An extant asset
For some reason, the phrase “Live from beautiful downtown Burbank…” still lives in my head from way back when my parents would watch Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In. Being just a kid at the time I didn’t realize they were being ironic with the phrase, so the young and naive me always wanted to visit this wonderous Burbank place and its beautiful downtown.
1 to 6- The exterior of Sears, one of only six left in the country as of this writing. 7 & 8- The façade of Burbank Town Center along Magnolia.
What I realize now is that back during the classic television show’s run, downtown Burbank was anything but beautiful. Like many of its urban peers in the seventies, in a vain attempt to counter the effects that suburban shopping malls had on its core, Burbank had pedestrianized a significant portion of its CBD resulting in loss of occupancies and a rise in crime.
Burbank Town Center Mallmanac ca. 2010. View the full PDF here.
I made my first visit to beautiful downtown Burbank in the spring of 2025, walking from the Burbank Metrolink Station to the city’s core. It wasn’t anything flashy or even noteworthy, but was, thankfully, far removed from its late twentieth century squalor. It was clean, inviting and had its own successful enclosed shopping mall called Burbank Town Center.
Burbank Town Center lease plan ca. 2011. View the full PDF here.
The first building to come into view housed what is one of only a handful of the remaining Sears stores still open. The rest of the complex stretched along Magnolia Boulevard on a slight incline with the main entrance facing San Fernando Boulevard.
1 to 3- The main entrance where San Fernando and Magnolia Boulevards meet. 4 & 5- Burbank Town Center’s upper level outdoor plaza. 6 to 8- More of the unique main entrance.
As I took one of the first photos of the main entrance from across the street, a woman about my age remarked as we waited at the crosswalk, “It’s a nice entrance, isn’t it?” I have to admit that it was. It was modern and tasteful in a twenty first century sort of way, but I was more interested in the more classic elements highlighting its façade.
Burbank Town Center pamphlet ca. 2017. View the full PDF here.
The triple tiered interior, while striking in design, was almost aggressively white. I appreciated the dome over center court and the array of box skylights covering nearly every available square inch of the ceiling, but besides the earth tone and grey floor tiles, the common areas displayed very little variation in color.
1- The northeastern half of the façade running along San Fernando. 2 to 8- The bougie Burlington where Mervyn’s once stood. 8- The entrance to Round 1 Entertainment.
However, Burbank Town Center’s eclectic façade is what I was really looking forward to seeing. Dressed in different shades of mauve, red and beige, the architectural design runs from industrial to mid-century modern to art deco, sometimes with all of them slapped on together as one.
While the exteriors of the former Mervyn’s, now the bougiest looking Burlington and I’ve ever seen, and Sears were unique and noteworthy, I especially loved the façade of Macy’s along Cypress Avenue. Originally a Bullock’s, the main entrance’s twin towers topped by flags give the façade a streamlined maritime feel. I absolutely loved it.
1- Round 1 and the northern entrance to Burbank Town Center. 2 to 5- Macy’s façade along Cypress. 6 & 7- The southern mall entry next to World Market. 8- The rear entryway to Sears.
It wasn’t long before I was off and away from the San Fernando Valley and on to my next destination, Los Angeles’s Eagle Rock Plaza. And, although there was nothing particularly memorable about Burbank Town Center, I was glad I got to finally see the beauty of downtown Burbank.
Burbank Town Center pamphlet ca. 2019. View the full PDF here.
The roots of the Burbank Town Center began in the mid-sixties. Hoping to stem the loss of downtown retailers to the suburbs, the city closed off several blocks of a major thoroughfare in its city center, San Fernando Boulevard, to automobile traffic and turn it into a pedestrian oriented avenue called Golden Mall.
1 to 3- The center court rotunda from the third level mezzanine. 4 to 10- Sears mall entrance and it’s adjoining wing on the upper tier.
Like many similar failures at the time such as Norfolk’s Granby Mall, the strategy really never saw much success. From as soon as the early seventies, foot traffic had significantly dropped from its opening while retailers continued their exodus for the suburbs. Without the abundant parking and enclosed concourses of its competition, Golden Mall was doomed to failure.
Burbank Town Center pamphlet ca. 2021. View the full PDF here.
By the beginning of the eighties and seven years after the final episode of Laugh-In had aired, the Golden Mall had declined to the point where it was no longer even a cute joke. The development was all but dead, and the scant number of patrons destined for its few open stores had to deal with seedy characters and neglected common spaces.
1- The third floor of the southern wing. 2 to 5- The rotunda and Macy’s third level mall entrance. 6 to 10- The northern half of Burbank Town Center leading to Burlington.
Just to the northwest of where San Fernando Boulevard met Magnolia Boulevard, there was an unused, forty acre piece of land that soon became the focus for revitalization efforts for the Golden Mall and all of downtown Burbank. A previous proposal by Disney to build on the property had been dropped by 1988, opening the door for a replacement development.
In 1991, Media City Center, the precursor to Burbank Town Center opened its doors on that plot of land with Sears and Mervyn’s as its two anchors. The following year, Bullock’s, now open as Macy’s, made its debut with headliners from several television shows filmed in its vicinity highlighting the launch.
1- A middle tier view of Macy’s mall entrance. 2 to 7- The northern concourse leading to Burlington’s second level. 8 to 10- The second floor mezzanine surrounding center court.
In 1996, the first notable change came to Media City Center when Bullock’s departed and Macy’s began its tenure. But, like the Golden Mall it had replaced, Media City Center’s sales were far below expectations. A new owner purchased the nearly moribund facility in the early 2000s and began their own series of drastic changes.
Burbank Town Center pamphlet ca. 2023. View the full PDF here.
In 2004, the newly renovated center retired the Media City Center name and made its debut as the Burbank Town Center. Although foot traffic and sales had improved due to its revamp, the shopping center received its first blow when Mervyn’s vacated their northern end outlet due to the company’s bankruptcy.
1- The middle level concourse leading to Macy’s. 2 to 5- The middle tier of the Sears wing. 6 to 9- Around center court. 10- Burbank Town Center’s bottom floor.
The void left by Mervyn’s absence was soon filled in 2010 when Burlington Coat Factory took over their spot. A freestanding IKEA store, considered part of the development, shut their doors in 2017 with a move to a much larger complex just down the street. As of this writing, their former digs are being redeveloped as a mixed-use project.
Burbank Town Center Mallmanac ca. 2025. View the full PDF here.
Sears, in their truly chaotic, Transformco modus operandi, closed their store in 2022 only to reopen the following year. Other major players Round 1, World Market and H & M join the only other traditional department store anchor, Macy’s, in what seems to be a shopping destination that has finally hit its stride.
1- Round 1 Entertainment’s only mall entrance is on the bottom floor. 2 to 4- Macy’s first level egress and adjoining wing. 5 to 10- Burbank Town Center’s large food court occupies most of center court’s floor area.
Burbank Town Center remains the retail hub of what can now, without irony, be described as bland but beautiful downtown Burbank. Of course the biggest question mark is major anchor Sears. But after surviving what the development has survived thus far, I’m hoping they’ll be okay no matter what.
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