San Antonio Shopping Center
SanAntonioCenter22.jpg
Sign at San Antonio Center in October 2022
Map
LocationMountain View, California, United States
Coordinates37°24′10″N 122°6′31″W / 37.40278°N 122.10861°W / 37.40278; -122.10861Coordinates: 37°24′10″N 122°6′31″W / 37.40278°N 122.10861°W / 37.40278; -122.10861
Address2550 W. El Camino Real
Opening date1950; 73 years ago (1950)
DeveloperThe Hahn Company
ManagementMerlone Geier Partners
OwnerFederal Realty
No. of stores and services236
No. of anchor tenants3
Total retail floor area250,000 sq ft (23,000 m2)
No. of floors1
Parking7,692
Websitesanantoniocenter.com

San Antonio Shopping Center is an outdoor shopping mall located on El Camino Real at San Antonio Road in Mountain View, California. The shopping center consists of two areas, owned by two separate companies.

The Village at San Antonio Center is a mixed-use property with apartments, restaurants, and a Safeway supermarket. It is owned by Merlone Geier Partners.[1]

History

Starting in the 1950s, the center was an open-air shopping mall, originally featuring Rhodes and Sears, with a Mervyn's opening later. Over time, the mall was expanded, with the Rhodes converting to Liberty House and finally J.C. Penney and a Best catalog showroom. In the 1970s and 1980s, Atari Games (located nearby) used the Time Zone arcade at the shopping mall to play test all their arcade games. Most of the mall was demolished and partially reconfigured circa 1995 [2] to make way for Walmart and additional retail shops.

Sears closed its doors in 2010, three years after it had originally announced its departure.[3] Sears and the surrounding strip of retailers were replaced by phase one of The Village, consisting of a Safeway supermarket, apartments, retail, and restaurants.[4] A second phase, anchored by a Showplace ICON cinema, broke ground in 2015.[5]

In 2019, 9.65 Acers of the shopping center was sold to the Los Altos School district to build a new school intended to be closer to nearby students than Covington Elementary School. There were also plans to designate the land as a new site for the Bullis Charter School, which had 2 campuses with portable units serving as classrooms, housed at the district’s two junior high schools, Egan Junior High School and Georgina P. Blach Intermediate School. The original plan was to have the school open by 2023 but the COVID-19 pandemic has since delayed those plans.[6][7] In 2020 JOANN Fabrics,T-Mobile, GameStop, Luu Noodle, Sushi 88 and Ramen and Pearl Tea & Coffee Permanently closed and the building Currently Sits Vacant. In 2022 The 24 Hour Fitness Located at 550 Showers Drive Was Temporary Closed for Upgrades. It Reopened in November 2022 and the location at 2535 California Street Was Permanently closed and has sat vacant since. Kohl's is set to close sometime in spring 2023 and demolition is set for summer 2023. The new school is set to open for the 2025 - 2026 school year.

References

  1. ^ "Discover Premium Retail Properties - Merlone Geier Partners". Merlonegeier.com. Retrieved 2019-12-24.
  2. ^ "Shop Talk: Adventures in the pre-teen zone". Paloaltoonline.com. 1995-11-08. Retrieved 2019-12-24.
  3. ^ Sears leaving San Antonio Shopping Center Archived 2006-07-06 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ "Groundbreaking Kicks off Development of the Village at San Antonio Center - Mountain View, CA Patch". Archived from the original on 2013-03-13. Retrieved 2012-01-12.
  5. ^ Daniel DeBolt (2014-07-02). "Deal reached to save Mountain View's Milk Pail | News". Palo Alto Online. Retrieved 2019-12-24.
  6. ^ "San Antonio Center". Federalrealty.com. Retrieved 2019-12-24.
  7. ^ "Los Altos School District". www.mv-voice.com. Retrieved 2021-04-22.