The Gardens on El Paseo

Sehr sehenswert im El Paseo Shopping District ist sicherlich das Einkaufszentrum «The Gardens on El Paseo». Es ist relativ leicht in der exklusiven Shoppingmeile zu finden. Das zahlungskräftige Publikum aus Palm Desert, Indian Wells, La Quinta und Rancho Mirage geht hier shoppen.
Hier findet man unter anderem Louis Vuitton, Tiffany & Co., Eileen Fisher, Brooks Brothers, Ann Taylor, Anthropologie, Trainer, Sephora, True Religion Brand Jeans, J. Crew, Pottery Barn, Williams– Sonoma, und Tommy Bahama. Das Hezstück ist sicherlich das hochwertige Kaufhaus Saks Fifth Avenue.
Die ganze Außenanlage ist sehr geschmackvoll und hochwertig gestaltet. Große Palmen, viele verschiedene Kakteen und ein unwirklich wirkender grüner Rasen lockert die Außenanlage auf. Darüber hinaus gibt es einen geschmackvollen Springbrunnen, der gut in das Ensemble passt.
Es finden hier auch regelmäßig Veranstaltungen statt, wie die «El Paseo Cruise Night» und die «The Gardens 18^th Annual Concert Series». In der Nähe befindet sich auch noch ein Apple Store und das sehenswerte El Paseo Village.
Eine wirklich nettes Einkaufszentrum, das einen Besuch wert ist.

What message does a shopping center send by not having electric car chargers? Are they saying,
«We don’t care about our environment!?»
«We don’t care about shoppers who drive electric cars!?»
«We don’t care about providing service that other malls provide!?»
«We don’t care!?»
Most malls have electric car chargers. And the ones that don’t, well, perhaps we should ask them why?! There is always hope.

Desert Divinity
El Paseo is a place of leisure. It is a wonderful part of Palm Desert one can enjoy outdoor shopping when the heat permits.
Yes, you have your high end shops and restaurants, but honestly El Paseo has changed so much throughout the years. The new stores and renovation it has gone through has been for the better and has increased the standards for the Coachella Valley.
I’m glad to see stores like Kate Spade and Lulu Lemon making it out to the desert. Loving the transition it is making and beyond proud!

This particular mall is a head scratcher. The shops/​tenants are high end, but the foot traffic seems to lack, so how do they stay open? Truth is, some of the doors are closed, and some list ‘going out of business.’ That said, my wife found several stores which she had to peek into, resulting in purchases. Mind you, we came here in July (hot, hot) so one must assume that seasonality plays a big factor.
Don’t get me wrong, the outdoor venue is well kept and offers a desert oasis landscape, which includes fountains, streams, cactus, and other eclectic décor. If you review the stores and see one you like, it’s probably worth checking out as the merchandise is likely not picked over, and or, might be discounted based on the seasonal turn. As mentioned, my wife had no problem finding clothes.
We thought the overall venue/​mall was nice, with plenty of parking and a good vibe thanks to the well kept Bose outdoor sound system. We just wondered how the lack of foot traffic could substantiate such a business endeavor.

Ah, the wonderment. This is the desert, we take the bad (scorching summertime heat) so we can have the good (beautiful fall, winter and spring weather) this resort area offers.
Not just good, this resort area offers excellence. Fine dining and fine shopping. The Gardens is one of those unequaled shopping and dining experiences on dazzling El Paseo. Those dreamy shops like Tiffany’s, Saks Fifth Avenue, Louis Vuitton and Coach surround the Gardens. Restaurants like Sullivan’s, Tommy Bahama’s, Pacifica’s, Wilma & Frieda’s and Sammy’s offer rooftop outdoor dining. Mastro’s is on the lower level and offers ultra pricy dining.
In the center is a grassy area for concerts and special events. There are also lounge areas to relax, as well as mid-​priced shops like Pottery Barn and Williams Sonoma.

This area is just… OK. Not very many stores… and everything feels like it’s closed. There are top names like Kate Spade, J. Crew, Louis Vuitton and others but it’s just okay. Nothing special at all here.

The Gardens on El Paseo have done such a nice job creating a relaxing and beautiful shopping experience. The landscaping is beautiful and incorporates that desert resort feel. There are several great restaurants and I really enjoy the patio at Tommy Bahamas with the great 2^nd story view of the valley, enjoying the coconut shrimp with a nice cocktail. On Friday evening we enjoyed nice entertainment while dining on the patio, some even got up to dance.
The Gardens also offers many enjoyable events, one of my favorites is the outdoor concert series held every Saturday from Feb — Apr. they use the center lawn area complete with fountains and tropical atmosphere to create a very classy and relaxing evening.
I also enjoy their partnership in with the 3^rd largest Fashion Week in the nation along with the Food & Wine Show. These events have brought top international designers, stars from Project Runway to acclaimed chef’s as well as Food Network stars.
It is very nice to have such an active and upscale center in the desert, complete with Tiffany’s, Louis Vuitton, Apple, Willams Sonoma, Brooks Brothers and Sax’s 5^th Avenue.

