Eight Silicon Valley shopping centers they should tear down (and rebuild) right now

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Nathan Donato-Weinstein

Let us begin in Milpitas, where the Serra Center sits near the intersection of Highway 237 and Interstate 880. Its 16 acres are home to a Big Lots, Chili's and Days Inn, but the buildings are more than 40 years old and are really showing their age. What makes this a redevelopment play? Aside from the location near major arteries, the site is close to the under-construction Milpitas BART station, which is pushing up a ton of new rooftops. Fun fact: The center is named for Father Junipero Serra, who reportedly held penance for his priests at the location in 1778.

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Nathan Donato-Weinstein

Real Estate Reporter- Silicon Valley Business Journal

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Silicon Valley is all about the new — except when it comes to our shopping centers.

I mean, let's face it: There's a lot of older retail hubs out there. Which is no surprise, given that the region developed like gangbusters in the '60s and '70s, when the orchards were carved out to make way for homes, R&D buildings and strip malls.

Today, a lot of those old centers are being rehabbed or redeveloped. In the retail world, examples abound in Cupertino (Homestead Square), Santa Clara (Santa Clara Town Center), Palo Alto (Edgewood Plaza) and Mountain View (The Village at San Antonio Center).

Which got us thinking: Which retail centers ought to be next?

We put our heads together and asked you, our loyal readers, on Twitter for your suggestions. Then I traveled Silicon Valley to get a hands-on look. The result? The eight properties in this slideshow, which we consider ripe for redevelopment. Click the photo to start the trip, which winds from Milpitas and San Jose all the way to San Mateo.

It's nothing personal. Most of these properties are well-leased, well-managed operations. And some of them are among your humble narrator's favorite retail spots in Silicon Valley.

Also, it's important to point out that humbler retail offerings provide affordable locations for small businesses and tenants that couldn't afford a Class A location. Qualifications for making our list simply included location, age of the property, and size of the parcel, and proximity to other development happening in the neighborhood.

So what do you think? What's on your list? Did we get one wrong? Let us know in the comments or on Twitter.

Nathan Donato-Weinstein covers commercial real estate and transportation for the Silicon Valley Business Journal.