One of the biggest malls in the Portland metro area is about to get a big makeover.
CenterCal Properties LLC, the California-based developer and co-owner behind Bridgeport Village in Tigard, is reimagining a key piece of the 500,000 square-foot outdoor mall that could set off a wave of changes for the upscale retail destination.
The company is spending more than $35 million to modernize the 17-year-old shopping center. The renovation will feature covered seating areas, a central courtyard area with new landscaping, a performance stage, updated building facades and about 20 new storefronts. Today, the mall has about 75 stores.
The new stores moving include clothing store Johnny Was, The Shade Store, Parachute Home and a kid-focused cooking school called Little Kitchen Academy, among others.
Meanwhile, the mall’s athletic wear store Lululemon is undergoing expansion, the developer said. The Apple Store is undergoing a remodeling, according to planning documents.
“What we’re trying to achieve is a more honest, more experiential environment at Bridgeport Village,” said Fred Bruning, chief executive of the shopping center development company CenterCal Properties. “What we’ve been trying to do is be very authentic and try to be as genuine as we can to the heritage we have in Oregon.”
The redevelopment comes as many malls have generally been seeing higher vacancy rates, Bruning said. He believes the key to success is adapting with the times and creating a more inclusive shopping experience for multigenerational shoppers.
“If you look at the old shopping centers, it was all very one dimensional. The experience is mostly tailored to junior shoppers. But what about my wife, what about me and all the other people who want a broader experience?” Bruning said. “If you can’t break out of that paradigm, you just lose much of a tranche of the consumer experience that you can’t be successful going forward.”
Opened in 2005, about 8 miles south of downtown Portland, Bridgeport Village was meant to serve as another gathering space in the southwest suburbs, according to Bruning. Before that, the sit near one of Interstate 5′s busiest off-ramps between Tigard and Tualatin was part of a quarry, he said.
Bruning said he expects the renovations to wrap up by the end of the year.
–Kristine de Leon, kdeleon@oregonian.com, 503-221-8506, @deleonkrist
