East Hills Mall; Bakersfield, California
During the height of the economic collapse last winter, I took a trip to one of the most threatened malls in California: Bakersfield’s East Hills Mall. It doesn’t take a genius to see why this place is having a hard time, because it has practically everything stacked against it:
- Its anchors are/were Gottschalks (which was, at this point, a few weeks shy of announcing that they were going out of business), Mervyn’s (whose stores had all just shuttered), and Harris, who were acquired several years ago by Gottschalks. The Harris store at East Hills Mall was shuttered a few years ago. This leaves only a United Artists Theatre as a major anchor tenant in the center.
- It’s located in California’s Central Valley, one of the regions of the nation most heavily impacted by the precipitous drop in housing prices from 2007-2009
- It’s located on the *EAST* side of Bakersfield, which is a higher-crime and lower-income part of town.
- East Hills Mall isn’t a terribly large mall overall.
First, just a few notes about Bakersfield itself. Bakersfield is one of the largest cities in California’s central valley, located about 100 miles north of Los Angeles and due west of the Mojave Desert. The region has long been known for its oil production and agriculture, and was one of the prime spots for migrants from the Dust Bowl during the depression. As a result, the region has long held the honor of being California’s most conservative city, due to the influence of Evangelicalism and country music (Buck Owens and Merle Haggard were both from here, and Bakersfield is sometimes referred to as the Nashville of the west). In recent years, however, Bakersfield’s identity has been transforming from its Okie past as new residents–mainly from the Los Angeles area–have come to the area in search of cheaper housing. In addition, a significant number of immigrants from locations as diverse as Mexico, Phillippines, and many countries in the middle east and northern Africa. Bakersfield has even become known as something of a destination for Basque food, which isn’t easy to find just anywhere. Despite the city’s considerable growth, however, it does not remain much of a cultural hotbed, and has significant issues with poverty and crime (as well as a nasty history of racism), and its hot, dusty climate is one of the least favorable in California. With a population of around 330,000 in the city proper and approximately 800,000 in the entire metropolitan area, Bakersfield is the third largest inland metropolitan area in California after Sacramento and Fresno.
The East Hills Mall is one of only two enclosed malls serving the Bakersfield metropolitan area, and is the far smaller of the two. Unfortunately, there’s also almost nothing about the history of this unloved mall floating around on the internet. Judging by the architecture, it appears that the 415,000 square foot mall was probably built sometime in the late 1980s. Although we know Harris and Gottschalks were former anchors, I’m not entirely sure if the third anchor was originally a Mervyn’s–something about the architecture of the store tells me it may have been a Target originally (and there is a Target on the outlots of the parcel) but I’m not entirely sure if the timeline matches up for Target to have been in California at the time. I also wouldn’t be shocked if one of these anchors had at one point been a Montgomery Ward or a Robinson’s-May, but I am really guessing here. It does appear that the mall’s decline began a long time ago–late ’90s-ish, and was sold in 2003 to a developer who had a plan to modernize and expand the center, especially to cater to the growing suburban area in the city’s northeast hills. Bakersvillians, help us out!
When I visited in early January 2009, there was a robust plan to redevelop the center, bringing in new tenants and adding more of an entertainment and dining focus. A year later, the anchorless East Hills Mall filed for bankruptcy, its hopes dashed by the low likelihood of a housing rebound in this somewhat depressed corner of California. While the mall remains open, it serves as little more than a lobby for the movie theatres and a handful of local merchants who have been able to survive with so little foot traffic. The bankruptcy itself may also force even more dramatic changes–such as the (possibly likely) outcome that the mall will be demolished and completely replaced. Given its condition, that may not be a terrible option.
Pseudo3D
January 24th, 2010 at 2:40 pm
Wow, what incredibly bad anchor choices in retrospect. One thing I’m curious about: was the theater originally a real anchor, because it was almost certainly added on later.
I sent you an email Caldor regarding Macy’s and Cincinnati Mall…did you receive it?
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alpha
January 24th, 2010 at 2:54 pm
Much of this looks like it was built in the late 80’s, but that Gottschalks looks way older. This entire mall looks depressingly cheap and oddly dark.
