University Village, Seattle
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| Location | Seattle, Washington, USA |
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| Website | Official Website |
University Village (colloquially known as U-Village or U-Vill) is an upscale shopping mall in Seattle, Washington, built at the south corner of Ravenna neighborhood. Located north of Downtown Seattle, University Village is an open-air lifestyle shopping center which offers restaurants, locally-owned boutiques, and signature national retailers. U-Village is a regional destination for home furnishings, popular fashions and unique gift items with a distinct collection of restaurants and eateries.
University Village was originally developed by Continental Inc. who also developed Westwood Village in West Seattle and Aurora Village in Shoreline, Washington.
The 24 acre (97,000 m²) shopping center was built in 1956 across NE 45th Street on an earlier part of the Montlake Landfill (since 1911, 1922–1966), taking out what remained of the Union Bay Marsh that was drained by the lowering of Lake Washington as a result of the opening of the Lake Washington Ship Canal (1913–1916). Some wetland was later partially restored as the Union Bay Natural Area with the Center for Urban Horticulture.
Until the early 1990s, the character of University Village was decidedly different. Most of its businesses were small, and the chain stores were all local: Ernst Hardware and Malmo Nursery, Lamonts department store (acquired by Gottschalks in 2000), Pay 'n Save Drugs (sold to PayLess Drug in the early 1990s), and QFC supermarket. There was even a bowling alley, Village Lanes. Many of the businesses began to falter toward the end of the 1980s, however, and in 1993 the owners of the mall decided to sell. For much of this period, University Village was owned by the Tektronix Retirement Investment Fund.
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