Fashion Fair Mall

Fashion Fair is an enclosed regional shopping mall in Fresno, California, United States, anchored by two Macy's stores, JCPenney, and Forever 21. Originally opened in 1970, Fashion Fair was expanded in 1983 (to accommodate Macy's and a new food court) and in 2005 (with the addition of an outdoor lifestyle wing). It competes with The Shops at River Park and Fig Garden Village, two outdoor shopping centers in the city of Fresno. History The mall was built in 1970 by the MacDonald Group and was sold in 1987. The mall originally opened with Gottschalks, JCPenney, and Weinstock's; Macy's joined the roster in 1983, along with an expansion wing west of JCPenney that included a food court. As a result, the mall has the distinction where one has to enter JCPenney to access one end of the mall to the other while inside. In 1996, Weinstock's parent company, Broadway Department Stores, merged with its competitor, Federated Department Stores. While most of Broadway's stores were converted to the Macy's nameplate, Weinstock's stores in Fresno and Modesto were traded to Gottschalks. This allowed Gottschalks to take over the larger Weinstock's buildings, while Macy's converted the original Gottschalks stores into separate Macy's Men's & Children's stores. Gottschalks filed for bankruptcy in 2009 and sold its lease to Forever 21. In 2019, Macy's relocated the children's department back to the original Macy's building to make room for the addition of Macy's Backstage. After an extensive remodel, Forever 21 opened on April 1, 2011; this was the largest Forever 21 operating in the United States (at the time) at 164,052 square feet. Approximately one year after opening, the store downsized and took the third level out of service. In spring 2019, amid company restructuring, the store downsized again, leaving only the first floor in use. The second level partially reopened on August 30, 2019, however, was closed again by October 24, 2019, leaving only the first floor in use once again. Forever 21 filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on September 29, 2019. On October 1, 2019, this location was placed on the initial list of stores set to close by the end of the year. By October 31, 2019, the store was removed from the list of locations to close.