Where's Emeryville?
Emeryville, California? Why it's across the bay from San Francisco, nestled between west Berkeley and Oakland. Once Emeryville became an incorporated municipality it offered tax breaks that have turned much of the factory land (not all, not all) into retail space.
When it got the Bay Area's first IKEA people made money off campers waiting to go buy stuff at the blue box.
There are three different outdoor and indoor shopping malls. Someone who knows more than me about such stuff would probably have some insights about rapid growth and malls. I imagine this conversation has happened more than once:
The new mall? Oh, you mean the old mall.
What about the old mall?
The old mall? Oh, they re-did that. It's the new mall.
The shopping mall part of Emeryville is actually a pretty small part of the little town's footprint. It's still home to many artists, small businesses, a sake factory, and Fantasy Records (a huge jazz label and John Fogerty litigant). Heck, even AmTrak stops at Emeryville.
It's hard to keep track with which part of Emeryville is The New Mall. My money's on the outdoor mall that is actually an indoor mall without a roof (you have to park in the pay lot). It's got chain stores and restaurants and a multiplex movie theatre (that competes with the theatre in the old mall, or is it the oldest mall...old old mall? See?). The problem is I don't know if there'd be any pedestrians at all (and most days there aren't many), if you didn't have to park over in the lot and then walk down the "street" to windowshop.