Inland Center

Not to be confused with Inland Regional Center.

Inland Center

Location	San Bernardino, California, USA
Opening date	1966
Developer	Homart Development Company
Management	Macerich
Owner	Macerich
No. of stores and services	Approx. 130
No. of anchor tenants	4 (Sears, Macy's, Forever 21, and vacant.)
Total retail floor area	988,535 square feet (GLA)
No. of floors	1 (formerly 2)
Website	http://www.inlandcenter.com

Inland Center is a regional shopping mall owned and operated by Macerich, located in San Bernardino, California along the southwest border adjacent to Interstate 215 and the city of Colton. Within one mile of three bordering cities on the southern end of San Bernardino (Redlands, Colton and Loma Linda), Inland Center is a single level mall anchored by Macy's, Sears, and Forever 21, plus 130 specialty shops and services.

History

Construction and grand opening

Originally constructed by Homart Development Company and opened in 1966, Inland Center Mall was built on top of the former Urbita Springs lake. The mall started off with three major anchor buildings, May Company, The Broadway, and Sears.

1990s

The mall experienced a number of changes in the 1990s. In 1993, the May Company store closed leaving the mall with only two anchors, The Broadway and Sears, which reduced overall traffic. In 1996, a fourth anchor building was annexed in front of the mall's main entrance, along with a four story parking structure. The store was Robinsons-May. Later that year, Macy's bought out The Broadway, and converted its two story building to a Macy's location. In the late 1990s, Gottschalks moved into the old May Co building after it purchased The Harris Company and closed its store in the Carousel Mall (also located in San Bernardino) despite local efforts to keep Harris at their original location.

2000s

In 2000, the main entrances were renovated placing trees and benches at all entrances and a new mall sign along with a new remodeled Food Court next to Sears, where the old Miller's Outpost was located. In 2006, Macy's bought out Robinsons-May, and since having two anchors on the same property was redundant, decided to close the old Broadway building in favor of the more modern built Robinsons-May building at its current location.

The vacant Broadway building was sold to Mervyn's in 2007 for renovation and a proposed opening in September 2008, but the Mervyns company was liquidated around that time after filing for Chapter 11. Also in October 2008, construction was made to seal off the vacant and smaller second level of the mall to public traffic. In 2009, Forever 21 announced it would move into the vacant building that was partially renovated by Mervyn's. Gottschalks closed its doors in July 2009 after they too filed for Chapter 11 liquidation; the building is now vacant.

Present Day

In 2013, Macerich Corporation installed over 4,000 solar panels on the corridor rooftops to reduce their dependence on electricity during operating hours. EV Charging Stations were also installed in the parking lots at the major entrances.

Structural features

In 2006, the original Macy's store which occupied a dated The Broadway location was closed and the more modern 165,000 sq ft (15,300 m²) Robinsons-May was converted to Macy's as part of the Federated Department Stores merger with May Department Stores. Mervyn's was to take over the old 94,011 sq ft (8,733.9 m²) anchor space but failed to open after their bankruptcy finalized in 2009.

Construction was also completed in 2007 to seal off the lower level, demolishing a staircase and glass elevator that took customers to the lower level of the mall that remained vacant after Oshman's Sporting Goods and the old video arcade closed down in prior decades. After construction was completed, the upper level floor was made solid and a Children's Play Area themed after US Route 66 was built near the old staircase location.

On January 2008, parking lots adjacent to the parking structure and a small portion of the under utilized western parking areas of the mall were used in the recent SANBAG and CalTrans I-215 expansion project. The Inland Center Drive overpass reopened next to the mall in April 2010.

During 2009, two adjacent pads to Inland Center owned by Macerich corporation were razed and placed for sale: On North Mall Blvd. and E Street (Formerly a Citibank branch) and South Mall Blvd. and E Street (Formerly Buffalo Ranch Restaurant).

Mall layout

A distinctive feature of Inland Center is the large cement vault in the center of the mall serving as its main entrance prior to 1988. The vault today serves as the walkway between Macy's and Forever 21 with smaller-format stores along each side and a perpendicular main walkway with full-size inline stores crossing the vault to reach Sears and the former Gottschalks building.

External links

• Inland Center
• Macerich
• Macerich Floor Plan