Sunvalley Mall

Sunvalley Mall is a regional shopping center located in Concord, California (one of the suburbs in the San Francisco Bay Area, in east central Contra Costa County). Sunvalley opened in August 1967 with Sears, JCPenney and Macy's as anchor tenants. At its opening it was considered the largest air conditioned regional shopping center in the world.

Among the tenants in the Mall's early days were a Worlds Faire food court made up of international restaurants but also including staples like donuts and Kentucky Fried Chicken; a post office, ice skating rink, piano-organ stores, art gallery, pet shop, and other unusual stores, accented by cages of rare birds connecting both levels and water fountains in numerous locations.

Currently, Sunvalley offers a strong collection of unisex and Generation Y offers, so East Bay shoppers will always find the latest fashions at Sunvalley. It ranks among the top 50 malls in the United States by volume. Shoppers are provided with a dominant merchandise mix of leading national retailers and restaurants. Shops include Bebe, Charlotte Russe, The Buckle, Abercrombie & Fitch, Forever 21, American Eagle Outfitters, Coach, MAC, Brookstone, Aveda, and Ann Taylor. [http://www.taubman.com/leasing/17.html]

Sunvalley is located at Willow Pass Road, Contra Costa Boulevard, and Interstate 680. It was developed by the Taubman Company, which is still the owner and operator of the mall to this day. The mall's major department stores are two separate locations for Macys, and one each for Sears and JCPenney. Sunvalley has 170 stores and a total size of about 1.4 million square feet.

1985 Sunvalley plane crash

On the evening of December 23, 1985 [http://www.nbc11.com/news/10583774/detail.html] , two days before Christmas, a twin-engine Beechcraft Baron, executing a missed instrument approach procedure from an approach to runway 19R of Buchanan Field Airport, lost control and crashed into the roof of Macys, killing the pilot and two passengers and seriously injuring 84 Christmas shoppers in the crowded mall below, mainly by spraying them with burning fuel. Four of the victims on the ground later died from their injuries. The accident brought increased local opposition to the airport, and caused Pacific Southwest Airlines (now part of US Airways) to delay scheduled passenger service that had been planned to start at the beginning of the new year.

Anchors

*JCPenney (266,000 sq. ft.)
*Macy's (389,000 sq. ft., two locations)
*Sears (337,000 sq. ft.)

References

* [http://www.taubman.com/leasing/17.html]
*Oakland Tribune, July 30, 1967, page 14
* [http://www.Check-Six.com/Crash_Sites/SunValley_Mall_Crash.htm Check-Six.com - The Crash at SunValley Mall - Lots of photographs]

External links

* [http://www.shopsunvalley.com Official website]