Ideas for Lloyd Center were conceived as early as 1923. The mall was named after southern Californian oil company executive Ralph B. Lloyd who wished to build an area of self-sufficiency that included stores and residential locations. However, the mall wasn't built until 37 years later, due to major events such as World War II, the Great Depression, and Portland's conservative anti-development attitude.
1960–1988
The mall opened August 1, 1960 in a 100-store, open-air configuration. At the time, it was the largest shopping center in the Pacific Northwest and claimed to be the largest in the country. In 1960, Lloyd Center was located very close to the downtown retail core and was the first major retail development to seriously challenge it, aimed almost exclusively at commuters utilizing Portland's then-growing freeway system, especially the adjacent Banfield Expressway. The original anchor stores were Meier & Frankat the center, Best's and Nordstrom's Shoes anchoring the west end, J. C. Penney and Woolworth anchoring the east, and J. J. Newberry the north. The Newberry store was the national chain's largest at the time of its opening. The Seattle-based Nordstrom's Shoes chain acquired Best's apparel in 1963 and rebranded all locations as Nordstrom Best in 1967. The Nordstrom nameplate was adopted in 1973. As of 1971, Lloyd Center's five largest stores were, from largest to smallest, Meier & Frank, Newberry's, Penney's, F. W. Woolworth and Nordstom Best. The first significant expansion to the mall since its opening in 1960 was made in fall 1972, adding six stores. The expansion included the addition of a Lipman's store. In 1973, the JCPenney store was remodeled and expanded to. Frederick & Nelson acquired the Lipman's chain in 1979, and the Lloyd Center Lipman's store was renamed Frederick & Nelson. The store subsequently went through a dizzying succession of owners, nameplates and locations within the mall. It appears that, in 1988, Nordstrom moved into the old Lipmans/Frederick and Nelson building. The Lipmans name was apparently reinstated at a new location in the north end of the mall in 1987, only to be replaced by that of Spokane-based The Crescent later in the same year. In March 1988, the store was acquired by Bellevue, Washington-based Lamonts.
1988–present: Renovation and new look
By 1987, the mall was aging and enclosed malls were becoming the norm across the United States. Between 1988 and 1991 the mall was gradually renovated. Nordstrom ended up demolishing the Lipmans store and opening an entirely new location on its space in August 1990. The former Nordstrom spaces had been gutted and refitted as inline stores, followed by a mall-wide renovation around late 1990-early 1991 which fully enclosed the mall and added a food court. The remodeled shopping hub was rededicated in August 1991. Glimcher Realty Trust bought the center in 1998 for $167 million. JCPenney closed in June 1998 and was replaced by Sears in November 1999. The Newberry's store closed in 2001, when the entire chain went out of business; it was the last Newberry's in Oregon. Meier & Frank became Macy's in 2006. Glimcher Realty Trust sold 60% of the center to Blackstone Real Estate Partners in 2010 after a deal to sell the entire mall fell through the year before. Lloyd Center was sold by Glimcher to Cypress Equities Real Estate Investment Management in June 2013. In February 2014, it was announced that Nordstrom would be closing its store at the mall; the store closed on January 10, 2015. An 18-month, $50 million renovation began in March 2015, alongside the closure of the Regal 8 cinema. Entrances to the mall will be made more pedestrian-friendly and the central space will be reconfigured with a spiral staircase. The changes are partially in response to the increasing population of the Lloyd District from newly constructed apartment buildings. In August 2016, Sears sold its space to the mall's owners, who were reported to be planning a major remodeling of its upper floors, demolishing the fourth floor and expanding the third floor. On January 4, 2018, Sears announced that its Lloyd Center store would be closing in early April 2018 as part of a plan to close 103 stores nationwide. On December 14, 2018, the TJX Companies announced that Marshalls would be closing in January 2019 which left Macy's as the only anchor left.
Public transit
Lloyd Center is accessible by TriMet's MAX light rail service, which stops one block south of the mall, at the Lloyd Center/Northeast 11th Avenue station. The area is also served by several bus stops around the mall facility. The Portland Streetcar's A Loop has a stop two blocks west of the Lloyd Center, at NE 7th & Halsey. C-Tran serves Lloyd Center with its commuter express route 157 from 99th Street Transit Center in Vancouver.
Court cases
Lloyd Center has played a role in the history of freedom of speech in the United States, especially with regard to the scope of free speech within private shopping centers. Lloyd Center was the defendant in the landmark cases of Lloyd Corp. v. Tanner,, a decision of the U.S. Supreme Court involving First Amendment rights and private property, and Lloyd Corp. v. Whiffen, 307 Or. 674, 773 P.2d 1293, a decision of the Oregon Supreme Court.
