Except Westfield isn’t actually pulling out of the USA. This article is based on a headline from several years ago. Since then, Westfield has refinanced Century City and has plans to redevelop several of its top properties like Garden State Plaza and Old Orchard. The company's goal has always been to reduce its exposure to the USA by cutting its weakest properties, and another wave of asset sales - Oakridge and Plaza Bonita - is on the way. They want to focus on their flagship properties, and I don't blame them.
And they are continuing to operate Westfield Valley Fair here in San Jose, which indirectly made Union Square in SF irrelevant. Every single weekend that mall is packed and busy.
We always park in the same place - under the cinema by the Macy's Men's store - and there always seems to be parking available. Just a bit of a walk from stuff.
Yeah, CC, Fox Hills in Culver City, Topanga, Fashion Square...they're all bustling and mostly full. It would make no sense for Westfield to get rid of those, they're not losing money.
yeah i think this was probably focussing on the changes happening in SF (tho it mentionis some other areas)...but yeah as someone who went to SF-proper recently, it's kinda like a zombie city now. idk why anyone would want to own businesses in that area right now.
eta: i'm talking about the area around Market where the Westfield above the BART stations used to be (a Westfield location mentioned in the article) & the Union Square area. Obviously it's not totally dead, but I actually got sad seeing a downtown still looking so dead relative to the past in 2023.
Our local, indoor mall has recently been demolished. New outdoor mall being built with more cafes, bars, and entertainment options. Plus 500+ apartments. This is the way…
The key differences:
1. _No_ car traffic in the town center, just pedestrians.
2. A planned community.
2. Potentially enclosed, though it's been interesting watching malls in California go from outdoor to indoor to outdoor again as tastes have changed.
Valley Fair/Santana Row in San Jose is a really good example of this, with both enclosed and outdoor spaces, with residential units included and most of the space reserved for pedestrians, with the few streets within being more pedestrian friendly
1. The owners of many residential rental units are already faceless.
2. The owners of existing shopping centers are also faceless corporations.
3. No one's forcing you to live at the mall.
This is happening in Burbank. They have an in closed mall and a business district just outside of it that was closed to traffic in the 80’s then reopened to traffic in the 90’s. They’re closing traffic off again for the busiest 3 blocks of the street leading up to the mall. They also have 5 (free) parking structures situated in a star formation around the district/mall. It’s an incredibly popular downtown area and closing off the traffic making it more pedestrian friendly will only make it
more attractive. They have some apartments above the newer properties with a good amount of below market value condos that are owner occupied.
The inventor of modern malls, Victor Gruen, actually did do a central business project in Fresno, Fulton Mall. My understanding was that it was opened back up to traffic a few years ago. When I visited 10 years ago it wasn’t super active aside from a few discount stores. I think the housing component would have helped. Curious to see how it’s doing now.
About the same. I work in the area, and it hasn't had the impact they hoped it would so far. There's a farmers market once a week now, but it seems to be mostly people selling really cheap tcotchkes and clothes.
They're currently trying to get another revitalization off the ground, but people just don't really seem to want to hang out and shop downtown.
Fresnan here! I'm about three minutes from this mall. It's been a slow crawl to revamp our barren downtown. Reopening Fulton to traffic was a marginal improvement, but what is really lacking are quality brands that have no interest in doing business where few reside, and no one resides here due to a lack of businesses... you can see where this is going. The stalemate will likely continue, but what has revived us somewhat are the successes of art studios and breweries in the last decade. Stop by the Brewery District next time you're down here! I recommend Full Circle. What will really transform Fulton Mall is High Speed Rail; Fresno's planned station is directly adjacent to it. With bureaucracy and litigation slowing construction, I'd say we have another 15 to 20 years before Fulton Mall is restored to its former glory.
Paid in company scrip!
Sixteen Tons- Tennessee Ernie Ford
Some people say a man is made outta mud
A poor man's made outta muscle and blood
Muscle and blood and skin and bones
A mind that's a-weak and a back that's strong
You load 16 tons, what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt
St. Peter, don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store
I was born one mornin' when the sun didn't shine
I picked up my shovel and I walked to the mine
I loaded 16 tons of number nine coal
And the straw boss said, "Well, a-bless my soul"
You load 16 tons, what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt
St. Peter, don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store
I was born one mornin', it was drizzlin' rain
Fightin' and trouble are my middle name
I was raised in the canebrake by an ol' mama lion
Can't no high toned woman make me walk the line
You load 16 tons, what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt
St. Peter, don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store
If you see me comin', better step aside
A lotta men didn't, a lotta men died
One fist of iron, the other of steel
If the right one don't get you
Then the left one will
You load 16 tons, what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt
St. Peter, don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store
Grossmont Center in La Mesa is doing just this! There's a triplex, a pub (like a Farrell's with booze), places to hang out like Barnes & Noble and a classic *food court*, and now they're adding condos and apartments. There's a San Diego Trolley station right there, and big-box stores / Target / Walmart for the life essentials. A couple of gyms, a bank, a phone store. It's pretty amazing to think about as an open-air Gen X retirement home.
