A dead mall
In the northeastern reaches of the San Diego urban area is the suburb of El Cajon. Located at the foot of the Jamul Mountains, the climate in the area is much more desert like than its seaside counterparts. Due to the higher temperatures in the vicinity, it is home to one of the few fully enclosed, climate controlled shopping facilities in the region.
1 to 4- The front façade of Parkway Plaza. 5- The ridiculously oversized and dull main entrance. 6 to 8- Open-air shops on the front exterior.
Parkway Plaza, though not far from open-air retail peer Grossmont Center, still requires two trains to get between the two. Though younger than its open-air neighbor, their fortunes don’t seem to be tied as the newer development was host to many more vacancies.
Parkway Plaza lease plan ca. 1972. View the full PDF version here.
From the exterior, I enjoyed a few of the architectural elements straight out of another time. Rather than large and looming warehouse walls like at Plaza Bonita, the façade of Parkway Plaza was more subdued with sloping embankments obscuring service entrances and delivery zones.
1- Angled planters hide the service areas. 2 & 3- The front eastern mall entrance. 4- The entrance to Parkway Plaza’s food court in the rear. 5- The rear entrance abutting the former Wal-Mart outlet. 6- The mall entrance between JCPenney and the former Macy’s.
The oversized, looming portico over the main entrance of Parkway Plaza also definitely deserves a mention. A relatively newer addition replacing what must have been a handsome display of contemporary geometric brickwork at its opening, the generic and boxy treatment of today is noteworthy for less flattering reasons.
Parkway Plaza lease plan ca. 2011. View the full PDF version here.
Inside the ostentatious entranceway, the interior was much more restrained, to the point of being absolutely generic. The ceiling sloped upward at a low angle to the flat center, which housed skylights at long intervals. I was hoping for something remarkable at center court, but, alas, there were no sunken gardens or platform stages. Just a quaint and silent seating area.
The uniquely cubist exterior of the former May Company and Macy’s store at Parkway Plaza.
With a racetrack floorplan much like those of the Mills outlet centers, it was easy to cover all of the square footage in a short amount of time. The northernmost concourse running east to west comprises the original shopping center, with the other hallways added on during separate expansions over the years.
Parkway Plaza pamphlet ca. 2016. View the full PDF version here.
While in the past the inflated square footage and numerous anchor spots were an advantage, in today’s retail environment it amounts to extraneous space struggling to attract tenants. Starwood Capital Group, present owners of Parkway Plaza, fill some of this area with non-traditional mall tenants such as self-storage vendors and offices.
After one complete lap of the interior, a walk around the outside of Parkway Plaza was much more rewarding. After exiting through the ridiculously monstrous and oversized ushanka of an entranceway, I was able to admire the façade of the commons areas dressed in dark, mud colored brick and sloping accoutrements.
1 to 5- Another striking JCPenney store exterior. 6- The building originally built for Mervyn’s now hosts Dicks and The Gym. 7- The former Sears store subdivided to junior anchor space. 8- The entrance to parkway Plaza in between Dick’s and the former Sears.
Although the exterior of JCPenney showed off a little personality, the others followed their basic corporate templates. All except for the former Macy’s store, opened under the name May Company, with its stacked modular design and varying angles. It was the most noteworthy feature of Parkway Plaza.
Parkway Plaza Mallmanac ca. 2022. View the full PDF version here.
Parkway Plaza opened in 1972 as a structure tacked on to a standalone Sears store that debuted three years earlier. This westernmost anchor was joined by a May Company store on the mall’s east end with a Woolworth in between. The main entrance consisted of an exemplary angled modern roofline, which was in far contrast to the dull and distended entranceway that shoppers are greeted with today.
1 to 3- Just inside the northwestern entrance to Parkway Plaza and the adjoining corridor. 4 to 6- Dick’s and The Gym’s connections to the mall. 7 & 8- The corridor built for Mervyn’s addition.
The Franken-mallization of Parkway Plaza began in 1989 with the addition of Mervyn’s and a small stinger concourse located close to Sears running perpendicular to the original. Just a year later, JCPenney was added to the lineup when their location opened to the south-southwest of May Company’s outlet along with its own north-south corridor.
In the early part of the nineties, these changes were joined by the departure of Woolworth. The iconic five-and-dime retailer was usurped by Sport Chalet. This junior anchor’s tenure was short-lived as they parted ways with Parkway Plaza in 1998. The space’s vacancy didn’t last long as Regal Cinemas took it over the following year.
1 to 3- The darkened former gates to Sears. 4 to 9- The western half of the originally built concourse. 10- The corridor leading to Parkway Plaza’s main entrance.
The same year, Australia-based Westfield took over ownership of Parkway Plaza and rechristened it with its ridiculously ungainly naming standard Westfield Shoppingtown Parkway. A few years later, Westfield dropped the universally despised portmanteau and the center was re-labeled as simply Westfield Parkway Plaza.
Parkway Plaza pamphlet ca. 2023. View the full PDF version here.
It was during this time that May Company was rebranded as Robinsons-May. In 2004, the next new anchor label to grace Parkway Plaza’s walls was Wal-Mart when they debuted their second multi-level store in the region after the nearby location at Grossmont Center. This brought the expansive complex to its present day footprint.
1 to 3- Center court. 4 to 6- The eastern end of Parkway Plaza’s original concourse. 7 & 8- The former entrance to what was originally the building belonging to May Company. 9 & 10- The corridor leading to JCPenney.
Not long after in 2006, Robinsons-May was assimilated under the Macy’s banner. Mervyn’s held on until their 2009 liquidation but was not vacant for long as within a few years, Dick’s Sporting Goods claimed the space’s lower level while Crunch Fitness moved into the upper tier.
Parkway Plaza Mallmanac ca. 2024. View the full PDF version here.
Sears, Parkway Plaza’s oldest extant anchor predating construction of the common areas, made their inevitable retreat in 2018. Their enormous building was soon subdivided into parcels housing Burlington, a pair of furniture stores and even a self-storage facility.
1 to 3- JCPenney’s corner spot at Parkway Plaza. 4 & 5- The eastern end of the parallel southern east-west corridor built through what was originally Woolworth. 6 to 9- The food court. 10- The north south concourse connecting center court and the food court.
The following decade brought even more revisions to Parkway Plaza when in 2021, Macy’s lowered their gates for the final time. Their distinctive building has sat vacant ever since. Just a touch over three years later, Wal-Mart, one of only two full line anchors remaining at the dying complex, said their good-byes.
Parkway Plaza pamphlet ca. 2025. View the full PDF version here.
JCPenney remains as the sole traditional anchor store left at Parkway Plaza. However, their south facing entrance, abutting scant parking but with high visibility from the neighboring Kumeyaay Highway, has been made inaccessible, possibly giving passers by the impression that it has closed.
1 to 3- The western half of the newer east-west corridor. 4- The former entrance to Wal-Mart. 5 to 8- The westernmost concourse at Parkway Plaza.
Arguably a dead mall today, the corridors still host some national brands and well known eateries. But even if not yet considered completely obsolete, it’s definitely headed that way and I, unfortunately, don’t see any other reasonable outcome in its present form.
No comments:
Post a Comment