Also if you guys are doing a write-up on Forest Fair Mall aka Cincinnati Mills aka Cincinnati mall let me know I’ve got some pics from the Gator Forest Partners days.
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Steven Swain
January 24th, 2010 at 7:19 pm
An OK looking mall with a sad history. Gottschalks looks like it was built in the 1960s or early 1970s. The rest of the mall looks way newer, especially (what I assume is) the old Harris. That can’t possibly be more ’80s.
As for Mervyn’s, that looks to be an original store. I’ve seen several Mervyn’s stores in pictures that looked like that.
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Ed
January 25th, 2010 at 12:43 am
Poor choice of anchors indeed! Gottschalks and Mervyn’s in the same mall with no real other rivals in the area? Wow! Hopefully they can re-tenant any of those stores with either Macy’s, Penney’s or at the very least a FOREVER XXI or something!
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Paul
January 25th, 2010 at 12:40 pm
I don’t think Macy’s or anyone else for that matter is interested. They already have a store at Valley Plaza, which is the dominant mall in town. Even that mall is having its challenges. The former May Co (later Robinsons-May) store sits empty, hobbling an entire wing. Gottschalks is now Forever 21. Penney’s and Sears are also in Valley Plaza, which is right off Highway 99, the major north-south artery connecting Valley cities. Given the current state of the economy, especially in the Central Valley, it’s hard to justify any of those stores opening a location in a dying mall, only 8 miles away from their current location.
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Jeff
January 25th, 2010 at 6:09 pm
From what I can tell, it looks like the mall must have opened in the early 80’s with both GOTTSCHALKS and MERVYNS as anchors. Gottschalks used the same design into the 80’s.
I am guessing the HARRIS store opened later, maybe the late 80’s. If you look at a Live Local birds eye view, the center mall entrance looks to be entact next to the store, meaning it was added on later. Harris opened a store similar to this design at the Moreno Valley Town Center in Moreno Valley.
As for the theatre, im sure it could have been there for a while.
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Jeff
January 25th, 2010 at 6:18 pm
Doing some research, HARRIS and the theatre opened in an expansion of the mall in 1990.
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Ashley
January 25th, 2010 at 7:51 pm
Here is some history about the East Hills Mall. I believe that the mall opened up in 1989?? It’s original anchors were Gottschalks, Harris, and Mervyn’. Sometime in the 90’s Gottschalks and Harris merged and became Harris-Gottschalks. The original Gottschalks location became an outlet store around 2001? Some of the original store that I can remember were a Vans shoe store, Lerner New York (New York and Company), Sam Goody, a western store, Kid’s Mart, Rave, KB Toystore, Daniels?, Wet Seal, Casual Corner, a bookstore (can’t remember the name), Jane’s Hallmark, Millers outpost and another card store. At one point the mall had a okay food court which had a Sabarro, Hot Dog on a Stick, and Arby’s?, Carl’s Jr. At some point in the 90’s the theater expanded and ate into the food court leaving Sabarro, A cookie stand, and Hot Dog on a Stick.
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Bobby P.
January 25th, 2010 at 8:16 pm
Earliest hits on Google News say it was being built in 1987, so 1989 sounds about right for the opening. Harris came in 1990.
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Scott Mercer
February 1st, 2010 at 4:17 pm
Those United Artists Theaters are really bad. They were state-of-the-art when they opened (1980’s — if this one opened in 1990 it was probably one of the last ones to be built) but now they are depressingly dated. No stadium seating, really small auditoria, cramped hallways, stuff like that. Eclipsed by the state of the art in movie theater design.
I can recall ones in Pasadena and Woodland Hills that have already been demolished. Those were free-standing though, not in malls. Nobody misses them. At all.
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Black Dog
February 8th, 2010 at 2:38 pm
people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/vanityfair/49417
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Big B
February 8th, 2010 at 3:14 pm
That mall never had a chance. I remember working at the Footlocker at the bigger mall (The Valley Plaza) in 1988 and having to pack up the crap, urrr – new and unsold stock that wouldn’t sell and sending it to the new store at the East Hills mall. Sadly, many of the other retailers, i.e. vans, nine west, etc, were doing the same. So when it opened, it crashed and burn fast. The UA theaters opened in 1990, and were state of the art for about 30 seconds, but the death walk had already started. Just a bad location, in that only about 30% of the population on the N/E side of Bako is even gainfully employed. And the rest, well – are not what you would call your wanted mall type customers.
