Florin Towne Centre
Florin Towne Centre, formerly Florin Mall and Florin Center, is an outdoor shopping center in the unincorporated area of Parkway-South Sacramento near Sacramento, California, United States. It opened in 2008 on the site of the old Florin Mall, which closed and was demolished in 2006. The center is anchored by AutoZone, PetSmart and Walmart Supercenter. History. Florin Mall. Florin Mall (originally named Florin Center) was built by the James J. Cordano Company and Blumenfield Enterprises. The single-level center was situated on , southeast of downtown Sacramento. It was the Sacramento area's first fully enclosed shopping  mall built from the ground up. The site had previously been utilized as the Sky Ranch Airfield. The mall was opened in February 1968 and was anchored by a 3-level, , Sacramento-based Weinstock's, which held its grand opening October 9, 1967. The mall also included a 2-level, Sears and a 2-level, JCPenney. Other major stores surrounding the mall (but not part of the property) were Montgomery Ward (now Burlington), Zody's (later Pak 'n Save) and a White Front discount store (later Price Club). On March 23, 1968 during the 1968 US presidential campaign, Senator Robert  F Kennedy made a campaign stop at the recently opened Florin Mall. The only physical expansion of the shopping center was completed in 1978. A 1-level, addition was built at the main entrance at the front of the mall, increasing its gross leasable area to . As the second mall-type center on Sacramento's south side, it eclipsed its nearest commercial competitor, Southgate Plaza. By the 1980s, Florin Mall was becoming rather notorious as a haven for shootings, stabbings and car thefts. Local gangs had made the complex a regular hangout spot by the early 1990s. Customers began wafting  to other frequent regional centers, such as Arden Fair, Downtown Plaza and Sunrise Mall. A remodeling of Weinstock's in 1989 and a facelift renovation of the mall proper in the second half of 1990 did little to dispel the negative image that the center had taken on, especially in 1991 when four perpetrators took 41 people hostage at a Good Guys! electronics store that was adjacent to the mall. It resulted in the deaths of three hostages, injuring 14 others and remains, to this day, the largest hostage rescue operation in U.S. history. With the acquisition of Weinstock's  by Federated Department Stores in August 1995, it was decided that the Florin Mall location be shuttered rather than converting it to Macy's. The store closed in March 1996. This was seen as the first significant decline to Florin Mall. JCPenney was converted to an outlet store in November 1998. The store was shuttered in 2003, leaving Sears as the sole anchor of the mall. In a state of disrepair for some time, the bulk of Florin Mall was purchased by San Francisco's Jim Kessler and Prudential Insurance Company in October 2005. The mall closed on February 28 , 2006. It was fully demolished in July 2006 (including the former JCPenney and Weinstock's anchors) leaving Sears, its Auto Center, and five outparcels standing. Florin Towne Centre. Construction of Florin Towne Centre commenced shortly after Florin Mall was demolished. On March 6, 2008, Mervyn's became the first store to open in the new shopping center, however the store was short-lived as it was shuttered in February 2009 when the entire chain went out of business. It sat vacant the majority of the time (aside from temporary usage for seasonal retailers such as Halloween City) until 2019 when  AutoZone opened in a portion of the former Mervyn's. The other major opening in 2008 was fitness chain 24 Hour Fitness. Walmart opened on June 17, 2009, replacing a former store to the west (the old store re-opened six years later as Walmart's Neighborhood Market format in 2015, occupying only half of the old store's original footprint, but later closed in 2019). PetSmart opened on November 12, 2011 in a building adjacent to the former Mervyn's that was originally intended for Old Navy, but never opened. Other retailers include Eyeglass World, GameStop, GNC, Starbucks, and  Verizon Wireless. Florin Towne Centre has a total area of , a much smaller footprint than its predecessor as the bulk of the old mall's footprint now serves as the parking lot for Walmart and other neighboring businesses. In 2015, Sears Holdings spun off 235 of its properties, including the Sears at the Florin Towne Centre, into Seritage Growth Properties. On October 15, 2018, it was announced that Sears would be closing as part of a plan to close 142 stores nationwide. The store closed later that year. Sears was the only remnant and remaining anchor from the former Florin  Mall that continued to operate until its closure. In 2021, 24 Hour Fitness was shuttered.