On May 3, 1972, plans for Oregon's largest shopping mall at that time were announced by Winmar Pacific, Inc., a developer bought by Safeco in 1967. It was to be a development with space for 100 stores. The mall was to include over on in an L-shaped pattern. On August 16, 1973, Meier & Frank became the first tenant to open at the mall. Sears and Lipman's then opened that November, followed by Liberty House and Nordstrom during the summer of 1974. The grand opening of the facility began on February 21, 1974. It is located southwest of Portland in an area known as Progress, which at the time was entirely unincorporated and located between the cities of Beaverton and Tigard. In April 1978, the Liberty House store, located on the mall's north side, was taken over by Frederick & Nelson. The following year, Frederick & Nelson acquired the entire Lipman's chain, and in connection with that acquisition, F&N moved within the mall from the space it had occupied for only one year to the much larger ex-Lipman's space, on the mall's west side. Mervyn's took over the space vacated by F&N and originally occupied by Liberty House, opening its store in October 1979. In 1986, the cities of Beaverton, Tigard, and Portland fought to annex the unincorporated territory on which the mall was located. Tigard was awarded the right to annex Washington Square along with other adjacent properties that contain Lincoln Center and the Embassy Suites Hotel. Following Frederick & Nelson's bankruptcy and store closure in January 1991, Nordstrom acquired the vacant space and demolished it, constructing a larger replacement for its existing store; this new Nordstrom opened in 1994. At that time, the former Nordstrom space was acquired by the mall and reconfigured as a food court and additional retail space, coinciding with the renovation of the mall. By the mid-1990s the mall had an average sales per square foot that placed it in the top 10% of malls nationwide. In December 1998, the mall was sold by Safeco, a Seattle-headquartered insurance company, to a partnership of The Macerich Company and Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan ; at the time of the sale Washington Square was "one of the most productive malls on the West Coast", with sales approaching $500 per square foot. Macerich, a Real Estate Investment Trust, took over management of the property. In 2005, Macerich opened a addition, housing 30 more stores. At the same time, other improvements were made throughout the mall and two new parking structures were added. Mervyn's closed in November 2005 and their location, which they owned, was sold to the mall. The site was refurbished and reopened as Dick's Sporting Goods in March 2008. In February 2011, Swedish clothing retailer H&M opened their doors at Washington Square. It is the company's second location in Oregon. In 2015, Sears Holdingsspun off 235 properties, including the Sears at Washington Square, into Seritage Growth Properties. On October 15, 2018, original anchor store Sears announced that their location at Washington Square would be closing as part of the chain's bankruptcy filing.
Layout
The current configuration has five department store anchors, 210 specialty shops & restaurants, and a food court. Some of the stores are located in an adjacent outdoor plaza known as "Square Too". Most of the mall is on a single level; however, the anchor stores have multiple levels, the food court is on a second level, and the expansion in 2005 was built so that it could accommodate a second-level addition at a later date. TriMet maintains the Washington Square Transit Center on the mall's premises.
