Montgomery Ward and Service Merchandise were the first to fall, then Bealls, then Mervyn's. Smaller merchants toppled in their wake, one by one hollowing out the sprawling San Jacinto Mall.
The long corridors are today mostly vacant. Sears, Macy's and J.C. Penney stand as the only remaining department stores, vestiges of last century's retail boom.
Now, an ambitious plan to transform the aging mall into an open-air shopping center has slowed as the property's oldest tenants struggle in a rapidly changing retail environment. A decades-old contract gave the stores the power to determine the fate of the redevelopment, and each has held out on approving it during months of negotiations interrupted by turmoil across the sector.
