Palm Springs Mall Rises in the Desert
In 1959, Palm Springs Mall opened as Palm Springs Shopping Center at 2365 East Tahquitz Canyon Way, anchored first by Market Basket supermarket through a lease signed in July.
Developers Ray Ryan, Seeterra, Inc., Ernest W. Hahn, and Leonard Wolf planned the center with Los Angeles architects Mayer & Kanner and Leitch & Cleveland guiding the design.
By August 1959, a deal with a bowling operator secured a second attraction. That October, a 24-lane bowling alley opened, built for $1 million and dedicated by professional players.
The shopping center combined everyday retail with recreational space from the start. Its 25,000 square feet bowling facility included a plan for future expansion to 32 lanes.
Market Basket brought steady daily use while the lanes drew regional attention during events.
Together, these early anchors framed the property as a hybrid of commerce and leisure.
The year 1959 marked the beginning of a new retail layout for the community. Contracts, leases, and construction lined up quickly, moving from concept to completion within months.
With bowling in place and the Market Basket serving customers, the center entered the 1960s, positioned for more growth.
Enclosure and Expansion of the 1960s
Work crews began the mall's second phase in 1965, adding 289,000 square feet of enclosed, air-conditioned retail space.
This shift converted the open-air layout into a fully indoor shopping center.
The expansion brought JCPenney into Palm Springs as the anchor department store.
Alongside it came Bank of America, Thrifty Drugstore, Winchell's Donut House, and several food tenants, including a coffee shop and restaurant.
Entertainment mixed with retail in unusual ways. A cocktail lounge operated in the complex, and an ice skating rink drew visitors who weren't there to shop.
Children had an indoor-outdoor play area designed to keep families inside the mall longer.
By April 1969, the name had been shortened to Palm Springs Mall. In September, Palm Springs Life magazine described the property as the retail hub of the Coachella Valley.
The enclosed concourses drew shoppers from across the desert who could now bank, dine, and browse under one roof.
The second phase gave the property its enclosed identity and shifted its role from local center to regional mall.
With a department store, banking, drugstore, and recreation, the 1965 expansion established the layout that carried Palm Springs Mall into the next decade.
Anchors and Adjustments of the 1970s
Walker Scott opened inside Palm Springs Mall in 1970, becoming the second anchor after JCPenney.
The department store filled a dedicated space and added another retail engine to the property's growing roster.
With two new anchors in place, movement through the mall changed.
Shoppers gained momentum between the department stores, flowing past clothing racks, walls of shoes, and service counters nestled inside the smaller retail bays along a busy corridor.
The concourse looped, keeping attention centered.
Visitors found reasons to stay through a constant play area and a reliable skating rink. These elements were functional additions extending the visit duration.
Families with time to spare and children to entertain passed long stretches of time indoors, moving from retail to eateries to play spaces without returning outdoors.
Palm Springs Mall made no structural changes through the decade. It ran with the same anchors and amenities for years, maintaining a steady tenant mix and flow.
By the end of the 1970s, the layout still matched the plan shaped by the 1965 expansion.
But the next era wouldn't carry that stability. JCPenney was preparing to leave, and that vacancy would open the door to a much larger reshuffling.
Transformations of the 1980s
In 1983, JCPenney closed its Palm Springs Mall store and relocated to the newly built Palm Desert Town Center.
The departure left a gap in the anchor lineup and set the stage for large-scale renovation.
By 1986, Benequity Properties of Los Angeles financed a multimillion-dollar overhaul.
A food court was added, new retail spaces were built, and Kmart signed a lease to take over the former JCPenney spot.
Local retailer The Alley also joined the roster during this phase.
The renovation extended beyond tenants.
David L. Christian Associates of Palm Springs redesigned the facade, updated the parking lot, and installed fresh landscaping and lighting.
These upgrades reintroduced the property with a look that matched mid-1980s shopping trends.
Walker Scott, which had anchored since 1970, closed shortly after the remodel.
Its space didn't sit idle for long. On October 18, 1989, Buffums opened in the former Walker Scott location.
A ribbon-cutting led by then-mayor Sonny Bono marked the occasion, drawing attention to the store's arrival.
Buffums, a Long Beach-based chain, lasted only a short time before being replaced by Harris-Gottschalks.
Decline in the 1990s and 2000s
Through the 1990s, Palm Springs Mall held onto its anchors, but vacancies began to appear in smaller units.
Retail competition in the region grew, and the mall's concourses slowly lost the steady traffic that had carried it through the prior decade.
After filing Chapter 11 in 2009, the Gottschalks chain saw its Palm Springs location close later in the same year, removing the last department store on the property and leaving the property without any primary draw.
The loss marked a sharp turn for the center, which had already been thinning. Other large tenants soon departed.
Vons relocated its supermarket, True Value left its hardware retail space, Ross Dress for Less moved operations to another site, and OfficeMax shuttered its store.
Each closure deepened the vacancy problem, leaving long stretches of darkened storefronts along the main walkways.
By the end of the 2000s, Palm Springs Mall had little resemblance to its peak form. Anchor boxes stood empty, and inline stores struggled without anchor-driven circulation.
The decline wasn't sudden, but the pace of closures through the decade left the mall quiet and largely hollow by 2010.
Legal Battles and Demolition in the 2010s
In 2012, Chinese businessman Haiming Tan purchased the Palm Springs Mall property for $9.2 million through his company, YTC Investments.
At that time, most of the building stood empty after the anchor and chain stores had departed.
By 2014, College of the Desert identified the site as a potential campus location and made an offer to acquire it.
When negotiations failed, the college initiated legal proceedings under eminent domain, arguing for the right to take control of the vacant complex.
Court filings revealed friction between the owner and the city's involvement.
Attorneys for YTC Investments claimed the college had not provided adequate notice and argued the owner intended to pursue redevelopment plans that included both commercial and residential use.
The dispute stretched for years.
In 2017, a representative for Tan reiterated that the property was not for sale, signaling a standstill between private ownership and the public institution pressing for acquisition.
The stalemate ended after four years of litigation. College of the Desert finalized the purchase for $22 million, securing the property for educational redevelopment.
By May 2019, demolition crews moved in, tearing down the mall structure and clearing the site for the college's next phase.
Campus Construction in the 2020s
Demolition of Palm Springs Mall wrapped up in 2019, leaving an open site for redevelopment.
College of the Desert planned to turn the cleared land into a new satellite campus serving Palm Springs and the surrounding communities.
The first phase appeared on the 2023 schedule, and planning moved forward.
On November 14, 2024, a ceremony kicked off construction at the former Palm Springs Mall, turning the site from retail into an educational facility.
In March 2025, construction crews were active on the grounds. Work was underway, with plans calling for classrooms, labs, and support facilities designed for college programs.
In July 2025, College of the Desert presented an update to the Palm Springs City Council.
Officials outlined scheduling, progress, and upcoming phases of work. The presentation kept city leaders and the public informed as development advanced.
Fall 2027 is the projected opening for the campus. The finished development will erase visible traces of the former enclosed mall.