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Bill
February 8th, 2010 at 4:15 pm
Hi! I’m from Bakersfield originally and lived near this mall when it originally opened. I can clear up a few questions here.
The mall opened in the fall of 1988. The two original anchor stores were Mervyns and Gottschalks. Both remained in place until their recent bankruptcies. No Target store was ever a part of the mall. Harris department store and the UA theaters were added around 1990 I believe. The theater complex was remodeled to its current state sometime prior to 1995. The surrounding businesses (Target, Walmart, etc.) were added between 1991-94. Harris was acquired by Gottschalks sometime in the early 2000’s and was closed about 6 months to a year before Gottschalks. EHM currently houses locally-based businesses. The last national chain to pull out was Anchor Blue, which was still operating under the “Miller’s Outpost” signage as of a few years ago.
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Bill
February 8th, 2010 at 4:27 pm
A few more thoughts: I was 13 when the mall opened. I remember it was a “hot spot” for the first 3-4 years. After that, it was a ghost town. All the hot stores were located at the Valley Plaza Mall about 7-12 miles away. By the late 1990’s, the theaters had been the scene of a gang shooting. A few years later, the mall later became a place favored by seniors to walk for exercise, not shopping. I think the biggest handicap this mall faced was that the neighborhoods it serviced stopped expanding with the recession of 89-91. The well-to-do crowd moved en-masse to the other side of town and never returned. People with less income and less buying power have populated the Northeast/East side ever since.
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Paul Linfesty
February 8th, 2010 at 7:54 pm
The East Hills Mall did open in spring 1989 . The movie theatre was scheduled to open with the rest of the mall but some sort of contract dispute kept it an empty shell until finally it opened in June 1989. The sevenplex was an instant sucess, darwing people from the other side of town due to the even cheaper dumpier complexes on that side of town. Problem for the mall is that audiences tended to avoid the mall before and after the movie, so in 1996 the entrance was moved inside the mall and two new theatres were carved out of the mall’s back entrance, and a third theatre was created in the old lobby, bringing up the total screen count to 10. It worked for a while, until Edwards built a stadium theatre in 1997. The theatre made the news in 1998 when gangs started shooting it up in one of the auditoriums and it spread to the lobby. Several people left the theatre on stretchers, although nobody was killed.
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Miss Lee
March 5th, 2010 at 12:03 pm
I moved to Bakersfield in 1988. Everyone was raving about this soon to open shopping mall.
It is my understanding that the gang shootout was actually at a larger 14 theater complex just blocks from the EH Mall not at the EH Mall itself. This 14 theater complex is now the Bakersfield Hispanic Church and has been for years.
About the demographics of the area. Yes there are lower income neighborhoods in the vicinity but then again there are Country Club caliber homes within 2 miles of this mall with many well to do residents. We live in a 3000 sf plus home and have a 250k plus annual income as do most of our neighbors.
This mall is located along the 178 Highway. There are two exit choices that will take shoppers into the mall area. The over all traffic flow around this mall could have been better planned. An exit from 178 going directly to the mall instead of drivers having to work their way into the complex via side streets would have been a big plus IMHO.
This mall has ample parking and pretty landscaping with nice shade trees. On the west side of Bakersfield are both a Bed Bath and Beyond and a Trader Joe’s which are always too crowded. Folks living on the East side dread going to shop there with their traffic and cramped parking and crowded stores. Either of those companies would do well in a Mall like the EH. Other business that would do well there would be Whole Foods or Ikea. There are many upscale neighborhoods east of this Mall on the 178. Also there is a Dell Webb neighborhood in the area.
Close by is the Kern River along which are many homes on mini ranches that in the recent past were appraised at over $1 million.
With the right combination of shopping choices and a great PR company this mall could overcome its past. BTW Anchor Blue left this mall earlier this year.
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