Comments on: Westfield Downtown Plaza; Sacramento, California

By: MartyK

MartyK — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 18:15:40 +0000

Just recently heard that the Hard Rock is going to be closing their location at Downtown Plaza. This will really make the east end of the mall a ghost town.

By: Jason

Jason — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 22:39:24 +0000

One tiny “correction.” The Hard Rock replaced something called Sacramento Live, which was a multi-themed restaurant/nightclub type place. I think there were a dozen or so of them around the country in the 1980s…there was a dueling-pianos bar, a country bar, a diner-style restaurant, etc. It filled, I believe, two or even three levels of the mall right where HRC is now.

By: Marty

Marty — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 02:56:45 +0000

I worked in the garage portion of the Downtown Plaza at the exit (I’m the guy that took your ticket when you leave). This was a few years ago, but nothing has changed much since then. It’s really pale in comparison to Arden Fair and Roseville Galleria – which is much newer and seems to be getting renovated all the time. The downtown plaza has been wanting to overhaul the small movie theater too in to something more modern but that won’t happen. The food court is way outdated and it gets way too hot there in the summer. I never go there. I live about halfway between both the Downtown Plaza and the Arden Fair and I always just go to Arden.

By: BIGMallrat

BIGMallrat — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 03:34:34 +0000

Westfield has poured tons of money into the other Sacramento area Westfield, Roseville Galleria. What’s with that? According to some of the information I’ve found, a number of property owners in the area of Downtown Plaza have resisted redevelopment. Everyone wants something different, it seems.
Neverthless, I was astonished to find a carousel in your photos here, but they’ve removed it! What the heck?
Scott

By: SEAN

SEAN — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 23:52:59 +0000

@Jonah Norason,

Interesting how Westfield spends money on SF Center & other properties in there largest trade areas & won’t spend on mid sized cities like ST Louis or Sacramento.

By: Jonah Norason

Jonah Norason — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 20:20:29 +0000

Westfield has neglected other malls (Crestwood, Northwest) but its outdoor.

By: Caldor

Caldor — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 19:10:25 +0000

@BIGMallrat, Yeah, I feel like they’ve been neglecting it. These photos were taken in April 2008 and it seemed to be in much better shape even then. I still wouldn’t consider this a dead mall but it is suffering from a lot of immediate neglect it seems, possibly in anticipation of the redevelopment.

By: BIGMallrat

BIGMallrat — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 19:07:59 +0000

Okay, this is a bizarre, I just went to Downtown Plaza yesterday (I just posted some pics, but not updated my review yet). We must be on the same wavelength now.
Anyway, this place was truly bizarre. One side, busy and interesting, the other side, dead and freaky. I was especially interested in the enclosed portion on the southside where the second level was closed off.
It seemed to me this place was missing some important things, such as entertainment. It could be a Pier 39-type shopping center, but alas, it is not.
I’m not sure if you noticed, but the paint was pealing in a number of areas. Lots of deferred maintanence. In fact, it also looked like they cut back on the cleaning crews for this place was dirty, too. I can see why I get so many complaints about this center.
I hope Westfield will one day turn this into a Westfield-quality mall. Seems like low-hanging fruit for the right developer.
Scott

By: Jonah Norason

Jonah Norason — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 18:43:36 +0000

@Alpha, LJ Hooker only seemed to develop three malls…the Bonwit Teller-anchored Richland (Fashion) Mall, the bigg’s-anchored Thornton Town Center, and the both-anchored Forest Fair Mall.

Seriously, for this mall, Westfield should try to either enclose it or make it a fully outdoor shopping area (see “Fourth Street Live”, Louisville, Kentucky).

By: SEAN

SEAN — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 14:15:38 +0000

If you go to Dr Housing Bubble a California based real estate blog a lot of the issues braught up in this article have already been covered & will continued to be covered in greater detail there.

One of the issues that is being covered is the pending budget crisis & prop 13 wich puts the property tax burden on newer residents. A second issue is the extreme dependence of sales taxes for state revenue.

It is quite eye opening.