LAKEWOOD CENTER
Lakewood and Del Amo Boulevards
Lakewood, California
Lakewood, California was a west coast counterpart of the gigantic Levittown developments of New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. At Lakewood, the transition from lima bean fields to a major, big city suburb was made in less than 5 years. Built on 3,500 acres -which comprised the Montana Ranch- this moderne metropolis was developed by S. Mark Taper, Ben Weingart and Louis H. Boyar.
The first residents moved into the housing development -originally known as Lakewood Park- on July 8, 1951. By 1953, 17,500 tract houses had been built. Lakewood became the largest area in the nation to incorporate as a city, on April 16, 1954. At this time, it was the 16th-largest municipality in the Golden State.
As with many of America's post-war planned communities, a suburban-type shopping center would serve as the downtown district. LAKEWOOD CENTER was situated on a 259-acre tract, located 21 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles. The open-air complex was designed by Albert C. Martin, I. Herman Kanner and the Skidmore, Owings & Merrill firm. It was developed by a joint venture of Joseph K. Eichenbaum, S. Mark Taper, Ben Weingart, Louis Boyar and the Prudential Insurance Company of America.
Ground was broken on October 14, 1950. An initial Northwest Mall segment was to extend between a 4-level (347,000 square foot) May Company California on the south and 3-level (90,000 square foot) Butler Brothers department store on the north. We will provide a bit of background on this virtually forgotten retailer...
Butler Brothers LAKEWOOD CENTER store opened on November 8, 1951. The chain, based in Chicago, was a major wholesale supplier. In 1951, they began opening retail stores under the Butler Brothers name. By 1962, there were eight locations; Lakewood, Alhambra, Ontario, Van Nuys and San Francisco, CA, Euclid and Cincinnati, OH and Seattle, WA.
Two LAKEWOOD stores and services opened along with Butler Brothers; a 1-level (45,200 square foot) Hiram's supermarket and freestanding car wash and filling station. At the time, the mall's Hiram's was promoted as the nation's largest grocery store.
A Northwest Mall grand opening was held on October 3, 1952. LAKEWOOD CENTER now housed eighteen stores. These included Sav-On Drug, F.W. Woolworth, Leed's Qualicraft Shoes and See's Candies. The festivities, typical of the opening of an ultra-modern merchandising mecca, included a circus and banquet-style dinner.
People's Bank became the first operational Northeast Mall tenant in September 1952. C. H. Baker Shoes welcomed first customers on March 26, 1954. In September, ground was broken for a Specialty Shops (or Southwest Mall) block. Its 2-level (45,000 square foot) W.T. Grant commenced operation in October 1955.
The eastern segment of the shopping center site was developed during the 1950s and '60s. The FACULTY SHOPS, an open-air mini-mall, was up and running by mid-1954. Its thirty stores and services included Taylor's Quality Meats, Ranger's Chow Mein to Take Out and the first City Hall for Lakewood.
Large department stores were also built which were part of the shopping center, but not connected with the mall proper. A 4-level (250,000 square foot), Los Angeles-based Bullock's opened on April 26, 1965, with a 2-level (80,000 square foot), Long Beach-based Buffums' beginning business on August 2nd of the same year. In the mall proper, J.C. Penney dedicated a 2-level (173,000 square foot) store, at the mall's south end, on January 25, 1967.
The mall's first cinematic venue, originally known as the Pacific Theatres Lakewood Center Theatre, showed a first feature on January 17, 1968. The movie house was an outparcel, located in the northeast quadrant of the mall site. It was expanded and re-opened, as a 3-plex, on May 22, 1974. An additional auditorium opened on October 24, 1974, with the venue being renamed the Lakewood Center 4.
In September 1971, LOS CERRITOS CENTER {2.6 miles northeast, in Cerritos} had been dedicated. This new fully-enclosed complex competed directly with LAKEWOOD CENTER, which was still open-air.
