Ghost Town Update: Former Vallco Mall (Cupertino CA) shrinks further in current economy (photos)

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Taken with my cell phone, yesterday. The former Vallco Mall (now "Cupertino Square") food court is reduced to JUST Burger King & Popeye Chicken. At the far outer edges there is a new Subways and a teriyaki place that has been there for a while. BOTH of those were ABANDONED...I didn't spot employees in either one. This joint ain't exactly jumpin', is it? This photo was taken around 12:30 PM, which SHOULD be "peak lunch hour traffic"...



Things looked hopeful a couple of months ago when the Chiaramonte Deli chain opened up across from Burger King. Now, they have "limited hours" (11-2:30 weekdays, longer on weekends). When I was there, here's what I saw (that white piece of paper on the bars announces their new "temporary hours"):



And finally, who's THIS handsome bastard?

:evilgrin:



:toast:

Check out the Cupertino Square Website's "Events" page...

http://www.cupertinosquare.com/events.html

They have an AUGUST 29th event STILL ON THERE as an "upcoming event"...

...it's on the home page too..

http://www.cupertinosquare.com/home.html

And if you look to the left, you'll see "Leasing Questions? Click For More Details"

There's a creepy little goth-fetish-whatever store called "Armor Geddon" (which was out of its element from the time it moved in) that had a big "Moving Sale" sign in its window. Several other stores / restaurants listed on the Cupertino Square Website as active are gone, just boarded up.

TGI Friday's re-opened, but it is directly adjacent to the mall, not in it. No idea what kind of business they're doing. Parking lot was half-full at peak lunch hour.

:eyes:

[blondeatlast]

1. That's the stuff that puts the "depression" into it. There's something creepy about

really new places being abandoned.

Edit: that is a handsome fella, I wouldn't use the word you did...

[Amerigo Vespucci]

9. Macy's & JC Penney seem to be doing "just OK..."

...nowhere near as busy as they were a month ago. AMC Theatres might draw movie-goers at night, but are abandoned during the daily showtimes.

Right next to AMC is a Cinnabon. Sometimes they don't even have anything out for sale because, let's face it...why bother? The girl working there looked so sad...she saw me go by and smiled and I smiled back. I almost wanted to buy something to cheer her up but these days I'm struggling too, and literally every penny counts. Next to Cinnabon is a Coldstone Creamery that had one customer, a mother and her daughter. The daughter had an ice cream cone, the mother didn't get anything for herself.

Throughout the mall are wood benches and purple fabric "love seat"-type purple fabric cushion benches. Every one of the fabric benches is stained, and badly. It looks like people routinely sit on them and soil themselves...I'm not kidding. Next time I take photos there, I'm going to have to include a shot of those purple benches.

[AllentownJake]

29. I'm expecting one of the major "anchor" stores to declare bankruptcy

after the Holiday season. Too many stores in too many depressed areas.

[Liberal_in_LA]

2. I see your reflection in the glass. You look like the FBI man!

suit and tie. Dressed like a rich man

[Amerigo Vespucci]

10. When I'm out prospecting for my business (which I was), I have to dress that way...

...I swung by Cupertino Square for a quick "time out," but yesterday was definitely a "look for new clients" day.

:toast:

[Sal Minella]

13. Mmm. Marcello Mastroiani. Mmmm.

however that's speld.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

15. Close enough...thanks...

:rofl:

[Seen the light]

3. The mall in Monroe, NC is exactly the same

It's nearly word-for-word how you described what's happened to this mall. What was once a thriving mall, considering its size, now consists of a "food court" made up of a lone Chick-Fil-A.

I read a recent article somewhere online about how malls are dying across the country. I believe a new mall hasn't open in this country since one in Jonesboro, AR opened in 2006. I could be wrong.

[Liberal_in_LA]

5. Is it the economy or the internet that's taking malls down?

[AllentownJake]

8. No

Less consumers and over building.

[mitchum]

28. Malls killed downtowns and Wal Mart killed malls

[Hannah Bell]

37. walmart *is* a mall, just with lower overhead.

the process = the concentration of capital.

[mitchum]

42. You are absolutely correct (n/t)

[AllentownJake]

4. Gerald Celente has been predicting Ghost Malls for a while

I know he isn't the most popular guy on here, but it has been one of the things he predicted for 2009-2010.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

6. and in my area we have our own ghost mall

The Block at Orange, in the last year four out of the six major anchor stores in the mall have closed. You know a mall is dead when the security doesn't even bother chasing away kids on skateboards.

Were it not for the Disney traffic the restaurants would all die too,

Ontario Mills out in San Bernardino County is also looking pretty fucking bleak - I used to take all my out of town visitors there, but the number of stores that have disappeared is mind boggling.

[Liberal_in_LA]

7. How can all that space be used? Schools? Libraries?

[AllentownJake]

11. With what Tax Revenue?

:rofl:

[Liberal_in_LA]

17. good point.

