La Jolla Village Square is a retail power center with a collection of mostly big box retailers. Before 1992, was an enclosed upscale regional mall with department store anchors and an adjacent "convenience center" (or strip mall) portion. It is located in the La Jolla Village neighborhood of

San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

just south of

UC San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego in communications material, formerly and colloquially UCSD) is a public land-grant research university in San Diego, California, United States. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Sc ...

and about one mile west of

Westfield UTC Westfield UTC is an upscale, open-air shopping mall in the University City, San Diego, University City community of San Diego, California. It lies just east of La Jolla, near the University of California, San Diego. The mall is served by UTC Tr ...

, with which it used to compete as an upscale regional mall. It is across the street from "The Shops at La Jolla Village", whose tenants include

Whole Foods Market Whole Foods Market, Inc. (colloquially referred to as simply Whole Foods) is an American multinational supermarket chain store, chain headquartered in Austin, Texas, which sells products free from Hydrogenated fat, hydrogenated fats and artificia ...

Nordstrom Rack Nordstrom Rack is an American off-price department store chain founded in 1973. It is a sister brand to the luxury department store chain Nordstrom. , Nordstrom Rack operates 348 stores in 41 U.S. states. History In 1973, the company open ...

, and

CVS Pharmacy #REDIRECT CVS Pharmacy {{R from other capitalisation Company now has a new name to go along with it's anti-tobacco changes. New name is CVS Health ...

Current tenants

Current tenants include

Ralphs Ralphs is an American supermarket Chain stores, chain in Southern California. The largest subsidiary of Cincinnati-based Kroger, it is the oldest such chain west of the Mississippi River. Kroger also operates stores under the Food 4 Less and Fo ...

and

Trader Joe's Trader Joe's is an American grocery store chain headquartered in Monrovia, California, with 597 locations across the US. The first Trader Joe's store was opened in 1967 by founder Joe Coulombe in Pasadena, California. In 1979, the chain was s ...

supermarkets,

Marshalls Marshalls, Inc. is an American chain of discount store, off-price department stores owned by TJX Companies. Marshalls has over 1,000 American stores, including larger stores named Marshalls Mega Store (stores operating with HomeGoods combined), ...

Ross Dress for Less Ross Stores, Inc., operating under the brand name Ross Dress for Less, is an American chain of discount department stores headquartered in Dublin, California. It is the largest off-price retailer in the U.S.; as of July 2024, Ross operates 1,795 ...

, DSW,

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 ...

Cost Plus World Market World Market, formerly Cost Plus World Market, is an American chain of specialty/import retail stores, selling home furniture, decor, curtains, rugs, gifts, apparel, coffee, wine, craft beer, and international food products. The brand's origina ...

Bassett Furniture Bassett Furniture Industries, Inc. is a furniture manufacturer and retailer, headquartered in Bassett, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1902 by John D. Bassett, Charles C. Bassett, Samuel H. Bassett, and Reed L. Stone. Bassett Furnitur ...

, and

AMC Theatres AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. (doing business as AMC Theatres, originally an abbreviation for American Multi-Cinema; often referred to simply as AMC) is an American movie theater chain founded in Kansas City, Missouri, and now headquartered ...

. Eateries include Ike's Love and Sandwiches, Crumbl Cookies, the Kebab Shop,

Chipotle Mexican Grill Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. ( ), often known simply as Chipotle, is an American multinational chain of fast casual restaurants specializing in bowls, tacos, and Mission burritos made to order in front of the customer. As of March 31, 2025, C ...

Starbucks Starbucks Corporation is an American multinational List of coffeehouse chains, chain of coffeehouses and Starbucks Reserve, roastery reserves headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It was founded in 1971 by Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl, and Gor ...

, Crispy Chicken n' Tomato,

Chick-fil-A Chick-fil-A, Inc. ( , a Word play, play on the American English pronunciation of "wikt:filet#Pronunciation, filet") is an American fast food restaurant chain and the largest chain specializing in Chicken burger, chicken sandwiches. Headquarter ...

, Poke One N Half, Urban Plates, and ZPizza Tap Room.

History

Opened in 1979, original anchors were

Bullocks Wilshire Bullocks Wilshire, located at 3050 Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles, California, is a Art Deco building. The building opened in September 1929 as a luxury department store for owner John G. Bullock (owner of the more mainstream Bullock's in Dow ...

(later rebranded as I. Magnin) and

May Company California May Company California was an American department store chain founded in 1881 as A. Hamburger & Sons by Asher Hamburger. It was renamed after its acquisition by The May Department Stores Company in 1923. Its flagship store and headquarters wer ...

. In 1988 when

May Department Stores The May Department Stores Company was an American holding company of department stores founded in 1877 by David May. It operated several regional department stores throughout the United States, which were managed as distinct business divisions ...

almost sold the mall to T&S Development Inc., it had 48 stores and 362,420 square feet of retail space, but the deal fell apart at the last minute. Four years later, May Centers was finally able to sell La Jolla Village Square to Gordon/Beck Ventures in 1992 after a number of years of trying to locate a buyer for this particular property. The ''

San Diego Reader The ''San Diego Reader'' is an alternative press newspaper in San Diego County, California. Published weekly since October 1972, the ''Reader'' is distributed free on Wednesday and Thursday via street boxes and cooperating retail outlets. Hi ...

'' called the mall in 1982 the city's "carriage-trade center" and noted that the pace seemed "genteel": A 1992 plan led to the closure of the department stores (I. Magnin closed in 1993) and repurposed the property as a power center anchored by general and discount retailers, rather than upscale ones, including Whole Foods Market and

Sav-on Drugs Osco Drug and Sav-on Drugs were the names of a pair of chain store, chain pharmacy, pharmacies that operated in the United States. Osco Drug was founded by the Skaggs family. Alpha Beta grocery store was purchased by American Stores in 1961. S ...

(became CVS in 2006).

References

{{Authority control Shopping malls in San Diego County, California La Jolla, San Diego