History
Hilltop Mall opened in September 1976, built on land previously occupied by the Chevron Oil Corporation tank farm. The mall was developed by the A. Alfred Taubman, who also developed several other shopping malls in the East and South Bay Area, including Eastridge Center in San Jose, Stoneridge Shopping Center in Pleasanton and Sunvalley Mall in Concord. Originally it was anchored by a bright red-tiled Capwell's, JCPenney and Macy's. Both Macys and JCPenney originally had stores in downtown Richmond, but while Macys had closed its downtown store a couple of years earlier, JCPenney kept its downtown store open for another year after Hilltop opened . Capwell's changed its name to Emporium-Capwell in 1979, before becoming simply Emporium in 1990. Sears was added in 1990 and was the last expansion of this property.
Once opened the mall attracted the major anchors of Richmond's downtown, which became deserted with nearly all stores closing although many acknowledge that their trend predated Hilltop due to economic and safety issues.
The mall remained largely unchanged until 1996 when the Emporium store closed following its merger with Federated, who owned Macy's. The store remained vacant until October 1998, when Macy's refurbished and relocated their existing store into the former Emporium space. However, Federated chose not to have two Macys at Hilltop (unlike Sun Valley, Stoneridge, and others) and closed the original store. That building would remain vacant until WalMart took it over in the Spring of 2007.
The Taubman shopping center interests, which had become a publicly traded real estate investment trust in 1992, were reorganized in 1998 and the GM Pension Trust assumed full-ownership of Hilltop Mall at this time, retaining Taubman Centers as manager. In its turn, in 2004 the GM Pension Trust sold a half-interest in a portfolio of shopping centers, including Hilltop to The Mills Corporation, which also assumed management of the center. After several years of delay, Wal-Mart opened on April 11, 2007 on the site Macy's vacated in 1998.
In July 2007, Simon Property Group purchased the entire The Mills Corporation portfolio including other Bay Area properties: Stoneridge Shopping Center in Pleasanton, California and Great Mall in Milpitas, California. On December 23, 2011 shots were fired and the mall was closed due to a shopping frenzy over the retro Air Jordans on sale that day. The mall later reopened but sales of the shoe were banned for the day. Similar events occurred at the nearby Westfield Solano and the Bayfair Center malls in Fairfield and San Leandro respectively.
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