Getting ready for Black Friday? Consider some history while shopping at Westfield Palm Desert
Marie McCain, The Desert Sun Marie McCain
Built for $75 million, the Palm Desert Town Center was valued at $140 million and boasted two levels, 140 shops, four department stores, seven movie theaters and an ice rink.
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The Desert Sun
When the Palm Desert Town Center opened officially on Nov. 5, 1983, 7,000 people showed up to stroll through what had been billed as the Coachella Valley’s newest “community.”

The turnout was astounding considering Palm Desert’s population, at the time, was just 14,000.

More than an effective economic endeavor, malls were the newest way for municipalities to improve resident quality-of-life. Hundreds of thousands of square feet filled with retail shops, eateries, events and other entertainment opportunities, they were the 20th century’s version of the old-time town squares.

Built for $75 million by Ernest Hahn, a longtime Indian Wells resident and head of the then-largest mall development company in the Western United States, the Palm Desert Town Center, upon its completion, was valued at $140 million and boasted two levels, 140 shops, four department stores, seven movie theaters and an ice rink.

Palm Desert residents, like Cheryl Wagner, who lived nearby were marking the days until the new mall opened.

A mother of three and wife of a Secret Service agent who was part of former President Gerald Ford’s security detail, Wagner told The Desert Sun, “I’m thrilled to death we live here (instead of Palm Springs). With the mall opening, I can be down there in two minutes. ... Everyone’s waiting for it to open. It’s been like a countdown.”

Palm Desert Town Center brought hundreds of jobs to the area and forced city leaders to consider expanding Palm Desert’s available rental properties to meet the inevitable need for affordable housing. Indeed, Coachella Valley school districts, at the time, began developing new policies to curb truancy in anticipation of the impact of the valley’s newest and largest mall.

Also, of concern, besides the increased traffic and need for more public safety enforcement, surrounding small business owners worried about their bottom lines.

In 1985, Hank Stokes, an El Paseo business owner who headed the Palm Desert Advertising and Promotion Committee, told The Desert Sun that some year-round El Paseo merchants were experiencing problems they attributed to their direct competition with the Palm Desert Town Center.

Still, he said, “In reality there’s very little overlap. It’s a rather unusual instance. The normal pattern when a shopping center comes in is that existing main street business diminishes. But it has not happened here. The only negative effect for El Paseo, if anything, has been in the summer when things aren’t too great anyway.”

In the cities of Palm Springs and Indio, where the Coachella Valley’s smaller shopping malls were located, officials were nonplussed.

Even when Palm Springs lost its J.C. Penney just as the Palm Desert Town Center opened another J.C. Penney and Sears closed at the Indio Fashion Mall and later opened at the Town Center, local business leaders downplayed the notion that valley cities would start to undercut each other for economic development opportunities.

“Some people look at it as down-valley vs. Palm Springs. You’ve got to look at (this valley) as a region,” then-Palm Springs City Manager Norm King told The Desert Sun. “There’s no question (the Town Center) has been good for the region. Dividing things up into artificial cities can get ridiculous.”

And when diplomatic answers like that didn’t work, some officials just relied on good old snobbery to downplay any concerns.

Palm Springs’ then-Mayor Frank Bogert noted that his city’s “quality stores” like the high-end I. Magnin and Saks Fifth Avenue do not necessarily compete with the more moderate Town Center market.

“Ernie Hahn said there’s going to be 900,000 people in this valley. There’s plenty of people for all of us,” Bogert said.

Thirty-six years since its opening, the Palm Desert mall, which is now part of the Westfield Group, goes by the name Westfield Palm Desert.

Its list of stores has shrunk to 122, the ice rink has long been closed and it was announced that Sears, one of the five current anchor stores, will close in 2020.

As with many brick-and-mortar establishments in this region and across the country, online shopping has taken a big bite out of their revenues.

During a recent trip to the Palm Desert mall, Tracy Howard, of Desert Hot Springs, said she rarely goes to the mall anymore but finds it is still a good place to meet friends for lunch.

“We can grab food and walk around. Go to a store and see what’s there and go back home and see if we can get it somewhere else cheaper online,” she said.

John David, of La Quinta, said that while he enjoys the convenience of online shopping, he believes it is essential to continue to patronize malls.

“We absolutely have to keep this alive. Yes, there may come a time when we never leave home but I really think we need to remain as social as possible,” he said.

Following the Nov. 7 announcement of Sears’ pending closure, Palm Desert Administrative Services Director Lori Carney told The Desert Sun, "Palm Desert, like all cities, is aware of the changing nature of retail not just in our region, but in the nation."

City staff has long been in close communication with stakeholders in all of the city's retail centers, including Westfield mall, she said.

Palm Desert remains as the late Bob Spiegel, longtime city council member and mayor, often called it, the "retail capital of the Coachella Valley," Carney said.

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