Case Study: Mega Mart USA creates an immersive culinary destination with Gensler

Mega Mart USA boosts Saturday mall traffic 30% with Gensler

Mega Mart USA faced the challenge of a vacant JCPenney anchor store at the Serramonte Center in Daly City, which had left a gap in the community. They seized the opportunity to create the largest Korean food experience in the U.S. and hired the architecture and design firm Gensler to help them reinvent the expansive space into a new, immersive culinary destination.

Gensler's solution was Jagalchi, a 75,000-square-foot adaptive reuse project that became an immersive food hall celebrating Korean culture and cuisine. The design incorporated natural materials, skylights to reduce energy use, and a unified signage system. The results were significant: the project created over 200 local jobs, diverted an estimated 550 tons of CO₂, increased Saturday mall traffic by 30%, and the flagship restaurant now serves approximately 500 guests daily.

Mega Mart USA