Redevelopment plans for Tanforan Shopping Center have been unveiled, with an expansive mixed-use village with 2 million square feet of life science and office space and 1,000 housing units.

A decade-long effort to tell the story of 8,000 Bay Area residents of Japanese ancestry who were incarcerated during World War II at the site of what is now the Tanforan shopping center in San Bruno is now reality.

After 51 years of serving as a staple shopping destination in San Bruno, The Shops at Tanforan will soon close after it was bought by a Pasadena-based real estate developer. “It’s not surprising because we’ve seen the way that malls have been going with online shopping becoming such a dominant way to purchase,” Walz said. “And, of course, we’ve seen the decline of shopping in general over the course of COVID-19.”

San Bruno city officials Friday lauded a multimillion-dollar real estate purchase by a major developer that will enable the developer to transform a dying mall into housing and a sprawling campus for biotech and tech firms.

A decade-long effort to tell the story of 8,000 Bay Area residents of Japanese ancestry who were incarcerated during World War II at the site of what is now the Tanforan shopping center in San Bruno is now reality.