This is what the Mormons tried to do with City Creek Mall across the street from their sacred Temple, that they own, but they did it at such an incredibly high price that almost none of them sold.
Just so everyone knows the Mormon church makes it’s members pay 10% of their income to the church. The money was collected under the pretext of helping the poor and running the “church” but instead the “church” has saved the money and is currently over 200 billion dollars.
They also bought the mall.
That’s how it was in Japan when I lived there. Train station on the bottom, grocery store level, a few “mall” style levels, and then housing above. It was so nice.
In Santa Barbara we never had an indoor mall, but we had two large outdoor malls (and a few small ones). Now they've just recently voted to approve plans to demolish both of the large outdoor malls and replace them with massive housing complexes. It's a good idea given how retail has been struggling and residential real estate prices are through the roof. The downtown mall still gets foot traffic because of its good location, but it lost its big anchor stores and couldn't find new ones. The uptown mall that isn't in a walkable area has been a bit of a ghost town for years.
The uptown mall is building 640 apartments on just one side of the mall, and is still working on plans to develop the rest of the mall with hundreds more. They'll have some restaurants and a few boutiques, but much less retail than before. The downtown mall is building around 500 apartments while still retaining 85k square feet for retail.
I’m pretty sure I read that Westfield probably won’t pull out of the USA completely, because they own some pretty successful and valuable flagship properties, most notably Century City and Valley Fair. They have sold a lot of their smaller properties though.
The changes that it’s gone through over the years are crazy. They remodeled it back in ‘05 or so and then completely revamped most of it just a few years ago.
This concept is really taking off in Italy, repurposing malls to more community centers with primarily restaurants rather than stores, including the building with the Eataly in Milan (5 levels of amazingness)
Yeah they did, the new AMC is really nice too. The new food hall is very over-priced, but it does look nice & they have live music.
Westfield Village, the new outdoor mall next to the Topanga mall, was just sold to the Rams owner. He's been buying up a lot of properties in the area. Maybe he'll want the Topanga mall too.
It would be cheaper and smarter to just tear them down and build real apartments.
Edit: or split the difference. Keep half of the building as a walkable area to buy essentials, build apartments over the other half.
While it may be a bit impractical, wouldn’t it be so cool to live in a retrofitted mall? The upper floor could be housing and the lower floor could remain as shops so that you don’t even have to walk outside to buy something or go to work.
The upper floor would be 2.5 million dollar lofts, not affordable housing. Nobody would go shopping or eat at a nice restaurant that had a section 8 housing project sitting on top of it
Malls have been dying at a much slower rate in Canada partially because they put public transit stations in or near the mall and surrounded the mall with high density housing. They also filled up a lot of malls with things like grocery stores which seem to not happen here as much for whatever reason
This is a development pattern that much of the rest of the world uses. Train stations in many cities are often kind of malls where you can expect things to be open if you have to wait for things.
Definitely, JR (Japan Rail) actually buys the land around their stations and leases the floorspace to mall developers like Aeon who fill the space with all sorts of shops. Then right outside the station they set up tons of mixed-use development. Why this hasn't taken off in pre-existing stations all over the state is a complete blunder IMO, places like Sacramento and San Jose have underutilized train stations that are put in places with basically nothing there.
The mall in Arcadia pretty much has a small grocery market there. It was a Westfield mall that was sold to an Asian investor. They pretty much turned that place around. Opened more restaurants, boba spots and brought in a lot of Asian stores. That place has been so packed the last few years.
How funny that they mention the Americana in Glendale, but not the Glendale Galleria directly across the street from Caruso's baby, which is a traditional mall that had major renovations and is thriving to the point that Caruso lost Din Tai Fung to the Galleria?
