Orange County shoppers say goodbye to Westminster | Real Estate news

After serving for a long time as a neighborhood hub and widespread procuring middle, the Westminster Mall in Orange County is preparing to close its doorways.

Most of the retailers in the mall will shut down on Oct. 29 when leases expire, according to Westminster City Manager Christine Cordon. The City Council accepted a redevelopment plan in 2022 to flip the mall into a mixed-use web site for housing, leisure and retail.

The 100-acre property, located on the south aspect of the 405 Freeway, might soon offer 3,000 housing models and at least 600,000 sq. toes of upscale retail space.

The metropolis’s Westminster Mall Specific Plan also units apart more than 9 acres for parks and recreation.

“The community has expressed a strong desire to revitalize this important commercial center,” the redevelopment plan says. “The project site provides a unique opportunity to reposition the mall into the thriving activity center that it once was and to accommodate the future growth of the city.”

Community members gathered last week to say their goodbyes to the mall, which already has shuttered shops and empty parking heaps. According to the mall’s online listing, widespread retailers such as Victoria’s Secret, Vans and Kay Jewelers are still open.

JCPenney, the mall’s oldest anchor store, is slated to close by Nov. 21. Best Buy and Target are anticipated to stay open for a few more years as the property undergoes redevelopment.

Alexis Malatesta, who frequented the mall as a teenager and now runs a Westminster Mall fan account on Instagram, hosted a farewell karaoke occasion at the mall on Friday.

She posted videos of the gathering, where a number of neighborhood members got here to reminisce and sing songs in the mall’s honor.

Malatesta’s Instagram says it’s “a page dedicated solely to the Westminster Mall’s battle with terminal illness,” referencing the mall’s long, rocky fall from its prime.

In 1986, the mall was Orange County’s second-highest-grossing retail middle. The next yr, the mall announced a big renovation plan.

In its heyday, the mall was a gathering spot when there have been few other locations to hang around. It was where youngsters discovered the latest fashions and where “mall rats” roamed in packs after college.

Malatesta, who grew up in Huntington Beach, said she spent numerous afternoons at the mall in the early 2000s, driving the carousel and snapping digital images. As the mall fell into disrepair, she posted stunts on social media to attempt to generate business, including a faux wedding ceremony ceremony to declare her marriage to the mall.

“I wanted to get people to go enjoy the space while it was still there,” she said in an interview. “The Westminster Mall was a huge part of my childhood and I’ve met a ton of people through our shared obsession with the mall.”

The Westminster Mall opened in 1974 on the previous web site of the world’s largest goldfish farm, according to metropolis paperwork.

It underwent major renovations in the Eighties and in 2008, and is now managed by 4 corporations that share possession of the property: Kaiser Permanente, Shopoff Realty, True Life Cos. and Washington Prime Group.

True Life, a Denver-based real estate firm, has acquired permission from the town to construct a five-story, multifamily housing construction on the three.6 acres that was beforehand occupied by Babies R Us.

Because of a pending settlement between the 4 corporations, a demolition date for the mall has not been set.

Though the town has formidable redevelopment plans, the Westminster Mall will lose its nostalgic worth for Malatesta, now 33 years outdated.

“You can go into an indoor mall and you can forget about the outside world,” Malatesta said. “Westminster Mall was my spot.”