Community members sing ‘goodbye’ to Westminster Mall

Alexis Malatesta spent her teenage years at the Westminster Mall — her fondest memories include riding the carousel, snacking on pretzels, posing with the Victoria’s Secret models and going home to upload the digital pictures she’d snapped onto MySpace.

“It was a place to go and be seen and connect with people, just raw and authentic,” Malatesta, 33, said of the once-bustling indoor shopping center that has come to resemble a ghost town.

Still, her ardor for it is enduring, said Malatesta, who runs an Instagram account dedicated to the mall, where she’s jokingly dubbed herself as “Mrs. Westminster.”

Malatesta said she’s been with the mall, which opened in 1974, “on every step of its decline,” and will be there for the upcoming shuttering of more than 40 shops that is expected on Oct. 29.

To bid farewell to the beloved space and “the end of an era,” Malatesta threw a karaoke party Friday night, Oct. 17, inside the mall near the lower-level JCPenney entrance.

Dozens of community members and fellow Westminster Mall enthusiasts — some even equipped with custom songs — attended to say goodbye.

“That’s all we really want, just to have some time to be a part of the community and say goodbye to the mall that gave us so many memories,” Malatesta said.

‘Nothing’s official’

Once the second most popular shopping center in Orange County, Westminster Mall’s five-decade tenure at the triangular property off the 405 freeway at Goldenwest Street is coming to an end.

For the majority of the mall’s tenants, their last day is set to be Oct. 29 when their leases expire, Westminster City Manager Christine Cordon said.

Just three of the mall’s larger stores — Best Buy, Target and JCPenney — are staying open past that hard deadline, she said. Best Buy and Target are expected to stay for a few more years; but JCPenney, the oldest anchor store at the mall, is set to shut its doors by Nov. 21.

Four companies control parcels that make up the mall and its surrounding parking lots: Kaiser Permanente, Shopoff Realty, True Life Companies and Washington Prime Group, which owns the biggest chunk of the mall building.

In 2022, the Westminster City Council approved a specific plan with rules and guidelines for future redevelopment of the 100-acre property by the four owners.

Guided by community feedback, the plan envisions a mixed-use downtown for thousands to live, gather and shop. The plan allows up to 3,000 units to be developed, largely in multi-family complexes, with the requirement that 10% of any home project be affordable housing. The plan also sets aside 9.5 acres for parks and requires at least 600,000 square feet of retail to be created.

So far, only True Life, a real estate investment firm headquartered in Denver, has received entitlements from the city to build a five-story, multi-family structure on the 3.6 acres previously occupied by Babies R Us.

Shopoff Reality, which owns the shuttered Macy’s and Sears buildings and the surrounding parking lots, has proposed building a mixed-use development on its parcels, although “nothing’s official,” Cordon said.

The Irvine-based firm initially proposed 25,000 square feet of retail and food, a 175-room hotel off of Bolsa Avenue, 1,065 contemporary-style rental units and 102 three-story, single-family townhomes for sale on its 26-acre share of the mall. But the project, called Bolsa Pacific, has not been updated since 2023, Cordon said.

“The market’s changed and they’re shifting on what that looks like, but there’s still some documentation out there that shows this is what they were looking to do,” Cordon said.

The other two owners — Kaiser Permanente, which owns 10 acres of land on the north side, mainly where Best Buy is located, and Washington Prime Group — have not submitted proposals to the city.

“The city has been in preliminary discussions with both these owners on what a site could look like, but there’s nothing submitted officially yet,” Cordon said.

She said she suspects the process for project submissions is being prolonged due to an agreement between the four property owners.

“It’s almost like it’s a mall HOA,” Cordon said. “There is an agreement among all the mall owners that if there’s any construction or anything that changes the mall landscape, they’re all supposed to come together and agree on certain parameters on that site.”

Because of this agreement between owners, there’s no demolition date for the mall. And it’s unclear whether community members will be allowed to enter the mall after its shops have shuttered.

‘The end of an era’

There are still community members, albeit fewer, who frequent the mall. And they have formed a tight-knit community, Malatesta said, bonded by their enduring appreciation for the one-time community hub.

Malatesta said she’s made several lifelong friends through her Westminster Mall Instagram fan page.

Phil Vickal, 89, of Garden Grove, spends afternoons walking for exercise in the mall.

“I’ve been watching these stores close, two by two, and then four by four,” for the last 10 years, he said while hanging out at the karaoke party.

Vickal is not alone in his strolls. Thereis a small walking group that gathers to do laps inside the mall, Cordon said.

For Brian Johnson, who took to the microphone Friday night, the Westminster Mall introduced him to the “closest bond (he’s) ever had” when he made a friend while hanging out at Hot Topic and Spencer’s more than 10 years ago.

“It’s gonna be a lost treasure for people who never got to live to experience this mall,” Johnson said.

Malatesta put her own karaoke spin on “Part of Your World” from “The Little Mermaid,” with lyrics about the Westminster Mall she belted out to applause.

She even prepared cookies for the singers and goodie bags with goodbye postcards and 1990s toys for party-goers.

“It’s just to come and sing and spend time with the mall,” she said. Westminster Mall “needs to have its forehead kissed before we say good night.”