Montgomery Ward opened a 2-level (155,000 square foot) LAKEWOOD CENTER store on March 3, 1973. This was built on the site of the old Butler Brothers, on the north end of the mall. In the same year, the New York City-based MaceRich Company bought LAKEWOOD CENTER.
MaceRich started a 10 million dollar refurbishment in May 1977. This consisted of enclosing the north and south concourses and filling in several mall entryways with new retail space. A grand opening for the newly-enclosed mall was held on June 22, 1978. The project had added sixty-two stores to the tenant list and repositioned LAKEWOOD CENTER as one of the premier shopping venues in Greater Los Angeles.
This "buy and rebuild" concept was a new field of endeavor for Macerich, now based in Santa Monica, California. Up to this time, the company had been concerned with developing small strip shopping centers and managing B-grade malls. With the success of the LAKEWOOD redevelopment, Macerich gained the retail industry nickname of Mall Doctor.
The refurbishment and expansion of LAKEWOOD CENTER continued. In September 1982, construction was completed on a new mall corridor, added east of May Company. This new East Wing extended to a 2-level (80,000 square foot) Mervyn's.
A 3-screen multiplex, the Pacific Theatres Lakewood Center South 1-2-3, was installed in a vacant store adjoining the Buffums' building. This venue showed first features on June 12, 1981. Buffums' closed its doors in 1991. Its space was renovated into 6 additional movie auditoriums. A new 9-screen complex, known collectively as the Lakewood Center South 9, premiered on December 11, 1992.
The existing Lakewood Center 4 was gutted and expanded into a state-of-the-art, 16-screen venue. It re-opened, as the Lakewood Center Stadium 16, on March 19, 1999. The Lakewood Center South was shuttered in June 2008 and rebuilt into a fitness club.
The original Mervyn's was gutted and sectioned into an extended mall corridor, with stores on either side. Its second level became the Terrace Cafes Food Court. This 14-bay facility included California Chicken Roasters, China Inn, Garden Gourmet, Gengis Khan, Great Steak & Potato, Hot Dog on a Stick, L.A. Italian Kitchen, McTreats, Oishii Kitchen and Volcano Tea House.
A 2-level (210,000 square foot) Macy's was constructed at the east end of the extended East Wing. The store opened for business on November 1, 2000, as the chain's first newly-built store in Southern California. The new mall wing was officially dedicated in April 2001. Meanwhile, Montgomery Ward had closed in March 2001. The store, and its Auto Center, were demolished and replaced by a 2-level (160,000 square foot) Target, which opened its doors on October 12, 2003.
The LAKEWOOD May Company store was rebranded as a Robinsons-May on January 31, 1993. It morphed into a Macy's in July 2006. The original Macy's, at the end of the East Wing, was abandoned. The building, which was only 6 years old, was demolished.
A 1-level (159,000 square foot) Costco was built, which was dedicated on February 26, 2009. After the demise of the Mervyn's chain, in 2009, the LAKEWOOD CENTER location became a large-format Forever 21. This store began business on February 26, 2009.
In the 2020s, LAKEWOOD CENTER is owned and operated by a joint venture of the Macerich Company and Toronto-based Cadillac Fairview. The enclosed mall encompasses approximately 1,500,000 leasable square feet and has 206 retail spaces. There are also sixty-four outparcel stores, with a gross leasable area of 725,000 square feet.
Sources:
The Los Angeles Times
The (Independent) Press-Telegram (Long Beach)
"Evolution of the Shopping Center" / Steven E. Schoenherr / history.sandiego.edu
http://www.laalmanac.com
http://www.lakewoodcity.org
Malls of America Of Blogspot / Keith Milford webmaster
http://www.shoplakewoodcenter.com (website on Internet Archive Wayback Machine)
http://www.shoploscerritoscenter.com (website on Internet Archive Wayback Machine)
http://www.groceteria.com Message Board / History: Non-Grocery Retail". "Jeff" and "J-Man"
Largest Malls In The USA" list on Wikipedia
"Bullock's" and Buffums" articles on Wikipedia
