How The Mall Of Victor Valley, Victorville, CA, Changed The High Desert

The Mall of Victor Valley is a regional shopping mall in Victorville, in California's High Desert region of San Bernardino County.

It is located at Bear Valley Road just off Interstate 15, placing it at one of the Victor Valley area's main commercial gateways and giving it easy access from the broader regional road network.

The mall functions as the primary enclosed retail and entertainment center for the surrounding trade area, serving Victorville as well as nearby communities including Hesperia, Apple Valley, and Adelanto.

Opened in 1986, after development in the mid-1980s, it became the central indoor shopping destination for the Victor Valley and has long held a dominant position as the region's principal enclosed mall.

The Mall of Victor Valley in Victorville, CA

A Saturday in the High Desert, November 1986

In November 1986, anyone taking the Bear Valley Road exit off Interstate 15 on a Saturday would immediately see the mall.

It was a busy day, and the parking lot was full of cars from around the Mojave Desert towns.

Forest City Enterprises built the mall because that need was obvious. The area was growing quickly, but had no enclosed regional shopping center.

The closest comparable regional mall was to the south in San Bernardino County. There was no other regional option in the High Desert.

Freeway access from I-15 made the mall easy to reach. When it opened, Harris, JCPenney, and Mervyn's served as anchor stores.

JCPenney opened with the mall in 1986 and has stayed ever since. It now occupies 91,800 square feet under a lease that runs through March 2033.

The Mall of Victor Valley: Planned Bigger, Opened in 1986

The original plan for The Mall of Victor Valley was much bigger than what was actually built.

It was described as including apartments, schools, medical buildings, and a public park with a lake. The idea was to create a full community centered around the mall.

None of those pieces was ultimately developed.

What opened in 1986 was a single-story enclosed mall surrounded by extensive surface parking.

It had three department store anchors and no additional mixed-use development. The enclosed design was important in the High Desert.

Summer temperatures rise above 100 degrees, and winter nights can fall below freezing.

Being able to walk between stores without going outside is not just a convenience in Victorville. It helps keep shoppers inside longer.

Construction was underway in 1985, and the mall opened to the public in 1986. At opening, the mall covered about 579,000 square feet.

Sears Arrives, and Entertainment Expands

Sears joined The Mall of Victor Valley in 1989 as its fourth anchor. The mall also added a 10-screen AMC theater. In a market this far from other options, a theater draws consistent traffic.

Visitors arrive on weekday nights and weekends, often walking through the shopping areas as part of their trip.

With Sears and AMC in place, the mall took on a four-anchor format that combined shopping with entertainment.

That mix remained in place for many years. Together, the additions expanded the building and broadened the tenant lineup.

AMC was later replaced by Cinemark, which now operates a 16-screen theater at the property.

The theater covers 62,000 square feet and has a lease that expires on November 2026. That timing overlaps with the planned opening of Round1 in the former Sears space.

Macerich Takes Over in 2004

On July 1, 2004, Macerich acquired The Mall of Victor Valley as part of a $151 million deal that also included La Cumbre Plaza in Santa Barbara.

The Victor Valley property came with an existing $54 million fixed-rate loan.

At the time of purchase, the mall measured 508,000 square feet, with its most recent expansion completed in 2001.

The four anchor stores were Gottschalks, JCPenney, Mervyn's, and Sears. The original Harris name from 1986 was no longer there.

The chain had merged with Gottschalks in the late 1990s, and the Gottschalks brand replaced it.

Mervyn's was a California-based department store chain that had been losing customers to larger national retailers for years before the acquisition.

Gottschalks operated mainly in the western United States and did not have the size to handle a long downturn. Both stores were still operating in 2004. Neither remained open by the end of 2009.

Two Anchors Collapse Within a Year

Mervyn's filed for bankruptcy in July 2008 and was liquidated. Gottschalks entered liquidation in March 2009.

Two of the four anchor positions were thrown into transition within a year, leaving major gaps in a building designed to move shoppers between all four corners.

The former Mervyn's space was taken over by Forever 21 in February 2009 - a youth fashion chain that occupied a box built for a full department store.

Forever 21 ran for less than three years before closing that Victorville location in January 2012. JCPenney later moved into the larger space, roughly doubling its footprint in a single relocation.

The Gottschalks box sat vacant through late 2009, 2010, 2011, and into 2012 while Macerich worked on the deal that would bring Macy's to Victorville.

At its lowest point, two of The Mall of Victor Valley's four anchor positions were in transition.

The Three-Year Rebuild That Remade the Mall

Macy's announced in November 2011 that it would open a 103,000-square-foot store in the former Gottschalks space - the first Macy's in Victorville and the 11th in the Riverside-San Bernardino market, with about 140 employees.

The project expanded and renovated an existing 72,000-square-foot shell.

In February 2012, JCPenney's move into the former Forever 21 space was confirmed - nearly 100,000 square feet, roughly twice its previous footprint.

The Mall of Victor Valley measured 544,000-plus square feet at that stage, with Sears and Cinemark already operating. Macy's opened in spring 2013.

Dick's Sporting Goods held a grand-opening weekend beginning October 18, 2013, in the space the original JCPenney had vacated.

The City of Victorville signed a redevelopment agreement with Macerich running from 2012 through 2039, with city assistance payments tied to sales-tax growth above $1 million and capped at $18.9 million over the life of the deal.

Macy's owns its own building at the site and ground-leases the land - the 103,000-square-foot store sits on a parcel separate from the mall's collateral.

Sears Goes Dark, Then a New Plan Emerges

Sears survived the 2012-2013 rebuild but not the next wave of national closures.

In November 2019, Transform Holdco announced 96 Sears and Kmart store closings; the Victorville location at 14420 Bear Valley Road was on the list, set to close by February 2020.

The 78,000-square-foot box went dark and stayed that way for years. By 2024, Sears was listed as a dark tenant with its base rent excluded from underwriting and a lease expiration in October 2024.

Macerich signed Round1 Bowling and Amusement to fill the space.

Round1 is a Japanese entertainment chain that operates bowling lanes, billiards, karaoke rooms, and a large arcade mixing American classics with Japanese gaming machines, along with a dedicated Japanese food hall called Yuu.

The Round1 project won a 2026 CoStar Impact Award for the Inland Empire. Round1 is scheduled to open in late 2026, roughly six years after the box first went dark.

The Mall in 2026 and What the Numbers Show

In August 2024, Macerich closed an $85 million, ten-year refinance on the property at a fixed rate of 6.7%, maturing in September 2034.

The overall complex covers 589,000 square feet, of which 479,000 are owned by the borrowing entity - Macy's and Red Lobster sit on 109,900 square feet of separately held parcels.

The Mall of Victor Valley has 4,164 surface parking spaces and was 98% leased as of 2025. Occupancy ran 98.8% in 2021, 96.5% in 2022, 99.1% in 2023, and 98.9% in 2024.

JCPenney, Dick's Sporting Goods, and Cinemark are the three principal anchors on the collateral portion of the property.

The three largest tenants are Cinemark, Dick's Sporting Goods, and Victoria's Secret. Dick's occupies 50,000 square feet under a lease running to January 2029.

The mall lists more than 100 stores and eateries, including Hollister, Bath and Body Works, JD Sports, Red Robin, and a 14-unit food court.

The trade area holds roughly 456,000 people, with 186,000 in the daytime population within five miles of the building.