Groceteria.com

Back in 2004, I went to the Florin Mall area (Florin Road at Stockton Boulevard near Route 99) for a little bit of bike exploring (I biked from the light rail station to that area, then south on Stockton Boulevard and back north to Florin), went to the Wal-Mart in the strip mall on the south side of the boulevard, and ate at the Hometown Buffet there. However, I didn't go into the already-declining enclosed mall (which I had read had suffered several shootings in the past).

I do remember that a JCPenney clearance outlet had just closed just a bit before my visit. Months later, I went down there to go to Long John Silver's, but again did not enter the mall.

A few weeks ago I found out that Florin Mall finally closed, while Wal-Mart plans to replace its store there with a supercenter.

Sears was the last tenant of Florin Mall; the center had been the first in Sacramento to open as fully-enclosed (in 1967) but changing demographics and stronger competition from Arden Fair (and to a lesser extent, Downtown Plaza) hurt it, and there had been talk in late 2004/early 2005 of a new mall in Elk Grove that would have doomed this one anyway. Anyone have more information or stories about the place?

Actually, the Sears is the only old part of Florin Mall that will stay, apparently Sears owns the building. The rest has been razed to make way for an open-air mall, anchored by Sears and a Wal-Mart supercenter, which is moving from it's current location at the Southgate Center (it's only a "regular" WallyWorld there) Interestingly, that particular Wal-Mart has only been there for a few years, somewhere between 5-10 years if I remember correctly.

I last had been in the mall about a year ago, and although there were quite a few people it was pretty dreary with no anchor stores, and a lot of closed small shops.

The Elk Grove mall mentioned in the above post is still on the drawing board, but I imagine it will a few years before they even break ground for that.

martyk wrote:Actually, the Sears is the only old part of Florin Mall that will stay, apparently Sears owns the building. The rest has been razed to make way for an open-air mall, anchored by Sears and a Wal-Mart supercenter, ...

This post got me curious about something regarding Sears. I wonder if anyone knows, did Sears make a point of owning the land/buildings of their mall-based stores? That is, was it common for them to have a special arrangement where their stores were somehow seperate property from the rest of the malls they were attached to? Landover Mall in MD seems to be the same deal as Florin Mall, the Sears stayed open while the rest of the mall died and was eventually torn down. I figure most malls lease their anchor buildings to their tenants, even if the store designs are specific to that chain. If the mall goes down, so do all the stores.

I recall hearing that the "real" reason KMart and Sears merged was so that they could increase their real estate holdings, and possibly convert or sell off unsuccessful stores from either chain. I would have figured that KMart owned more of the buildings and land they inhabit than Sears, but maybe they are both major owner/operators?

Sears used to own a lot of mall properties under their Homart Deveopment Co. division. (Homart was also a brand name they used for water heaters and other appliances.) I'm fairly certain that Arden Fair was a Homart property as well. Sears sold Homart to General Growth Properties (a major mall owner) in 1995.

Hometown Buffet is located in the Southgate Plaza shopping center. It is still open and is the best and cleanest one I have been to. The buffet at Florin Mall was a JJ North, it was also pretty good, but it closed up. It was a Kings chineese buffet for a while but that is now closed.

Paper or Plastic wrote:It was a Kings chineese buffet for a while but that is now closed.

Is that owned by the "Kings" restaurant on West Capitol that used to have its "slot machine" like sign?

TheStranger wrote:

Paper or Plastic wrote:It was a Kings chineese buffet for a while but that is now closed.

Is that owned by the "Kings" restaurant on West Capitol that used to have its "slot machine" like sign?

I doubt it. Is the one on West Capitol still around ? I ate there once a few years ago and wasn't impressed with the food.

Paper or Plastic wrote:

TheStranger wrote:

Paper or Plastic wrote:It was a Kings chineese buffet for a while but that is now closed.

Is that owned by the "Kings" restaurant on West Capitol that used to have its "slot machine" like sign?

I doubt it. Is the one on West Capitol still around ? I ate there once a few years ago and wasn't impressed with the food.

I think it still exists BUT had its googie sign taken down. I did pass through that area a few weeks ago on my way to Sacramento (when I took the photo of that ex-Arby's on Arden and Fulton)...

bummer, the sign was the coolest part! I think it must have changed hands as the original owner was dirt 90 back 5 or 6 years ago. There was an article in either the Sac Bee or SN&R about him way back then also.

Going back to the original topic...I think this is a demolition photo?

http://www.tiltonpacific.com/projects.htm

http://www.tiltonpacific.com/images/Florin.jpg

yep, that's it going down! They have the whole block chained off so it's next to impossible to get any up close pictures.

I work at the Sears on Florin Road. So I know all.

Sears is going to stay there, for sure. The signs around the area do not say anything about the Wal-Mart moving there, but that it will be an open shopping centre similar to the Downtown Plaza. I think that if a Wal-Mart goes in, then Sears would go out of business.

It was weird coming into work everyday, seeing a mall that I grew up with being knocked down day by day...who knows how long it will be before something else opens up.

Welcome to the board! :)

Here's a good page of photos from the demolition process of the old Florin Mall, also mentioning the Wal-Mart relocation:
http://www.fkrohn.com/sightsofsacramento.htm

TheQuestioner wrote:I figure most malls lease their anchor buildings to their tenants, even if the store designs are specific to that chain. If the mall goes down, so do all the stores.

Actually, most anchor stores own their own buildings. If you use a county assessor's office GIS tool online to look at a mall site, you'll usually see that each anchor building is a separate parcel owned by the department store. The mall developer owns the common concourse area of the mall and the parking lot. I'm sure there are exceptions, of course.

I believe the separate ownership explains why it's not unusual to see very dated exteriors on anchor store buildings even when the rest of the mall has had a significant renovation. I'm sure that the mall developer would have those buildings updated if they could, but it's not under their sphere of control.

I believe the separate ownership explains why it's not unusual to see very dated exteriors on anchor store buildings even when the rest of the mall has had a significant renovation. I'm sure that the mall developer would have those buildings updated if they could, but it's not under their sphere of control.[/quote]

Here in Seattle at Westwood Village, when the mall had it's first remodel in the early 90's, there was a PayLess Drug that had been a Pay 'n Save. When the mall renovation was completed, PayLess still looked like the old Pay 'n Save from the '70's. Since this was a open air community mall, perhaps PayLess was considered a anchor and owned their parcel.

Eventually, the mall was radically remodeled in the past 5 years. Now the old PayLess site is gone and a new seperate Rite Aid has risen on another site in the same complex.