Bayfair Center (orig. Bay-Fair, later Bay Fair, Bayfair Mall) is a regional shopping mall and power center in

San Leandro, California San Leandro (Spanish language, Spanish for "Leander of Seville, St. Leander") is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. It is located in the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area; between Oakland, California, Oakland to the northwe ...

. It was among the first malls in the

East Bay The East Bay is the eastern region of the San Francisco Bay Area and includes cities along the eastern shores of San Francisco Bay and San Pablo Bay. The region has grown to include inland communities in Alameda and Contra Costa counties. Wi ...

of the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...

. Anchors are

Target Target may refer to: Warfare and shooting * Shooting target, used in marksmanship training and various shooting sports ** Bullseye (target), the goal one for which one aims in many of these sports ** Aiming point, in field artille ...

Kohl's Kohl's Corporation (Kohl's is stylized in all caps) is an American department store retail chain store, chain. currently has 1,165 locations, operating stores in every U.S. state except Hawaii. The company was founded by Polish immigrant Maxwe ...

and a 16-screen Cinemark Century cinema. The

Macy's Macy's is an American department store chain founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. The first store was located in Manhattan on Sixth Avenue between 13th and 14th Streets, south of the present-day flagship store at Herald Square on West 34 ...

anchor store closed in 2024. Junior anchors are

PetSmart PetSmart Inc. is a privately held American chain of pet Big-box store, superstores, which sell pet products, services, and small pets. It is the leading North American pet company, and its direct competitor is Petco. Its indirect competitors ...

and

24 Hour Fitness 24 Hour Fitness is a privately held and operated fitness center chain headquartered in Carlsbad, California. It is the second largest fitness chain in the United States based on revenue after LA Fitness, and the fourth in number of clubs (behin ...

History

Launch (1950s)

Announced in April 1953, the shopping center was built on the 48-acre site of the former Oakland Speedway automobile racing stadium, and cost $25 million to build, and an additional $6 million to build the anchor department store, a , three-story

. The mall construction did not begin until 1956. The architect (including for the interior) for the Macy's store was John Savage Bolles, who had designed

Candlestick Park Candlestick Park was an outdoor stadium located in the Bayview-Hunters Point, Hunters Point area of San Francisco, California, United States. It was originally the home of Major League Baseball's San Francisco Giants, who played there from 1960 S ...

and also designed interiors for Macy's Hilltop Mall in

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, a city in the United States * Richmond, London, a town in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town ...

, Hillsdale Shopping Center in San Mateo, and Valley Fair in San Jose, and interiors for the renovation of the Macy's Union Square San Francisco flagship store. Macy's was the first unit to open, on August 8, 1957, with mall shops opening in the months following. On November 8, 1957, 19 new stores (besides Macy's), including a supermarket, celebrated their grand opening. The mall shop area (outside Macy's) was open-air and in an L-shape, split-level (i.e. on two levels, but not two stories one on top of another). It claimed to be the first shopping center in the

Western United States The Western United States (also called the American West, the Western States, the Far West, the Western territories, and the West) is List of regions of the United States, census regions United States Census Bureau. As American settlement i ...

to be built across two stories.

Expansion (1960s–1990s)

The mall continued to expand, and a new department store anchor,

Montgomery Ward Montgomery Ward is the name of two successive U.S. retail corporations. The original Montgomery Ward & Co. was a mail-order business and later a department store chain that operated between 1872 and 2001; its common nickname was "Monkey Wards". ...

opened a two-story, store and auto center on August 4, 1971. With Ward's the mall had grown to in size and had 62 stores. In 1972,

Bay Area Rapid Transit Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) is a rapid transit system serving the San Francisco Bay Area in California. BART serves 50 stations along six routes and of track, including eBART, a spur line running to Antioch, and Oakland Airport Connecto ...

opened Bay Fair station adjacent to the mall to the south, providing access via rapid rail transit. In 1977, owner Macy's announced a major renovation of the mall. It was enclosed and added escalators, air conditioning and carpeting. On the ground level, of retail space was added on and a further atrium and "specialty court" for boutiques and restaurants. On the new second level, of retail space was added. In a second pase, of retail space was adjacent to Macy's and elsewhere. In total, of space was added for about 40 additional shops, for a total of about 100 shops. A T.J. Maxx anchor opened April 28, 1994.

Hybrid power center (2000s–present)

In 2001, Montgomery Ward went bankrupt and closed its stores nationwide. The abandoned Ward's store was demolished and in October 2002, a Target Greatland opened on the site. Also In late 2002, the mall was acquired by Chicago-based M & J Wilkow Ltd. The updated shopping center measured . Bayfair's owner planned to remodel the ailing center into an open-air power center, renamed "Bayfair/580," which would have several big-box tenants and upscale "lifestyle-oriented" stores. The plan never came to fruition, however, and the mall was sold to Madison Marquette in late 2003. The Macy's continues to operate and the mall is enclosed, but by 2012, the other anchors were more typical of those in a power center:

big box stores A big-box store, a hyperstore, a supercenter, a superstore, or a megastore is a physically large retail establishment, usually part of a chain of stores. The term sometimes also refers, by extension, to the company that operates the store. The ...

, Staples,

Old Navy Old Navy is an American clothing and accessories retailing company owned by multinational corporation Gap Inc. It has corporate operations in the Mission Bay, San Francisco, Mission Bay neighborhood of San Francisco, California. The largest of t ...

, Bed Bath & Beyond, and

. There was also a Cinemark cinema multiplex. According to the city of San Leandro in a 2016 study, Bayfair has been successful in transforming itself to a tenant mix that meets with current needs. On September 22, 2022, it was announced that Bed Bath & Beyond would be closing as part of a plan to close 150 stores nationwide. On January 18, 2024, it was announced that Macy's would be closing as part of a plan to close 5 stores nationwide. Macy's closed in March 2024.

Plans for transit-oriented village

In 2018, the city of San Leandro adopted a plan to transform the Bay Fair neighborhood, including the mall and areas around it, into a transit-oriented "village", a high-density, mixed-use neighborhood with a street grid of small blocks to encourage walking and cycling, and including small parks and space for community events.