This place was sordidly disappointing. It looks fabulous from the outside but it really doesn’t deliver. It has a lot of nice stores, and I totally thought it was part of another mall, but in the end it just doesn’t have all that many things in it.
The architecture and build is nice, and I was able to pick up something at William and Sonoma on sale, but other than that I was not impressed. It provides good shade on a hot, humid day. I think that’s a pretty decent reason to come here.

Great Shopping
Williams Sonoma has everything you need for the kitchen. You might just need to take out a second mortgage on the house to pay for your stuff.
We got some Illy coffee – my favorite!

With a few hours to spare on our second to last day in Palm Springs, we decided to go shopping at El Paseo. It was a great little outdoor mall. We hit up a few stores in a few hours.
It was all the same chains that are available in Chicago. The real draw for us was that, in January, we could walk outside and there were some amazing sales.

Garth S. did a great job at describing El Paseo. I chuckled when I read that it is the «Rodeo Drive» of Palm Springs/​Palm Desert. Yeah, right. Gucci, Saks, Coach and it’s «Rodeo Drive» esque? I think not.
Service was excellent in all the stores we visited. It’s off season so there were no crowds. I bought 3 pairs of shoes at Cole Haan — seemed like they had everything in stock! Also, J Crew was packed with clothes and sale items — neatly lined on racks and very organized (as if no one had shopped here in awhile).
I didn’t see many of my favorite stores so we just spent a brief time here.

Saks Fifth Avenue, Brooks Brothers, Tommy Bahama’s, Coach, Talbots, Williams-​Sonoma. .. you get the picture. The Gardens on El Paseo is a mall and, given its location, that’s a damned shame.
Between Monterey and Portola, the buildings lining El Paseo still show the remains and influences of the pre-​boom desert: white stucco, Spanish tile roofs, small arcades, fountains, second floors with iron balconies. The buildings might house California Pizza Kitchen, Starbucks, and BCBG but you can still walk down a main shopping street and not be confined to a two-​story, climate-​controlled, hermetically sealed box. It’s clear, however, that El Paseo, the «Rodeo Drive of the Desert,» as the boosters like to call it, has outgrown its roots. So what’s a city planner to do?
How does one attract new development without obliterating the reasons people choose to visit – or even live in – a resort area in the first place? No one wants to turn Palm Desert into Los Angeles or, worse, San Bernardino. A good city planner should be smart enough to figure out how to build without either destroying what exists or caving into developers’ demands. From this perspective, I haven’t decided whether the Gardens on El Paseo succeeds or fails.
With its vague Spanish influences and rock and cactus landscaping, you can see that someone at least attempted to incorporate the design elements of both El Paseo and the desert environment, but it’s still very much a traditional mall: a two-​story rectangle containing an anchor store and a central courtyard surrounded on all sides by specialty stores.
The Gardens, however, is outdoors. This is a major plus and it’s possible in a place where the average annual rainfall is around a half-​inch per month. That central courtyard I mentioned contains mostly grass, plants and benches, complemented by views of blue sky and the nearby mountains. Unlike many urban malls, which tend to have their back walls facing the street, the main entrance is right on El Paseo and there are no doors – you just walk in right off the sidewalk. Even better, the parking lot and garage are in the back. At least this mall feels like part of the community it serves.
I can’t say much for the stores: just typical upscale mall retail, clearly trending toward a middle-​aged demographic but this is obviously what the area supports. El Paseo, the street, is where I go for an after-​lunch stroll or when I just want to be outside on a beautiful day. The Gardens on El Paseo, however, doesn’t feel like a destination but simply the place to buy something. It’s pretty but I can’t think of any other reason to go and when I’m there, I see no need to linger.

I prefer the River at Rancho Mirage. It, too, is outdoors and nicely landscaped but the layout isn’t as confining as the Gardens. More importantly, it has much less of a shopping mall feel, and with Border’s, Century Theaters, Starbucks, PF Chang’s, Johnny Rocket’s and the Cheesecake Factory, as well as some smaller stores, there’s a great chance that my presence might actually stimulate the economy instead of merely waste space and drain others’ resources.