Once the county’s second-most popular shopping center, the shuttered Westminster Mall is soon to be demolished.
The mall’s last 40 interior tenants moved out in late October and vandals and trespassers have since defaced the property as it awaits redevelopment.
Shopoff Reality Investments, a firm headquartered in Irvine, recently announced plans to demolish the mall by the end of the year’s first quarter. It wants to build a mixed-use development on its portion at Bolsa Avenue and Edwards Street.
Up until recently, four companies controlled the parcels making up the mall built in 1974 and its surrounding lots: Shopoff Realty, True Life Companies, Kaiser Permanente and Washington Prime Group.
But after acquiring Washington Prime Group’s holdings, about 57 acres, Shopoff Reality now controls the mall building and the vast majority of the surrounding lots, including the former Sears and Macy’s parcels, which the developer acquired in 2022.
Combining the pieces would let it build its Bolsa Pacific at Westminster project, the developer said.
“Creating a vibrant new community, complete with essential housing, retail spaces, a hotel, and 15 acres of open space has been long in the making. Bolsa Pacific will play a key role in strengthening Westminster’s economy and revitalizing the city and its surrounding neighborhoods,” Shopoff Realty Investments President and CEO William A. Shopoff said in a statement.
“Through this project, we hope to realize a more cohesive master planned development and be able to help shape a large part of the future of Westminster to better serve the greater community,” he said.
The City Council create a framework in 2022 guiding how the owners could develop the 100-acre combined property, part of a trend where underperforming malls and empty office buildings are transformed into new uses such as housing and mixed-use developments. The approved “specific plan” sets the total mix of homes and commercial uses there could be and establishes rules and guidelines for everything from how tall buildings can be to how much park space has to be included, as well as how the land can be used, what kind of look should be created with landscaping and where traffic should be directed.
Spanning 83.8 acres, Bolsa Pacific proposes 2,250 housing units (the city’s specific plan allows for up to 3,000), including a mix of for-sale, market-rate and affordable housing.
Blueprints for Bolsa Pacific also include a hotel with the potential for more than 120 rooms, at least 220,000 square feet of retail and 15 acres of open space and walking trails. There would be a food hall and a neighborhood park.
It proposes to keep the Target that remains open on the mall’s edge.
Updated entitlement plans have been submitted to the city for review, the developer said, and pending city approval, construction could begin in the fourth quarter of this year. Target will continue to operate during this time.