BELLEVUE SHOPPING SQUARE
Bellevue Way and Northeast 8th Street
King County, Washington

The oldest retail entity that will be inducted into the MALL HALL OF FAME held its official grand opening August 20, 1946. Known at the time as BELLEVUE SHOPPING SQUARE, the open-air, cluster complex was the nation's first Post-World War II shopping center. It occupied a 34.3 acre site, located 9 miles east of center city Seattle.

Construction had begun in 1945, before the end of the conflict. Kemper Freeman, Sr. and his brother Miller wrangled permission out of the US government to build a new, morale-building movie theater...utilizing the scarce construction materials available.

The first BELLEVUE business to begin operation, the 560-seat Bel-Vue Theatre, opened March 20, 1946. By the end of the year, sixteen stores were inline, including a 1-level, Seattle-based Frederick and Nelson. This store was the first suburban shopping center branch of Chicago-based Marshall Field's (Frederick and Nelson had been a subsidiary since 1929).

The shopping center became part of the newly-incorporated city of Bellevue in March 1953. Additional stores were added over the following years. J.C. Penney opened a dry goods only location in 1955. Frederick and Nelson expanded into a 3-level (185,000 square foot) anchor store in 1956. Nordstrom's Shoes came inline in 1958.

By the late 1960s, BELLEVUE SQUARE ("shopping" being dropped from the center's official moniker in the early 1950s) had expanded to a fifty store shopopolis.

Stores in operation then included Clark's Crabapple Restaurant (a 1946 charter tenant), Karl Larson's Village Shoes, Florsheim Shoes, Mamselle and Mr. Paul's Hair Design, Uncle Harold's and the Pacific National Bank. Moreover, a second anchor store, Nordstrom Best, had been officially dedicated December 1, 1967.

CROSSROADS CENTER, in Bellevue, was completed in 1962. Subsequent retail rivals for BELLEVUE SQUARE included TOTEM LAKE MALL (1973), in Kirkland, FACTORIA MALL (1975), also in Bellevue, and REDMOND TOWN CENTER (1997) in Redmond.

All of this competition probably prompted Kemper Development Company to embark upon a total rebuild of the existing, open-air complex in 1980. Leaving only the Frederick and Nelson standing, the remainder of the shopping center was demolished.

A bi-level, fully-enclosed mall was constructed, which was designed by George Wrede. In addition to the existing Frederick and Nelson, the new BELLEVUE SQUARE was anchored by three department stores.

A 3-level (180,000 square foot), Seattle-based Nordstrom was built in 1981. A 2-level (180,000 square foot) J.C. Penney was added in 1982. Finally, a 3-level (180,000 square foot), Seattle-based Bon Marche [pronounced "bon mar-shay"] came inline in 1984. With its completion, BELLEVUE SQUARE now encompassed 1,090,000 leasable square feet and one hundred and forty-five inline stores.

The bankruptcy of Frederick and Nelson in late 1991 resulted in a vacant anchor at the mall. Negotiations with New York City-based Saks Fifth Avenue fell through in early 1992.

Eventually, it was decided not to lease the 185,000 square foot space to a single retailer. Instead the area was sectioned into forty-five smaller spaces. The first of these opened for business August 1, 1993.

New stores included F.A.O. Schwarz, Ann Taylor and Brooks Brothers. Moreover, the basement level of the Frederick and Nelson building was refashioned into a 51,000 square foot Bon Marche Home Store.

Anchor stores at BELLEVUE SQUARE were refurbished in the mid-1990s. Nordstrom was expanded by 90,000 square feet (now encompassing 270,000 square feet) and J.C. Penney was enlarged into a 200,000 square foot location.

The most recent expansion of the mall was finished in 2000. A 120,000 square foot, bi-level building, THE CORNER AT BELLEVUE SQUARE, included Crate and Barrel, PF Chang's China Bistro and ZTejas Southwestern Grill. BELLEVUE SQUARE now spanned 1.3 million square feet and housed over two hundred stores and services.

Presently, a 40 million dollar renovation of the shopping venue is underway. No new retail area is to be added, but several of the major inline stores, such as Williams-Sonoma, Banana Republic and Pottery Barn, will expand into previously-existing space.

Likewise, the interior of the mall proper will be given a much-needed facelift, making it into more of an "urban-gardenlike" setting. New flooring, lighting, seating and landscaping will be installed. The project is scheduled for completion in November 2008.

Sources:

Eastside Heritage Center, Bellevue, Washington
"Bellevue Square" article on Wikipedia
www.bellevuesquare.com
www.neighborhoods.com/Bellevue Square History
www.historylink.org/Essay # 4143/Alan J. Stein/February 2003
"Bellevue: Its First 100 Years"/Lucille McDonald/Bellevue Historical Society, 2000
King County, Washington tax assessor website