Fair Oaks Mall - History

History

Fair Oaks Mall is a thriving, upscale, enclosed two level regional shopping mall located in Fairfax, Virginia. The mall's main competition is Tysons Corner Center, located in McLean, Virginia. In 2002, Fairfax Corner, a planned lifestyle center broke ground just south of the mall, but rather than hinder the mall, it helped Fair Oaks Mall become even more of a vibrant retail destination. Fairfax Corner was later completed in 2004. Fair Oaks Mall officially opened on July 31, 1980. The 1,400,000-square-foot (130,000 m2) mall, developed by The Taubman Company, opened in the midst of a recession, with only four of six anchor stores in operation (Hecht's, JCPenney, Sears, and Woodward & Lothrop) and 15 other storefronts occupied, leaving three fourths of the storefronts empty. The two remaining anchors opened shortly after; Garfinckel's on August 21, 1980, and Lord & Taylor in Spring 1981. Developers expected 60 to be occupied by the Christmas season and 100 by the following year. Upon opening, it was the largest mall in the Washington, D.C. area. It included the first suburban Washington location of the British homegoods store, Conran's.

In 1982, the Fair Oaks Mall was one of the first sites used by Sears as part of its effort to offer financial services to customers, including stocks, bonds, insurance and real estate, from its Dean Witter, Allstate and Coldwell Banker subsidiaries.

In 1987, the mall's owners attempted to evict Garfinckel's and a related company, Raleigh Stores Holding, Inc., claiming that the store owners had not received the landlord's permission to assign the lease after Allied Stores, Inc. divested some lines of business.

In 1988, seeking to reach out to a broader range of patrons, the Fairfax library system opened a 10,000 volume branch at the Fair Oaks Mall. The mall also contains a Virginia DMV customer service center.