Bay Area
In terms of overall visitation, it’s neck and neck with the top three. Westfield Valley Fair, a massive 2M sq ft+ mall, saw enormous spikes for holiday shopping, which is unsurprising considering its luxury wing and over 200 stores. Serramonte Center includes anchors Macy’s, Dick’s Sporting Goods, and Target. There were a few months where this large center overtook Valley Fair in April 2022, Oct 2022, and Jan 2023. Stonestown Galleria has main anchors Regal Cinemas, Whole Foods Market, and Sports Basement. Per SFGate, it is now being lauded as a foodie’s paradise by upping the game with trendy restaurants such as Marugame Udon and Gram Cafe. Westfield Galleria at Roseville is in the Sacramento area, and also saw particularly large spikes for holiday shopping, as well as for Back-to-School. With the influx of new residents during COVID-19 with designer tastes, it has added more stores catering to affluents, such as Gucci and Saint Laurent.
The comeback kid award goes to Westfield San Francisco Centre in Mar 2023. Its embattled location in a city fighting ever-mounting crime, high cost of living, and a higher-than-average tech population that is able to work remotely saw the center’s traffic dip the last few years. However, Mar 2023 YoY traffic is up 10%, which is an optimistic sign. Westfield Oakridge saw the second highest level of increased YoY traffic in Mar 2023, at 9%. In fact, Oakridge’s traffic has increased YoY for the last 12 months. Arden Fair’s traffic has remained relatively consistent to last year’s since about June of this year. Stanford Shopping Center’s foot traffic has also been fairly consistent, with a slight dip during the holiday months and in Mar 2023.
With all the news of layoffs at Silicon Valley tech firms like Meta and Google, we are still not quite seeing a trickle effect in terms of diminished visitation to shopping centers from those actions.
Compared to 4 years ago, we see that Valley Fair and Stonestown Galleria are up the most, while SFC, Stanford Shopping Center, and Arden Fair have yet to recover.
Southern California
The South Bay is home to two of the most-visited centers in Southern California - Del Amo Fashion Center and Lakewood Center. The former has over 2.5M sq ft of GLA and includes Nordstrom and Macy’s as anchors. In the open-air section of the mall, a Mitsuwa Marketplace supermarket and Japanese food court provide additional grocery and dining options. The latter hosts powerhouse anchors like Costco and Target. Westfield Topanga and the Village are comprised of an indoor mall - Westfield Topanga - and an open air lifestyle center - The Village at Topanga. Westfield Topanga has some exciting news with the opening of Topanga Social in Spring 2023, a new food hall offering over two dozen brands. As of late December, LA Rams owner Stan Kroenke purchased The Village for $325M. It is located next to the 34-acre Promenade development site, which URW recently sold to a private investment group that includes Kroenke’s company for $150M. Speculators believe this means Kroenke will be building a year-round practice facility for the Rams on the property. South Coast Plaza is the largest shopping mall in California, and owned by the Segerstrom family. In fact, it is so large that it actually has two dumpling restaurants at opposite ends of the mall - Din Tai Fung and Paradise Dynasty. And speaking of Din Tai Fung, that will soon be coming to Glendale Galleria, which comes in fifth in traffic for our list.
In terms of YoY foot traffic variance in Feb 2023, we see that Northridge Fashion Center has been having the strongest rebound these past 12 months. In April of 2022, they opened a Porto’s Bakery & Cafe at the site of the former Sears Auto Center, to the delight of those who love their famous Refugiado, a delectable guava cheese strudel. The Shops at Santa Anita have also seen only positive YoY traffic this year, with the highest variance in March 2022, that was 70% above the same time period for the year prior. Irvine Spectrum saw some decreased YoY foot traffic June - Dec 2022, but is positive for 2023 so far.
Glendale Galleria has generally seen positive variance for Y04Y foot traffic, as has Irvine Spectrum.
Seattle
Seattle’s Westfield Southcenter has the highest traffic in the area and is the largest in Washington State. Next in traffic is Alderwood Mall, anchored by Macy’s and Nordstrom. Bellevue Square has over 200 retailers.
In terms of YoY traffic, University Village has seen the most decline. With its mix of local boutiques and national retailers, this open-air center is easily accessible from the University of Washington. Tacoma Mall has also seen less foot traffic compared to last year in the most recent quarter. The Village at Totem Lake, on the other hand, has seen positive YoY growth, and is anchored by two grocery stores - Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods - as well as Nordstrom Rack and Ross Dress for Less.
For most of the Seattle area malls analyzed, foot traffic has been fairly comparable to 4 years prior. The exceptions are Pacific Place, which has seen some decline, and the Village at Totem Lake, which has seen development occur, and thus increased foot traffic.
Dallas
Stonebriar Mall in Frisco has over 180 stores and three levels. With its 1.6M sq ft, it is a massive hub for shopping, dining, and entertainment. Next in visits is NorthPark Center, which includes Dallas stalwart Neiman Marcus, as well as an Eataly. Galleria Dallas, famous for its glass vaulted ceiling modeled after the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan, comes in third.
Compared to last year, Dallas shopping centers are mostly down. The Shops at Park Lane, The Shops at Willow Bend, and Legacy West have all experienced diminished YoY traffic since May 2022.
Looking at Yo4Y traffic, we see that the Dallas area malls have not quite recovered from pre-Covid. With the exception of a few months for Legacy West, Highland Park Village, and Galleria Dallas, a majority of the Dallas malls have seen fairly substantial drops compared to 2018/2019.
%20(1).svg)