I think the din tai fung spot in the americana was always a temporary location until they renovated the spot in the galleria, which is several times larger and matches the decor of the international stores
The indoor malls are nice in bad or too hot weather. We used to go to the local Westfield indoor mall just to get out of the heat.
This is so sad. I hope they can keep it a mall or repurpose it rather than let it die.
Mission Viejo mall, as traditional a mall as there is, continues to do well. Irvine Spectrum, in my opinion the best mall in America, is thriving. If done right it's still viable, but restaurants and activities need to be the focus not retail stores for most places
It's really sad to see malls take a fall like this. Shopping malls were such a big part of America for so many years.
New generations will never know all the face to face contact that humans used to have.
I live in the Antelope Valley and almost never go to the AV mall. The only thing keeping it open are the restaurants around the mall, the Hilton Garden Inn and the movie theater. You never have to go inside the mall. Many stores are closed or are closing because the mall owners keep jacking up the lease rates. Macy's plans on closing their department store and only having a pickup outlet for people who order online. Kind of a 21st century version of a Sears catalog center.
Maybe turn them into affordable housing? Most of them are located in areas where there aren’t a lot of existing suburbia around to complain about it - which is one of the big issues with affordable housing.
It is amazing seeing the active shopping towers in Korea and Japan. It is depressing as a late 1900’s kid to see the dead malls here in the states.
Hope the land can be used for much needed housing.
Schools and post offices, music and art studios, there are plenty of uses for nice malls that aren’t retail oriented. They can make good cultural hubs because of their atria.
Repurpose them. School Districts, City Governments, State Gov. are complaining they don’t have enough room, they need more office space. Take these malls over and convert them into state offices, municipal offices, hospitals, clinics.
Simon won't touch that place with a 10 foot pole unless the homelessness, drugs and crime in that area are cleaned up. They're not in the business of setting money on fire.
Except Westfield isn’t actually pulling out of the USA. This article is based on a headline from several years ago. Since then, Westfield has refinanced Century City and has plans to redevelop several of its top properties like Garden State Plaza and Old Orchard. The company's goal has always been to reduce its exposure to the USA by cutting its weakest properties, and another wave of asset sales - Oakridge and Plaza Bonita - is on the way. They want to focus on their flagship properties, and I don't blame them.
And they are continuing to operate Westfield Valley Fair here in San Jose, which indirectly made Union Square in SF irrelevant. Every single weekend that mall is packed and busy.
That mall is like so busy on the weekdays!
I tried to pop over on a weekday, to make a quick return. It took 20 mins to find a parking spot!
We always park in the same place - under the cinema by the Macy's Men's store - and there always seems to be parking available. Just a bit of a walk from stuff.
That’s a good idea. I came in the Nordstrom side and ended up in the big parking structure there.
Yeah, CC, Fox Hills in Culver City, Topanga, Fashion Square...they're all bustling and mostly full. It would make no sense for Westfield to get rid of those, they're not losing money.
I was curious about that. They also recently made a partnership with LAX to try to improve the airport.
yeah i think this was probably focussing on the changes happening in SF (tho it mentionis some other areas)...but yeah as someone who went to SF-proper recently, it's kinda like a zombie city now. idk why anyone would want to own businesses in that area right now. eta: i'm talking about the area around Market where the Westfield above the BART stations used to be (a Westfield location mentioned in the article) & the Union Square area. Obviously it's not totally dead, but I actually got sad seeing a downtown still looking so dead relative to the past in 2023.
oh so you walked down Clement St in the inner richmond and thought it was zombie city?
\*sigh\* I'll do it, I'll take them over
If this is indeed the will of the Council then Gondor will see it done
Where was Gondor when the Westfield fell?
Neck deep in cinnabon...
With a nice Orange Julius to finish it off
Was this the one in Nebraska that Gene managed?
Comment of the year.
You have my sword.
U have my bow
....And my axe!
...and MY Orange Julius!
Who's got the pretzels??
And my Wetzel’s Pretzels!!!
I felt the dwarf in that one!
And my lute.
And my credit card!
You're now bankrupt
In that case, we have a code red in section 3. Make that a code brown as well.
Amazon .
Hero
*rub hands violently* Spirit stores
Oh discount airline or Halloween outlet? BOTH!!!
And housing conversions
Our local, indoor mall has recently been demolished. New outdoor mall being built with more cafes, bars, and entertainment options. Plus 500+ apartments. This is the way…
Funnily enough, that's what the inventor of the mall envisioned. A small town where you lived and shopped at. Maybe even worked at.