[KakistocracyHater]

25. don't need it, didn't in the 1930s don't now

I prefer high schools, I've said it here before, malls are perfect for it, large bathrooms, lots of electrical outlets, very little retro-fitting probably. You spend your way out of recession/depression, you have to create what wasn't there before. I just read some article by some guy ft.com maybe, a story on buzzflash, he said basically, that the last time we had similar conditions was 70 years ago. So that means that no one knows what worked personally, very few are alive who went thru it(now my w key is working); I'd recommend polling everyone over 70 years old, also to read but to carefully avoid the disinfo warriors crap. That was all written recently, with a little 1950s bs mixed in.

[AllentownJake]

26. Much different world from the 1930s

Many people rode out the depression on family farms. Cities weren't as populated and we didn't have a national debt at the levels we do now. We also had a larger manufacturing base.

Part of our government's problem is they are trying to fight a 2009 problem using 1930s tools.

[KakistocracyHater]

33. NO, you're letting the details of the 1930s get in the way

glass/stieglman act was partially removed THAT is anti-1930s. So is evicting homeowners when the bank does not even have the mortgage/title slip; how many times did such a bank sell it as 'securitization'? Seems like a swindle.

Massive drought ended many family farms. Re-founding manufacturing HERE would help get us out of this situation.

It's not that much of a different world, that kind of thinking allowed telecoms to double-charge cell phone owners, because people didn't 'get it' at the time, what the telecoms were doing. Same as stuffing the electronic ballot boxes, by using the margin of error, requiring a close election race. Exit polls still showed the truth but people didn't 'get it' at the time.

[Hannah Bell]

38. I think what he's saying is, where's the money going to come from to convert malls into anything

when public funds are drying up & there's no indication that fdr-style public works are coming from the federal level.

besides which, the *owners* of the malls are often content to let them rot - for the tax benefit.

[obliviously]

12. Bingo and flea markets.

[Liberal_in_LA]

20. Our former Broadway (remember them?) is now a big flea market building

[Amerigo Vespucci]

14. "Mayfield Mall" used to be THE big indoor mall in Mountain View...

...and when they went belly-up, the property was sold to Hewlett Packard, who operated there for a number of years until THEY sold it. Last time I took any notice it was still empty. There might be someone occupying it now...but I doubt it.

One of my clients told me that owners of commercial real estate are squeezing the hell out of business owners, forcing them out. They had a Kragen Auto Parts next door which closed down because they couldn't afford the increased rent.

[AllentownJake]

19. The "owners" of the Real Estate

Don't really own the Real Estate. They have commercial mortgages on them, and as business leaves they need to find a way to squeeze what they can out of the remaining renters.

Right now the "owners" are trying to find refinancing and our shit out of luck.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

23. I posted this in my last Vallco thread a while back, but it's worth repeating here...

...I read an article on one of the online Business Journal sites a couple of months ago about strip mall owners, and how they used to look at the "Dollar Discount" stores as the black sheep of the retail family. Didn't want them in their malls. Bad for the image, you know?

So Mervyns and other high-profile stores went belly-up. Meanwhile, the "black sheep" stores are experiencing boom times as people are trying to find bargains everywhere. Mall owners started doing the math and figured "Empty store, no income. Lease it to people I really don't really respect but who have the cash, monthly income."

I hear what you're saying about the "squeeze who's left" ploy, but among my clients, all I'm seeing is that tactics like that have them drafting "Plan B" (move or go out of business when the landlord squeezes hard enough).

Here are a few more photos I posted previously on DU, a couple of months ago.

Former Auto dealership in Sunnyvale:





A deli, also in Sunnyvale. I found them on Yelp and drove over to pitch my doing a Website for them. This is what I saw:

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

21. a gift shop for the Crystal Cathedral?

They need to raise some money too,

We blanketed this fucking country in shopping malls where people could spend money they did have on shit they didn't need and now were stuck with them.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

27. You make an excellent point...

...at the lower-level entrance, right outside of Macy's there's a white bench that is completely scarred with black streak marks. I looked at it and thought "what the hell is this" and realized that skateboarders had been using it for their "launching pad."

The place is starting to take on a bit of the "Escape From New York" vibe...an increase of "hoodie" types milling about, trying to look bad-assed. You walk across the parking garage to your car and realize there's someone on the other side who's been watching your every step. People on the upper-level parking structure, backed into parking spots at the far end, getting high in their cars, keeping an eye out for cops and / or security, both of which are nowhere to be found.

[Hannah Bell]

16. deadmalls.com

http://www.deadmalls.com/

[optimator]

18. good riddance to malls

I hope they all fail

[Ikonoklast]

22. We were all supposed to consume forever, endlessly, to make others wealthy.

That's the GOP mantra, consume, consume, consume....


http://www.deadmalls.com/contents.html

[Amerigo Vespucci]

24. The Sharper Image mentality...

...it's like "I need an insulated sleeve to slip my can of Coke into, so it will stay cool all day, but HEY! THIS ONE has a DIGITAL CLOCK built into it! I can sip my cool drink AND know what time it is, and it's ONLY $29.99!"

