Milpitas Square:


Silicon Valley's
Asian Mega-Mall


Forum on Great Asian Malls & Supermarkets

GREAT ASIAN MALLS & SUPERMARKETS

Milpitas Square

Milpitas Square
190 Barber Lane
Milpitas, CA

s the professional class of the region's dominant industry, Silicon Valley Asians are used to being catered to. That's why Milpitas Square developers had to really raise the bar when they set out to open an Asian mall that would impress even this spoiled population. First, it had to be huge. Milpitas Square takes up the same acreage (17) as five football fields and encloses 165,000 square feet of space. It has parking space for 1,100 cars. A big Ranch 99 market is the anchor tenant among the mall's 60 establishments.

     Secondly, the mall had to be pan-Asian to accommodate the Valley's cosmopolitan mix. The Square's 18 restaurants are very possibly the largest collection of Asian restaurants gathered under one roof in the entire state. They represent the gamut of Asian cuisines. The mall contains 9 different varieties of Chinese cuisine, including Islamic and vegetarian. The other 8 restaurants are divided between Japanese (2), Vietnamese, French-Vietnamese, Filipino, Malaysian, Thai, Californian and a Steak House. The Mayflower Seafood Restaurant is the Silicon Valley's largest, with banquet seating for 500. The idea is, if you know you want Asian but need time to decide, just hop in the car and head for Milpitas Square.

     The strategy worked. Ten thousand attended its grand opening in 1996. Though there has been talk of the International Marketplace in San Pablo being expanded to 600,000 square feet, for the present, Milpitas Square is the Bay Area's biggest Asian mall.


msq map

GREAT ASIAN AMERICAN MALLS & SUPERMARKETS

“The idea is, if you know you want Asian but need time to decide, just hop in the car and head for Milpitas Square.”