James J. Cordano developed Chico Mall, opening in 1988 in Chico, California, at a cost of more than $40 million, with original anchors Troutman’s Emporium, Gottschalks, Sears and JCPenney, the last of which relocated from the older North Valley Plaza mall across town; Longs Drugs, a planned tenant during early development, moved instead to nearby Paradise. The property opened with more than 95 stores.
Troutman’s went bankrupt and closed in 2003, with Dick’s Sporting Goods eventually taking the space in 2012 after earlier plans to demolish the building entirely for a new lifestyle-center wing were shelved. Gottschalks’ space became Forever 21 in 2009, which itself closed in 2020 as part of that chain’s 111-store national closure round; Sears, the last of the four original anchors, closed in 2021.
Current owner Ethan Conrad Properties has continued to operate the property under the Chico Marketplace name, a rebrand that predates the firm’s own ownership. At roughly 528,397 sqft, the property carries more than 65 stores anchored by JCPenney and Dick’s Sporting Goods, with Burlington, HomeGoods and H&M among the broader tenant base.
That complete anchor turnover, none of the four original 1988 department stores remaining, paired with a shift toward off-price, sporting-goods and fitness anchors, reflects how thoroughly this Northern California regional mall’s tenant base has been rebuilt since opening, even as its physical enclosed-mall structure and central role in Chico’s retail landscape (as the market’s only true “mall” following the older North Valley Plaza’s own conversion to a conventional shopping center) have persisted.
