After years of decline and neglect, ALCOSTA MALL was demolished in the mid-1990s. Its few remaining stores had relocated into the new COUNTRY CLUB VILLAGE, located across the parkway. Ralphs, a charter tenant, was replaced by a La Asian specialty grocer in August 2007. This closed in February 2010 and was followed by a WalMart Neighborhood Market, in September 2012.
Photo from www.colliers.com / Colliers International Investor Services


ALCOSTA MALL
Alcosta Boulevard and Village Parkway
Contra Costa County (San Ramon), California

The story of ALCOSTA MALL begins in January 1966. A freestanding Safeway supermarket and Super S variety store & pharmacy opened for business at an 11-acre site. This was located 27 miles east of San Francisco's Union Square, in an unincorporated section of Contra Costa County known as San Ramon Village.

A community-class shopping mall was added to the Safeway and Super S stores. Open-air in format, it housed Sears Catalog & Appliance, South Bay TV, Anderson Realty, Joyann's Plastercraft & Gifts, Orange Julius, Casa Bella Donna beauty salon, Swensen's Ice Cream shop, the Bavarian Village restaurant and an Oklahoma-based, T G & Y 5 & 10. Peripheral businesses included Bank Of America, United California Bank and Fotomat. 

The San Ramon Valley mini-mall was expanded, with a store block added to the southeast corner in 1980. Around this time, plans were drawn up for a greatly-enlarged shopping center, which would have encompassed the entire area bounded by Alcosta Boulevard, Village Parkway and Kimbal Avenue.

However, the completion of the superregional STONERIDGE MALL {2 miles south, in Pleasanton}, in 1980, derailed expansion plans for ALCOSTA MALL. The remaining land parcel was sold and developed as the Cedar Pointe Apartments. Meanwhile, the mall site became part of a newly-formed municipality. San Ramon Village was officially incorporated as the city of San Ramon on July 1, 1983.

Over the years, various tenants in ALCOSTA MALL received new nameplates. The Super S store became a Pay 'n Save Drug in 1971 and eventually morphed into a Bill's Drug. T G & Y was converted to a McCrory variety store in 1986. Meanwhile, an Eastman-Kodak warehouse across the parkway was beginning to scale down operations. The facility closed altogether in November 1984, causing ALCOSTA MALL to enter a downward spiral. Its Safeway supermarket closed in 1989.

The property, which had not been maintained, had declined into a virtually vacant, dilapidated eye sore. The abandoned Safeway and Super S buildings were razed in 1993. Plans were then made to demolish and redevelop the remainder of the moribund mall and adjacent Kodak facility.

The building was bulldozed and replaced with COUNTRY CLUB VILLAGE, an 111,200 square foot strip shopping center. The few stores still in operation at ALCOSTA MALL relocated into COUNTRY CLUB VILLAGE in 1995. Soon after, the remainder of the mall was knocked down, with the site being redeveloped as the East Hampton housing plat.

Sources:

The Oakland Tribune

The San Francisco Examiner

Information from Scott Parsons / "Big Mall Rat"
http://www.ci.san-ramon.ca.us / "History of San Ramon"
Contra Costa County, California tax assessor website
www.colliers.com / Colliers International Investor Services