A Mall Built for the Bay
Walk past the cracked sidewalk along 3300 Broadway, and the first thing that hits you is the scale.
Bayshore Mall has kept the same long, low shape it had when it first opened in 1988 with Sears, Mervyn’s, Gottschalks, and JCPenney as anchor stores.
The building has a flat roof that has stayed the same since it was built. For many years, Bayshore Mall was the only indoor mall between San Francisco and the Oregon state line.
Retail Construction and Early Foot Traffic
Bayshore Mall opened in 1988, built into the flat coastal stretch near Broadway at the western edge of Eureka.
There wasn’t much around it then beyond highway traffic and the smell of the bay hanging in the air.
The mall was laid out like many others from the late 1980s, with four big department stores set at the corners for different groups of shoppers.
Mervyn’s was at one end, Gottschalks was at another, and Sears and JCPenney completed the main group of anchor stores.
Each anchor store had regular customers during the week and more families on weekends, combining well-known retail brands with local shopping habits.
Longs Drugs was one of the early tenants, too, until it closed and handed its space off to Petco in 2004.
For about twenty years, people came back for seasonal shopping like school shoes before fall, holiday gifts, and snacks on weekends.
Some sections of the mall started to empty out in the early 2000s. A few places never filled back in.
The anchor stores remained, but it was clear the mall was starting to change.
Bankruptcy Closures and Replacement Leases
The first major store closure was Mervyn’s, which filed for bankruptcy at the end of 2008 and left the south anchor spot empty.
That space did not stay empty for long. Kohl’s moved in and opened on September 27, 2009. But the anchor count never quite stabilized again.
Gottschalks shut down in July 2009, a few months after Mervyn’s, leaving a two-story building with 73,000 square feet and no sign on the front.
By the next summer, plans had been submitted for Walmart to take it over. Work began soon after, and Walmart opened in that location on June 12, 2012.
In the middle of those moves, JCPenney downsized, tried an outlet format, then exited altogether.
Borders and Bed Bath & Beyond split the resulting space. Borders closed in September 2011 when the company went out of business.
By 2013, TJ Maxx filled that slot, and ULTA Beauty and Sports Authority moved into the spot once used by The Movies.
Each new store was more of an adjustment than a full comeback. The new stores did not directly replace what was there before.
The mix of stores changed the mall from full-service retail to a more mixed group of tenants.
Even as new signs went up, the foot traffic never spread evenly again.
Certain parts of the mall continued to see regular activity. Other areas became less busy as time went on.
Structural Shifts and Post-Quake Recovery
At 4:27 pm on January 9, 2010, a 6.5 earthquake hit about 27 miles off the coast of Eureka.
Ceiling tiles fell, the sprinklers turned on, and some floor areas cracked inside Bayshore Mall during the earthquake.
Emergency responders inspected the building. Engineers said the building was safe and not seriously damaged, but cleaning up took some time.
Some stores were able to open again soon after. Other stores remained closed for several days, and the smell of damp carpet stayed in those areas.
In the years after, the mix of stores in the mall shifted and reorganized.
The Movies, a locally run cinema operation, closed in December 2009, just weeks before the quake.
Sbarro closed in 2014, after its national chain went through bankruptcy.
RadioShack, which had been near the center of the mall, closed.
Planet Fitness took half of the former Hometown Buffet space in early 2016, after delays due to renovations and lease issues.
Staples moved into the other half of that space around the same time.
New tenants started to rent smaller areas instead of bigger sections, and the overall layout of the mall changed.
Anchor Turnover and Market Consolidation
Old Navy came back to the mall on June 29, 2019. The store had closed ten years earlier as part of a wave of anchor store changes.
This time, it opened in the space vacated by Sports Authority, which had closed in June 2016 following the company’s bankruptcy.
Most of the old store layout was reused, which made the process quicker, but the atmosphere was not the same as before.
Old Navy’s return did not mean the mall was recovering in a major way. The move was one of several planned efforts to fill empty spaces.
Sears was the last of the original anchor stores and stayed open until December 1, 2019.
Sears closed as part of a company-wide plan that shut down 85 locations across the country.
After Sears closed, the signs were taken down quickly, but the outline of the old letters could still be seen on the wall.
In 2020, Pier 1 Imports also closed, leaving its store empty after the company said it would close over 400 locations in the country.
Ray’s Food Place was in a separate building next to Kohl’s and closed at the end of 2013 after its parent company filed for bankruptcy.
Sportsman’s Warehouse later took over that building.
Bed Bath & Beyond closed in 2023, its bankruptcy cutting off one more link in the national-to-local retail chain.
Every anchor store that closed left another empty space on the outside of the mall.
The central part of the mall stayed active, but the areas around it became less consistent.
Current Leasing Footprint and Transit Connectivity
As of mid-2025, Bayshore Mall has about 45 tenants open.
Two anchors remain in place: Walmart, opened in 2012, and Kohl’s, which took over Mervyn’s old space in 2009.
Other major stores in the mall include TJ Maxx, Ross Dress for Less, Staples, Old Navy, ULTA Beauty, Sportsman’s Warehouse, and Petco, all of which remain open and continue to bring in shoppers.
The layout of the mall is mostly the same as it was ten years ago, even though some stores have come and gone.
The inside hallways still go past planter beds with tile and polished concrete floors that show reflections from the ceiling.
The central food court does not have major chain restaurants anymore, but most of the retail space is still in use.
Local buses continue to stop at Bayshore Mall.
The Eureka Transit Service has a stop near the mall, and maps show the Red, Green, Gold, and Rainbow routes.
Redwood Transit System also runs its mainline through the area, connecting the property to the rest of Humboldt County.
People sit on benches outside Walmart, waiting for the bus during the day, wearing jackets to shield themselves from the wind on Broadway.
Public Feedback and Civic Planning Proposals
In March 2025, 3,442 people took part in a public poll about Bayshore Mall’s future.
The poll was based on the idea that changes would be made and asked people what changes they preferred.
The options they named were housing, areas for art, movie production space, senior centers, indoor recreation sites, and displays about the history of cannabis.
The answers showed people were open to a variety of ideas, but there was no clear agreement on what should happen.
In the same month, city officials mentioned a capstone project by four Cal Poly Humboldt students to come up with new ideas for the Bayshore Mall.
The students met with Eureka’s Development Services to start planning ways the space might be used.
This was the first time in years that the mall was being considered for a new purpose, not just a new store.
The DMV leaving the mall showed this change in direction. A state agency that had regular customers chose to leave the mall.
The DMV closed its office at the mall on May 16, 2025, and reopened at 2500 Sixth Street on June 4.
And just outside the parking lot, Caltrans broke ground on the South Broadway Complete Streets Project, installing bike lanes, lighting, and safety upgrades that are set to continue through 2026.