Toys “R” Us Is Coming Back to South Hill Mall, Just Not to Its Old Store

The big storefront across from Red Robin at 3551 Ninth St. was empty for almost nine years. Toys “R” Us moved out in 2017. The brand itself shut down in Chapter 11 bankruptcy the next year. The space is now becoming the South Hill Asian Center, with an international grocery store on one side and a food court on the other.

Toys “R” Us is coming back too, but to a different spot. The brand is under new ownership and plans a holiday shop in the mall's Target Concourse, near the food court. So the old toy store is turning into a place to eat, and the new toy store is being placed beside the food court. This holiday season, South Hill Mall is betting on food to bring people in, and the toy shop is a trial run that gets to use that foot traffic.

Why the Old Toy Store Took So Long to Fill

Brian Hoang owns Hong Kong Market, the chain behind the new center. He told The News Tribune that the long wait came from the landlord:

"The landlord has been very selective of who is going in there and they wait for the right tenants and the right business concept that will bring more traffic to their shopping mall."

That's the reason a big box sat empty through most of a decade. The landlord could have leased it to another store years ago. Instead it held out for a tenant that gives people a reason to come to the mall again and again, and groceries plus a food court do that better than almost anything else. People shop for groceries every week.

Puyallup shoppers were already making that trip, just not to Puyallup. Hong Kong Market opened its first store in Kent in 2008 and later added Federal Way and Burien. South Hill will be its fourth location and its first in Pierce County. Hoang told The News Tribune, "We have a lot of customers from Puyallup coming to our locations and asking us when we're going to have a location in Puyallup and we've been looking in the Puyallup area for a long time." For South Hill households that used to drive up to Federal Way for groceries, that trip is about to get much shorter.

What Goes Inside the Old Toys “R” Us

The grocery side is meant to be broader than the "Asian Center" name suggests. Here's how Hoang described it to The News Tribune: "Our focus is not quite just Asian food but international food. When you walk into our store, you will see everything from, obviously, Asian seasoning and ingredients but also Middle Eastern, and we have aisles of American food and seasoning. It's like you would find at Safeway or Whole Foods."

The food court will have eight stalls. As of March, Hoang had signed five of them:

• Asia XPress: build-your-own Asian meals, including bulgogi, yakisoba, kimbap and banh mi
• Mr. Dim Sum: Chinese classics plus dumplings and buns
• Natalie's Sugarcane and Dessert: Vietnamese treats and sugarcane drinks
• Pho J: a Vietnamese restaurant focused on soups
• A Korean food vendor: no name announced yet

At that point he was still looking for three more vendors. He told the paper he wanted tacos, burgers and Japanese ramen. Those three choices show what he's going for. With them, the food court would serve a family where one person wants pho and another wants a burger, all at the same table.

The Shop That Moved In Next Door

The new Toys “R” Us is run by Go! Retail Group. These shops are smaller than the old stores, "with a curated assortment of popular toys and brands including LEGO, Barbie, Hot Wheels, NERF, PAW Patrol, and more," according to the release covered by The News Tribune. The South Hill shop will be more than 5,000 square feet, in the Target Concourse near the food court.

It's part of a large national rollout. The retailer plans 120 standalone stores this fall, on top of 40 standalone stores and shops inside Macy's that were already open, including the one at Tacoma Mall. Other new Western Washington locations include the Outlet Collection Seattle in Auburn and the Vancouver Mall.

The lease is the key detail. Joe Bell, a media representative for South Hill Mall, told The News Tribune that the store's lease runs for one year. "We would be happy to see that extended," he added. In mid-September, Forbes reported that the retailer expects many of its new stores to stay open after the holidays, depending on demand. The lease gets the South Hill shop through roughly a year. Whether it stays after that depends on whether the mall and the retailer extend it, and on how much the busy food court helps it.

What's Open Now and What Still Says "Coming Soon"

The two biggest openings were both aimed at October. Neither had a firm date as of mid-October.

Back in March, Hoang hoped to finish construction in September and open in October. In mid-October, the mall's page for the South Hill Asian Center still said "COMING SOON," with no opening date and no hours. The Hong Kong Market website still read "COMING SOON IN 2026!" and was hiring for South Hill.

Toys “R” Us was also aimed at October. Both The News Tribune and MyNorthwest reported that no exact start date had been announced. In mid-October, the mall's store page for it still said "COMING SOON." If you're heading over for one of these two, check the mall's store pages before you go.

The food court has already started changing. Here's where things stood on the mall's directory in mid-October:

Count them up. Four of the five changes are food or coffee. Dutch Bros' listed 5 a.m. opening also puts a mall tenant in front of commuters hours before the stores open.

The Holiday Calendar Around All of It

Whenever the new tenants open, the mall's own holiday schedule is set. Santa arrives near Target on Saturday, November 14, from 10 a.m. to noon. That's the same end of the mall as the Target Concourse toy shop.

The mall's general hours calendar lists regular hours on Thanksgiving, but the specific Thanksgiving notice says the mall is closed that day. Plan around the closure. For the second week of December, December 7 through 13, the mall lists 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday.

Some December weekends will pull people down the hill too. Downtown's Holiday Market runs Saturday, December 5, from noon to 7 p.m. at the Pioneer Park Pavilion, with 68 vendors. The lighted Santa Parade travels Meridian at 5 p.m. that evening. At the fairgrounds, Holiday Magic runs twelve days: December 4 to 6, 11 to 13 and 18 to 23. It has lights, an ice rink, a holiday market and rides.

What a One-Year Lease and a Grocery Store Say About the Mall

Both new tenants are going in at the food court end of the mall. The landlord waited years for a tenant that would bring "more traffic," and ended up with a grocery store, which draws shoppers every week, plus eight food stalls. The toy brand got a one-year lease near the food court, and the mall says it would be glad to extend it. The toy shop is the trial, and it was put where the food crowd will be.

If you live on South Hill, the change will show up in how you use the mall. The old Toys “R” Us space will be the stop for a weekly grocery run and a bowl of pho. For the toy shop, the question is whether its one-year lease gets extended.

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