For generations of Tahoe residents and visitors, the Boatworks Mall was the go-to spot. 

In its heyday, the mall, a high-end Tahoe City shopping center seemingly built out of Lincoln Logs, had something for everyone: a game and toy store, a legendary chocolate and ice cream shop, luxury boutiques and late-night shenanigans at Pierce Street Annex and Hacienda del Lago. 

Not to mention restaurant views so stunning even A-listers like Robin Williams had a tough time getting a table at the mall’s most famous anchor tenant, Jake’s on the Lake. 

Article continues below this ad

But that’s all lore now. After years of back and forth about whether redevelopment of the center would ever begin, the Boatworks faces a fate similar to so many other malls across California — a foreclosure sale. Now, a single question rises for Tahoe locals who’ve been in limbo for so long: Will a deep-pocketed savior surface to take a chance on the shorefront shopping center?

Even as its popularity ebbed in recent years, after its acquisition by San Francisco-based developer MJD Capital Partners, the Boatworks’ history and significance had never been in doubt. 

FILE: Jake’s on the Lake, one of the original tenants of Boatworks Mall in Tahoe City, Calif.

Once home to the train depot that deposited residents and visitors onto the shores of North Lake Tahoe, the lakefront parcel was originally developed in 1958 when the Inn at the Boatworks was built. 

Article continues below this ad

The inn was later purchased by the Harrah family and was known for a time as the Fantasy Inn, which, if you dust off your VCR, can still be viewed today in the hard-partying interior scenes of 1984’s legendary screwball ski flick “Hot Dog… The Movie.” 

The mall........

© SFGate