The Stanford Shopping Center is an outdoor shopping mall located on El Camino Real at Sand Hill Road in Palo Alto, California. While it is considered adjacent to the Stanford University campus, it is actually on campus (on the northwest edge). The Center is approximately 45 minutes from San Francisco and 30 minutes from San Jose.

The outdoor Center is 1.4 million square feet (130,000 m²) and includes four major department stores: Bloomingdale's (the only Northern California location), Macy's, Neiman Marcus, and Nordstrom. The Center also includes over one hundred specialty shops, gourmet eateries and specialty services. Designed like a small European town, the Center is an open-air, street level shopping mall well-known for its extensive collection of trees, ferns, ivies, and flowers. The Center also showcases art by well-known California artists such as David Gilhooley ’s “Merfrog Fountain ”, Albert Guibara ’s bronze “fat men” sculptures; Larry Binkley ’s “Flying People ;” and John Pugh’s 180 ft (55 m) long mural of an eighteenth century Parisian street scene.

While the land is owned by the University, the Center is often criticized for failing to appeal to students. The management of the Center does not deny the mall's elitist focus with its predominantly upscale retail offering. It draws customers from throughout the Bay area and claims to be one of the top-tier malls in the country.

The buildings that make up the Center are owned by Simon Property Group, Inc. , who manages the property and leases the land from the University.

History

Leland Stanford and Jane Stanford endowed Stanford University with inalienable land, meaning the University cannot sell any of the Stanfords' original 6,500 acres (26 km²). After a drop in student enrollment and tuition revenues during World War II and then the sudden boom in enrollment after the war, Alf Brandin, the vice president for business affairs at Stanford, decided to look at real estate development as a way to generate revenue for the University.

In 1954, excavators broke ground on what was once Leland Stanford's vineyards. Nine buildings housing 45 businesses were built. The Roos Brothers clothing store opened as the first retailer in September 1955 and Blum's Restaurant opened on October 22, 1956, marking the completion of the center. Board of Trustees chair Lloyd Dinkelspiel and University President J.E. Wallace Sterling presided at the opening and Shirley Temple Black cut the first slice of a nine-tiered cake.

The Center opened with great success and became one of the largest sources of unrestricted income for the University, some of which is added to the University's endowment.

Throughout the years, the Center has continued to evolve in terms of both tenants and construction and has been managed directly by the University's Board of Trustees as well as the Stanford Management Company . However, in 2003, the University decided to sell the buildings that make up the Center to the Simon Property Group, Inc. who will, in turn, lease the land from the University. As a result, while the University no longer directly collects revenue from the Center, it did collect $333 million when Simon purchased a 51 year lease on the land and will continue to collect an annual rent equal to a percentage of the Center's revenues.

External link

• Stanford Shopping Center