VALLEY RIVER CENTER
Valley River Way and Valley River Drive
Eugene, Oregon
Plans for a regional, Greater Eugene shopping mall were first announced in June 1964. The prospective complex was to occupy an 80-acre tract, located .9 mile northwest of the center city. Construction would not begin until several years later. Meanwhile, the first stores in OAKWAY MALL opened for business. This community-class retail and office facility, dedicated in late 1967, was located 1.3 miles east of the prospective regional mall site.
On June 24, 1968, work commenced on VALLEY RIVER CENTER (a.k.a. VRC). The inline store section was designed by Seattle's John Graham, Junior. The Bear, McNeil & Bloodworth firm, of Portland, designed a Meier & Frank anchor store, with a J.C. Penney structure designed by Williams & Ehmann Architects, of Portland. The mall was developed by a joint venture of Eugene's Wayne H. Shields and Eugene Silke, Portland's H.A. Andersen and Joseph Fought and Seattle's Allan Penney.
An official dedication was held on August 4, 1969. The 16 million dollar mall, encompassing 662,400 leasable square feet, opened as the largest fully-enclosed shopping center in the state. It housed a single level of retail, with some stores having basements. There was also a partial mezzanine level, which contained office spaces and public restrooms.
Original anchors were a 2-level (181,100 square foot), Portland-based Meier & Frank, dedicated during the mall's August 1969 grand opening, and 2-level (206,300 square foot) J. C. Penney. This store debuted on January 7, 1970.
Sixty stores and services were in business by mid-1970. These included Anita Shops ladies' wear, Fabric House, Hardy Shoes, Kaufman Brothers, Petrie's ladies' wear, Nobby Shops ladies' wear and the Junction House Restaurant. San Francisco-based Roos-Atkins also operated a 1-level (33,500 square foot) men's wear store.
Roos-Atkins was short-lived and had been shuttered by 1975. A section of the vacated store re-opened as a 1-level (18,000 square foot), Eugene-based Troutman's Emporium. In 1984, The Emporium expanded into upper level space, becoming a 45,000 square foot store. A 7 million dollar West Wing mall expansion got underway in 1974 . Its first phase consisted of a block of twelve inline stores that were dedicated in November. During the second phase, a 1-level (106,000 square foot) Montgomery Ward, was built. It opened on March 12, 1975.
Phase three added a 2-level (52,000 square foot), Portland-based Lipmans, which was built on the east side of the existing mall. This store welcomed first shoppers on August 4, 1975. With its completion, VRC encompassed approximately 869,000 leasable square feet. In February 1974, WASHINGTON SQUARE had been officially dedicated in the southwestern environs of Portland. It spanned over 1 million leasable square feet, making it the largest interior mall in the Beaver State.
A game of merchandising musical chairs played out at VRC, with the Lipmans store being rebranded five times over a 27-year period. The first nameplate change transpired in 1979, when Lipmans morphed into a Seattle-based Frederick & Nelson.
In August 1987, Frederick & Nelson was rebranded as a Spokane-based The Crescent. Bellevue, Washington-based Lamonts rebranded The Crescent in July 1987. Lamonts was in operation until March 1996. In the spring of 1997, California's Copeland's Sports opened a store. This was shuttered in November 2006. Colorado's Sports Authority assumed the space.
VALLEY RIVER CENTER faced a formidable competitor with the 1990 dedication of GATEWAY MALL {2.8 miles northeast, in Springfield}. As a keeping up measure, a Northwest Wing was built. Anchored by a 2-level (124,000 square foot), Seattle-based The Bon Marche, the expansion included twelve inline stores. The addition was officially dedicated on August 1, 1990. The mall now housed approximately 921,000 leasable square feet and contained 102 store spaces.
A 2 million dollar face lift was done between August 2003 and May 2004. The mall's interior was redecorated and the east and west facades updated with new paint and mall entries. Anchor rebrandings continued with the conversion of The Bon Marche to Bon-Macy's, on August 1, 2003. The store became a bona fide Macy's on March 6, 2005.
On May 6, 2006, Macy's shuttered their VRC store. It re-opened, on May 9, in the Meier & Frank spot. The old "Bon-Macy's" was leased to Fresno-based Gottschalks, who dedicated a store on September 5, 2006.
Montgomery Ward had gone dark in March 2001. The building sat vacant until being bulldozed in 2005. It was replaced by the Regal Valley River Center Stadium 15, which held its grand opening on March 5, 2007.
In February 2005, the owners of the mall, the Britain-based Grosvenor ["grohv-nir"] Group, Limited, had hired the Santa Monica-based Macerich Company to manage the property. In February 2006, Macerich bought the complex.
The VRC Gottschalks closed, along with the chain, in January 2009. The Sports Authority chain went bust in July 2016. The VALLEY RIVER CENTER Sports Authority was demolished and replaced by an Outdoor Plaza area. The Gottschalks building would sit vacant for 11 years. Its lower level was retenanted by a Round 1 Bowling & Amusement Center, which opened on for business on February 15, 2020.
Sources:
The Eugene Register-Guard (Eugene, Oregon)
The Oregon Daily Emerald (University of Oregon, Eugene)
https://www.macerich.com
Lane County, Oregon tax assessor website
https://www.cinematreasures.org
"Valley River Center" article on Wikipedia