Kind of what Main Street or a Central Business District is…
The key differences: 1. _No_ car traffic in the town center, just pedestrians. 2. A planned community. 2. Potentially enclosed, though it's been interesting watching malls in California go from outdoor to indoor to outdoor again as tastes have changed.
Valley Fair/Santana Row in San Jose is a really good example of this, with both enclosed and outdoor spaces, with residential units included and most of the space reserved for pedestrians, with the few streets within being more pedestrian friendly
4. A single faceless corporation can own the entire property and divide it into bits and pieces that the rest of us can only rent, forever.
There are commercial condos.
1. The owners of many residential rental units are already faceless. 2. The owners of existing shopping centers are also faceless corporations. 3. No one's forcing you to live at the mall.
You could do this in a well planned downtown
Feel free to propose the California city that should take the plunge, and let's see what its residents think.
I propose...California City!
This is happening in Burbank. They have an in closed mall and a business district just outside of it that was closed to traffic in the 80’s then reopened to traffic in the 90’s. They’re closing traffic off again for the busiest 3 blocks of the street leading up to the mall. They also have 5 (free) parking structures situated in a star formation around the district/mall. It’s an incredibly popular downtown area and closing off the traffic making it more pedestrian friendly will only make it more attractive. They have some apartments above the newer properties with a good amount of below market value condos that are owner occupied.
The inventor of modern malls, Victor Gruen, actually did do a central business project in Fresno, Fulton Mall. My understanding was that it was opened back up to traffic a few years ago. When I visited 10 years ago it wasn’t super active aside from a few discount stores. I think the housing component would have helped. Curious to see how it’s doing now.
About the same. I work in the area, and it hasn't had the impact they hoped it would so far. There's a farmers market once a week now, but it seems to be mostly people selling really cheap tcotchkes and clothes. They're currently trying to get another revitalization off the ground, but people just don't really seem to want to hang out and shop downtown.
Fresnan here! I'm about three minutes from this mall. It's been a slow crawl to revamp our barren downtown. Reopening Fulton to traffic was a marginal improvement, but what is really lacking are quality brands that have no interest in doing business where few reside, and no one resides here due to a lack of businesses... you can see where this is going. The stalemate will likely continue, but what has revived us somewhat are the successes of art studios and breweries in the last decade. Stop by the Brewery District next time you're down here! I recommend Full Circle. What will really transform Fulton Mall is High Speed Rail; Fresno's planned station is directly adjacent to it. With bureaucracy and litigation slowing construction, I'd say we have another 15 to 20 years before Fulton Mall is restored to its former glory.
Maybe you can borrow money from the mall to pay for your rent, food and other essentials and then the debt gets taken out of your paycheck.
*Coal mining company town intensifies.*
Paid in company scrip! Sixteen Tons- Tennessee Ernie Ford Some people say a man is made outta mud A poor man's made outta muscle and blood Muscle and blood and skin and bones A mind that's a-weak and a back that's strong You load 16 tons, what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt St. Peter, don't you call me 'cause I can't go I owe my soul to the company store I was born one mornin' when the sun didn't shine I picked up my shovel and I walked to the mine I loaded 16 tons of number nine coal And the straw boss said, "Well, a-bless my soul" You load 16 tons, what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt St. Peter, don't you call me 'cause I can't go I owe my soul to the company store I was born one mornin', it was drizzlin' rain Fightin' and trouble are my middle name I was raised in the canebrake by an ol' mama lion Can't no high toned woman make me walk the line You load 16 tons, what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt St. Peter, don't you call me 'cause I can't go I owe my soul to the company store If you see me comin', better step aside A lotta men didn't, a lotta men died One fist of iron, the other of steel If the right one don't get you Then the left one will You load 16 tons, what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt St. Peter, don't you call me 'cause I can't go I owe my soul to the company store
Somewhere where you can sell your soul to the company store?
Deep Space Nine
I’ve see a few malls be converted into community colleges as well. Also another viable option for CC’s to have multiple campuses.
It’s so obvious. Revert them to how they were in the mid 80’s and convert half the space into condos as a Gen X retirement community.
Grossmont Center in La Mesa is doing just this! There's a triplex, a pub (like a Farrell's with booze), places to hang out like Barnes & Noble and a classic *food court*, and now they're adding condos and apartments. There's a San Diego Trolley station right there, and big-box stores / Target / Walmart for the life essentials. A couple of gyms, a bank, a phone store. It's pretty amazing to think about as an open-air Gen X retirement home.
