, and supermarket were located across from the mall in a

strip mall A strip mall, strip center or strip plaza is a type of shopping center common in North America where the stores are arranged in a row, with a sidewalk in front. Strip malls are typically developed as a unit and have large parking lots in front. ...

on the northeast of the property.

Later development

The mall was renovated and expanded with a second level that opened on October 30, 1985.

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 added to the mall the same year, which relocated from the

Indian Hill Mall Indian Hill Village is a former shopping mall in Pomona, California. It has been redeveloped into a multi-use retail, commercial and educational facility and is now known as The Village @ Indian Hill, comprising on . History The original, open-ai ...

. The first

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, and ...

store in

San Bernardino County San Bernardino County (), officially the County of San Bernardino, is a county located in the southern portion of the U.S. state of California, and is located within the Inland Empire area. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, the population was 2,181, ...

opened at the Montclair Plaza on May 2, 1986. May Company was converted to

Robinsons-May Robinsons-May was a chain of department stores operating in Southern California, Arizona and Nevada, from 1993 until 2006. It was created when May Department Stores combined two of its chains, May Company California and J. W. Robinson's cha ...

in 1993. The Broadway became a

in 1996. Macy's relocated to the Robinsons-May space in 2006 after the chains merged. In February 2014,

CIM Group CIM Group invests in commercial property on behalf of large institutions such as pensions. As of December 31, 2020, the company owned $29.2 billion worth of commercial property. History The company was founded in 1994 by Shaul Kuba, Richard Ress ...

acquired the mall. In November 2015, the mall was renamed "Montclair Place" and renovations were announced. On March 1, 2018,

AMC Theatres AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. (d/b/a AMC Theatres, originally an abbreviation for American Multi-Cinema; often referred to simply as AMC and known in some countries as AMC Cinemas or AMC Multi-Cinemas) is an American movie theater chain fou ...

announced that it will replace the Broadway building with a new 55,000-square-foot dine-in movie theatre, the city's first indoor theatre in nearly twenty years. Multiple new stores were added, including

Forever 21 Forever 21 is a multinational fast fashion retailer headquartered in Los Angeles, California, United States. Originally founded as the store Fashion 21 in Highland Park, Los Angeles in 1984,Forever 21History & Facts, n.d. Retrieved 27 April 2014 ...

and Spectrum. The Canyon, a 17,500-square-foot music and entertainment venue, and Kids Empire, an 11,000-square-foot indoor playground were added. A Lazy Dog Restaurant & Bar opened in December 2019 in the former

Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company is an American multinational tire manufacturing company founded in 1898 by Frank Seiberling and based in Akron, Ohio. Goodyear manufactures tires for automobiles, commercial trucks, light trucks, motorcycles, ...

. A WinWings restaurant opened next to the

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 ...

restaurant. On July 3, 2019, bowling & arcade amusement chain

Round One Entertainment , stylized as ROUND1, is a Japan-based amusement store chain. In Japan, the amusement centers offer bowling alleys, arcade games, karaoke, and billiards. They also have a larger variation of Round One known as SpoCha, abbreviated for Sports Chal ...

announced it will open a location. 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 20t ...

spun off 235 of its properties, including the Sears at Montclair Place, into Seritage Growth Properties. The former Broadway store was demolished in 2018 in order to build an

. On November 7, 2019, it was announced that Sears would be closing its location in the mall as part of a plan to close 96 stores nationwide. The store closed in February 2020. On May 11, 2020, during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, it was announced that

would be closing its location in the mall, leaving Macy's and JCPenney as the mall's only traditional anchors.

Transit access

Metrolink has

a station , known professionally as , is a Japanese actor, creative director, and writer. He appeared in a number of Japanese TV dramas, including '' Mei-chan no Shitsuji'', '' Hanazakari no Kimitachi e'' and '' Zettai Kareshi''. Additionally, he was well ...

located north of the mall where connections to

Foothill Transit Foothill Transit is a public transit agency that is government funded by 22 member cities in the San Gabriel and Pomona valleys. It operates a fixed-route bus public transit service in the San Gabriel Valley region of eastern Los Angeles Cou ...

Omnitrans Omnitrans, stylized as "OmniTrans," is a public transportation agency in San Bernardino County, California, United States. The largest transit operator within San Bernardino County, it serves the San Bernardino Valley. The agency was established ...

, and

Riverside Transit Agency The Riverside Transit Agency (RTA) is the main transit agency for western Riverside County, California, United States. RTA provides both local and regional services throughout the region with 39 fixed-routes (including RapidLink Gold Line), 9 Com ...

Express Line 204 buses can be made.

References

{{Shopping malls in California Shopping malls in San Bernardino County, California Montclair, California Shopping malls established in 1968