WESTLAKE TOWN & COUNTRY CENTER
Alemany (John Daly) and Lake Merced BoulevardsDaly City, California
San Francisco's Henry Doelger was one of America's most prolific 20th century home builders. Between the Great Depression years and early 1960s, Doelger and company constructed 24,000 homes in -and around- the City by the Bay.
Doelger's crowning achievement was the creation of Westlake, one of the nation's earliest post-war housing developments. The story of this suburb began in 1945, when Doelger acquired 600 acres in Daly City. The plot was a combination of sand dunes, pig ranches and cabbage patches, that were situated just south of the San Francisco City-County corporation line.
By 1949, families were moving into their starkly modern, rectilinear Westlake homes. A second land purchase was made, bringing the total area of the Levittown-like community to 1,200 acres. By the end of the project in 1962, 7,500 single-family abodes and 3,000 apartment units had been constructed.
Henry Doelger, Incorporated provided everything the suburbanite family might need, including churches, offices, medical facilities and restaurants. A 26-acre site, located 7.5 miles southwest of San Francisco's Union Square, was developed as an open-air shopping center.
Ground was broken for the initial phase of the WESTLAKE TOWN & COUNTRY
CENTER in October 1950. The first operational store, the Town & Country Food Market, opened for business on April 26, 1951. By June 1954, the 3-story Westlake Medical & Dental building was complete.
Construction commenced on a 20-unit store block in April 1955. This would house tenants such as W.T. Grant, Sears Catalog & Appliance, Karl's Shoes, First Western Bank, Franklin's Fashion, Leeds Qualicraft Shoes, Arthur's, Arcade Shoes, an (11,200 square foot) F.W. Woolworth 5 & 10 and 3-level (51,000 square foot) J.C. Penney. Twelve stores were dedicated, in unison, on March 23, 1956.
The final store blocks, at the southeast corner of the complex, had been finished by late 1959. Included in this final phase was a 1-level (48,300 square foot) Food Center supermarket (a relocation on the circa-1951 unit). New inline stores included See's Candies, Sterling Furniture and Casual-Aire ladies' wear. In September 1962, plans for a 9 million dollar Macy's California unit were announced. However, said store was never built.
Major WESTLAKE CENTER competitors were STONESTOWN CENTER (1952) {2 miles north, in San Francisco} and SERRAMONTE CENTER (1969) {2 miles south, also in Daly City}.
Construction commenced on a 20-unit store block in April 1955. This would house tenants such as W.T. Grant, Sears Catalog & Appliance, Karl's Shoes, First Western Bank, Franklin's Fashion, Leeds Qualicraft Shoes, Arthur's, Arcade Shoes, an (11,200 square foot) F.W. Woolworth 5 & 10 and 3-level (51,000 square foot) J.C. Penney. Twelve stores were dedicated, in unison, on March 23, 1956.
The final store blocks, at the southeast corner of the complex, had been finished by late 1959. Included in this final phase was a 1-level (48,300 square foot) Food Center supermarket (a relocation on the circa-1951 unit). New inline stores included See's Candies, Sterling Furniture and Casual-Aire ladies' wear. In September 1962, plans for a 9 million dollar Macy's California unit were announced. However, said store was never built.
Major WESTLAKE CENTER competitors were STONESTOWN CENTER (1952) {2 miles north, in San Francisco} and SERRAMONTE CENTER (1969) {2 miles south, also in Daly City}.
Henry Doelger, Incorporated sold the sixty-four-store shopping complex in April 1965, with James H. Tower, of Burlingame, California, becoming its new proprietor. In turn, Mr. Tower sold WESTLAKE CENTER to a San Francisco-based entity, known as the Westlake Development Company, in January 1973.
Meanwhile, mall stores had come and gone. The Food Center morphed into the Westlake Market, which was rebranded as a Safeway in 1967. The W.T. Grant (Grants) store closed -along with the chain- in March 1976. The WESTGATE store was rebuilt into an enclosed Mini-Mall. This facility was officially dedicated on October 6, 1976. By the early 1980s, WESTLAKE CENTER, had declined from a regional-class shopping hub into a discount venue. J.C. Penney pulled up stakes in the
year 2000.
In October 2002, Hyde Park, New York-based Kimco Realty entered into a joint venture with the mall's owner, the Westlake Development Company. A major overhaul was announced in October 2003. The renovation was done in two phases. In the first, parts of the original structure were razed and a "main street" boulevard cut through the former pedestrian mall.
The vacant Penney's was replaced with a 2-level (110,100 square foot) Home Depot Design Center. This store held its grand opening in the spring of 2006. A new (relocated) Trader Joe's supermarket was also built, Structures housing existing tenants, such as Safeway and Walgreen Drug, were given face lifts.
The second phase of the refurbishment added an additional 96,000 square feet of retail area and a multilevel parking garage. With these additions, WESTLAKE CENTER encompassed 678,000 leasable square feet and contained over sixty-eight stores and services.
Sources:
The San Francisco Examiner
The Pacifica Tribune (Pacifica, California)
The San Jose Mercury News
The Enterprise Journal (South San Francisco, California)
http://www.dalycityhistory.org
San Mateo County, California tax assessor website
"Westlake" / Bunny Gillespie
www.kimcorealty.com
http://www.shopwestlakecenter.com
San Mateo County, California tax assessor website
"Westlake" / Bunny Gillespie
www.kimcorealty.com
http://www.shopwestlakecenter.com
"Westlake, Daly City" article on Wikipedia
