The Paseo (Pasadena) facts for kids
| Location | Pasadena, California, United States |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 34°08′43″N 118°08′40″W / 34.145162°N 118.144314°W |
| Address | 300 E. Colorado Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91101 |
| Opening date | August 1980 (as Plaza Pasadena) September 2001 (as Paseo Colorado) |
| Developer | Ernest W. Hahn, Inc. |
| Owner | Cypress Equities |
| Architect | Charles Kober & Associates |
| No. of anchor tenants | 0 (2 at peak) |
| Total retail floor area | 553,377 sq ft (51,410.4 m2) |
| No. of floors | 2 |
| Public transit access |
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The Paseo is a cool outdoor shopping center in Pasadena, California. It's a big place, covering three city blocks! Here you can find offices, shops, restaurants, and even a movie theater. Above the shops, there are 400 special apartments called "Terrace Apartment Homes." These are like "loft-style" homes, meaning they often have open spaces and high ceilings.
The Paseo is located right in downtown Pasadena. It's between Colorado Boulevard to the north and Green Street to the south. There's a special bridge called the Garfield Promenade that connects The Paseo to Old Town Pasadena. It's also across the street from the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, which is part of the Pasadena Conference Center. Back in 2014, The Paseo didn't have any big main stores, often called "anchor stores," because both Macy's and Gelson's Markets had closed in 2013.
Contents
The Paseo: A Look Back
From Plaza to Paseo: Its History
The land where The Paseo stands today was once home to a different shopping mall. This first mall was called Plaza Pasadena and it opened its doors in 1980. It was quite large for its time! Plaza Pasadena had three main "anchor stores." These are the big, well-known stores that usually attract many shoppers. The original anchor stores were J.C. Penney, The Broadway, and May Company California. Charles Kober & Associates designed this mall. Their design even won an award in 1979!
However, Plaza Pasadena didn't do as well as people hoped. In 1989, May Company closed its store there. Its space was then divided up into smaller shops.
A Big Change for the Mall
In 1998, big plans were announced for the mall. The Broadway store had already changed into a Macy's, and J.C. Penney had closed. The developers decided to tear down the old mall. Their plan was to build a brand new outdoor shopping center in its place.
The new outdoor center, named Paseo Colorado, opened in September 2001. It kept the Macy's store from the old mall. It also added a supermarket and a movie theater complex. Just two years later, in 2003, the Paseo Colorado was sold to Developers Diversified Realty Corp.
New Additions and Changes
In November 2010, a new event space called Noor opened at Paseo Colorado. This space is huge, about 16,000 square feet! It has modern audio, visual, and lighting systems. It can host up to 350 guests for banquets in its large ballroom, called the Sofia. A smaller ballroom, the Ella, can hold 140 guests.
On January 3, 2013, Macy's announced that its store at Paseo Colorado would close. It shut down in early spring of that year. At the time, there were ideas to tear down the Macy's building. The plan was to build a multi-story hotel there instead.
In March 2013, Gelson's also announced that its store at Paseo Colorado would close on July 21, 2013. This Gelson's store had been at the location since Paseo Colorado first opened 12 years earlier.
By late 2014, the mall was working to get permits from the local government. They wanted to replace the empty Macy's Department Store with a Hyatt Place hotel. This new complex would also include condominiums. After getting the necessary permits, demolition work began in August 2015.
In January 2016, the retail part of the development was sold to Cypress Equities, a company from Dallas.
Finally, in 2017, the shopping center was officially renamed The Paseo.