:eyes:

[Liberal_in_LA]

34. Got a $25 Sharper image gift card with an account, There was NOTHING in the store

I wanted or needed. Fancy electronic glass and chrome doodads. I never used the card.

[XemaSab]

30. It looks like half the malls in rural areas of California

Redding has two malls. There's the Shasta mall which is still gaming on, and the Redding mall which has been in a state of disrepair for the better part of 30 years.

The Redding mall has been in the process of renovation for a few years, and it was almost coming back before the recession hit. It was an indoor space before they renovated it, and I wish I had had a good camera, 'cause it was seriously creepy in there. I mean roof-leaking with puddles on the floor sort of creepy. Now they took the roof off and it's known to many as the Topless Mall now. :P

[lapfog_1]

31. Vallco has been dying even before the

lesser depression that we are in right now.

It's only 5 miles down 280 (or simply stay on Stevens Creek) to get to Valley Fair mall and Santana Row that opened across Stevens Creek from Valley Fair. Not to mention that Valley Fair expanded significantly about 5 or 6 years ago and add more multi-story parking too.

Valley Fair was always the "better/newer/bigger mall" than Vallco. I lived in Mtn View from 1989 to 2007 and only visited Vallco maybe 3 or 4 times. And that was before the current mini-depression.

I was just back to visit the Bay Area last spring and needed socks (that I always buy from a particular store in Valley Fair) so I went there before my job interview. It was lunch time. And the picture you have of the food court in Vallco looked like what I saw at Valley Fair as well. I ate a slice of pizza and I was the ONLY customer. And it was 11:45 on a weekday. Only a few other shoppers there. It was like a ghost town. That was 6 months ago, I hope things are improving.

The next shoe to drop in our mortgage crises is commercial space.

We certainly aren't out of the recession / mini-depression yet.

[MagickMuffin]

32. Here's some info on a mall that was sorta close to me

North Hills Mall was built in 1979 in North Richland Hills, Texas, a suburb northeast of Fort Worth. The mall flourished and co-existed with nearby North East Mall until North East Mall expanded in 1999. The reconstruction process of the Interstate 820/Airport Freeway junction limited access to the mall which also contributed to the demise of this mall. The mall closed in 2004, and sat vacant until the entire building was demolished in early 2007.


There had been rumors that it was going to be remodeled with an ice skating rink and then it was going to be turned into doctor offices as there is a hospital located adjacent to it, however, I guess someone just decided to totally demolish it instead.

Of course it was kinda crazy to build a mall so close to another one that was only a few miles away :shrug: Then NE Mall used eminent domain to force people from their homes to increase the size of the mall, although these stores are NOT really part of the mall in and of itself, you have to leave the mall and drive to the other stores.

[AllentownJake]

35. They used eminent domain for a mall?

I swear we could generate power from the founding fathers rolling in their graves.

[MagickMuffin]

36. Yep, this neighborhood wasn't in disrepair

This was the same tactic that was used for Bush's role in the Ballpark in Arlington.


Luckily we get to vote against the use of eminent domain in November.


Here's some more info about how Texas has used eminent domain for baseball (Texas Rangers), football (Dallas Cowboys), race cars (Texas Motor Speedway), and a mall (NE Mall).

http://www.star-telegram.com/225/story/1669620.html

[Hannah Bell]

39. I have a theory on overbuilding -- not only malls & walmarts, but starbucks,

mcdonalds, etc.

they overbuild deliberately to suck *all* the local/regional businesses out of the market.

[MadHound]

40. You know I have a hard time finding any sympathy for dying malls

Perhaps this will lead to the resurgence of a vibrant downtown area.

Malls are blights on the land.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

41. Cupertino is a bit of an oddity in that it really doesn't have a "downtown" area

Other than Cupertino Square, it has two mega-mall clusters one town over in San Jose:

1). Valley Fair, which is a huge indoor mall that's doing very well

2). Santana Row, which is not a "mall" per se but might as well be...several city blocks with nothing but retail and restaurants. These are not what I would classify as traditional "mom & pop" downtown-area stores. This area is Yuppie Hell, ranging from chain stores like Borders to ridiculously "chic" and overpriced restaurants. In the strictest, most literal sense of the word, it could be seen as a "downtown" area, but the REAL downtown area is at the edge of Santana Row, the businesses on Winchester that got pushed to the edges of the Santana Row development.

The town of Cupertino is split between residential areas and strip malls, some run-down and others a little more upscale. In its heyday Vallco was a welcome part of the town. Now, the "Cupertino Square" incarnation is a huge chunk of commercial real estate that is mostly empty.

There is an enclosed "walking bridge" that connects one half of Vallco to the other. The second half is primarily gutted and perpetually under construction. If they can't fill the half that's already "developed," you have to wonder why they're still working on that second half...but they are.