Goodbye Vallco, Hello Cupertino Square
by Alex Wang on Feb 08, 2007 | 1 Comment »
The 80's neon-and-hair relic Vallco Fashion Park in Cupertino lost its battle with Westfield's Valley Fair Mall long ago and was pushed further into complete obscurity by Santana Row.
It's hard to call Santana Row a shopping mall given its balance of city living and planned but not completely contrived urban experiences, but it was even harder to call Vallco competition against the shopping juggernaut that those two adjacent shopping "districts" formed not more than a few miles away.
Vallco (like the mall, its website is under construction) is determined to be more than just the building that houses Todai, the obscenely large sushi buffet.
Like the Downtown Sunnyvale revitalization, Cupertino's Vallco redevelopment has been discussed for quite a while. Even in 2000, vacancy rates were a sky high 25% compared to Stanford Mall and Valley Fair (2-5%). With the equivalent of a quarter of the mall always empty, the rest quickly languished.
That hasn't kept the city of Cupertino from being one of the most sought-after places to live in Silicon Valley. After all, its school district is one of the elite places to get an education in Silicon Valley — and schools are obviously a huge driver for parents when choosing a place to live. And both Apple and HP, among others, have major presences there.
But Cupertino is also considered a bit… well… boring. Cupertino's "downtown" area, where there aren't big enough quotation marks to put around that word, consists pretty much of one hotel and a couple restaurants flanking it.
With the renaming of Vallco Fashion Park to Cupertino Square, Cupertino hopes to brand itself as a destination, not just a school district. According to the Silicon Valley Business Journal, the plan includes a 16-screen AMC movie theater, new restaurants, a bowling alley, and a kid-friendly atrium.
Since Cupertino voted down the original plan to build high-density housing and mixed-use developments a la Santana Row last November, the new Cupertino Square is already clearly differentiated from its urban competitor. How it fares against Valley Fair remains to be seen, but you can find the latest updates in the our Cupertino Square News section.
(c) Steve Leung
Related reading:
- Downtown Sunnyvale Revitalization Gets Desperately Needed Kickstart
- Santana Row: Silicon Valley's Urban Oasis
- Vision North San Jose Gets Boost
- Top Silicon Valley Computer Stores
- Walking Tours and Hiking Trails Galore
- Top Silicon Valley Shopping Malls
- Top Silicon Valley Driving Ranges
Categories: Activities, Bay Area Info, Cupertino, Cupertino Square, Silicon Valley News
Since your Feb. 8, 2007 article, Todai has apparently been sold and is now called Tatami seafood buffet. All of the awnings have stickers affixed over what used to say Todai that now says Tatami. It remains to be seen how the new owners (?) and the new name change to Tatami will fare in Cupertino Square. The mall entrance sign is the only Todai name left on the restaurant… probably because of the cost to change it.
Funny though, the mall management has still not changed the Vallco Fashion Park neon sign that adorns I-280. This makes the name change to Cupertino Square all the more odd. The sign is still there, but if you were actually looking for something named Vallco, you’d never find it. Just another in a long line of mistakes that that mall management keeps making and which causes that mall to fall into further obscurity.
AMC is probably kicking itself for believing the mall management’s rhetoric that AMC could revitalize that mall single-handedly. Frankly, it’s not working.
Thanks.