PruneYard Shopping Center
History
Fred Sahadi developed the PruneYard Shopping Center as part of a mixed-use development on the site of the Brynteson Ranch, which he bought in 1968. It was completed in 1970, designed to be an upscale shopping center. In 2014 Ellis Partners and Fortress Investment Group LLC bought it from Equity Office.
A major renovation and expansion began in 2017. The movie theater, the first business to open in the mall in 1969 as the three-screen United Artists Movie Theater, was renovated at the turn of the 21st century and became Camera 7; it closed in April 2017 and reopened in April 2018 as the Pruneyard Cinemas, with cocktails delivered to patrons' seats and the Cedar Room restaurant in the former location of Boswell's, a 1970s fern bar.
The Pruneyard was bought by Regency Centers in 2019. There are plans to add another office building and more retail.
Pruneyard Shopping Center v. Robins
In the late 1970s, the mall was involved in a free speech dispute with local high school students that was ultimately decided by the U.S. Supreme Court on June 9, 1980. The Pruneyard case established two important rules in American constitutional law:
- Under the California Constitution, individuals may peacefully exercise their right to free speech in parts of private shopping centers regularly held open to the public, subject to reasonable regulations adopted by the shopping centers.
- Under the U.S. Constitution, states can provide their citizens with broader rights in their constitutions than under the federal Constitution, so long as those rights do not infringe on any federal constitutional rights.
Gallery
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View across a parking lot of the tallest of the three towers
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The towers as seen from Route 17
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The inn
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Entrance to the movie theater in 2005