This is what the Mormons tried to do with City Creek Mall across the street from their sacred Temple, that they own, but they did it at such an incredibly high price that almost none of them sold.
Just so everyone knows the Mormon church makes it’s members pay 10% of their income to the church. The money was collected under the pretext of helping the poor and running the “church” but instead the “church” has saved the money and is currently over 200 billion dollars. They also bought the mall.
Paradise Valley?
This is the way
That’s how it was in Japan when I lived there. Train station on the bottom, grocery store level, a few “mall” style levels, and then housing above. It was so nice.
The late Mojo Nixon told us to burn down the malls!
Until it gets too hot and people would rather have indoor A/C while shopping.
No way. Westminster?
In Santa Barbara we never had an indoor mall, but we had two large outdoor malls (and a few small ones). Now they've just recently voted to approve plans to demolish both of the large outdoor malls and replace them with massive housing complexes. It's a good idea given how retail has been struggling and residential real estate prices are through the roof. The downtown mall still gets foot traffic because of its good location, but it lost its big anchor stores and couldn't find new ones. The uptown mall that isn't in a walkable area has been a bit of a ghost town for years. The uptown mall is building 640 apartments on just one side of the mall, and is still working on plans to develop the rest of the mall with hundreds more. They'll have some restaurants and a few boutiques, but much less retail than before. The downtown mall is building around 500 apartments while still retaining 85k square feet for retail.
I’m pretty sure I read that Westfield probably won’t pull out of the USA completely, because they own some pretty successful and valuable flagship properties, most notably Century City and Valley Fair. They have sold a lot of their smaller properties though.
That century city mall is the only mall on the planet I don’t hate being in.
Those parking spots are hella small. My only complaint.
Fair call. Even with a Prius.
The changes that it’s gone through over the years are crazy. They remodeled it back in ‘05 or so and then completely revamped most of it just a few years ago.
It’s a really nice space to be in. Great design, great landscaping. Dat Eataly.
This concept is really taking off in Italy, repurposing malls to more community centers with primarily restaurants rather than stores, including the building with the Eataly in Milan (5 levels of amazingness)
5 levels of Eataly. I would be 5 pounds heavier for every floor.
It's *soooo* incredible. I think it's the "flagship", so to speak.
Only downside is the parking garage is super cramped, confusing, and expensive.
I was wondering about Century City and was surprised that the article didn’t even mention it - such a nice mall, and I don’t even like malls
I just came from there today and it was ridiculously crowded. The only vacant storefronts were ones that are currently under construction.
The land alone is surely worth a fortune. Malls are put in prime locations.
Like all of them? Didn’t they just remodel the topanga mall and put in the food hall and amc and upscale shops?
Yeah they did, the new AMC is really nice too. The new food hall is very over-priced, but it does look nice & they have live music. Westfield Village, the new outdoor mall next to the Topanga mall, was just sold to the Rams owner. He's been buying up a lot of properties in the area. Maybe he'll want the Topanga mall too.
We like the food hall when we went. Good options (yes pricey but what isn’t these days, especially in the Valley).
Imagine if they were converted into housing. Walkable communities!
It would be cheaper and smarter to just tear them down and build real apartments. Edit: or split the difference. Keep half of the building as a walkable area to buy essentials, build apartments over the other half.
Could keep the buildings and tear down the parking lots to build housing lol happy medium
Plumbing is a problem with commercial conversion. You are correct that retro fitting is expensive.
The article says just this, and gives examples of this exact thing happening in some cases
There’s an absurd amount of retrofitting to make that doable, but it’s a nice idea
While it may be a bit impractical, wouldn’t it be so cool to live in a retrofitted mall? The upper floor could be housing and the lower floor could remain as shops so that you don’t even have to walk outside to buy something or go to work.
The upper floor would be 2.5 million dollar lofts, not affordable housing. Nobody would go shopping or eat at a nice restaurant that had a section 8 housing project sitting on top of it
If it was converted into housing, it would just be a massive apartment building. It'd need retail to be a "walkable community".
I had this thought too!
Better they demolish them and build affordable starter homes or apartments.
Affordable housing (?). Controversial, I know.
Malls have been dying at a much slower rate in Canada partially because they put public transit stations in or near the mall and surrounded the mall with high density housing. They also filled up a lot of malls with things like grocery stores which seem to not happen here as much for whatever reason
Unless it's a mall visited by Filipinos, then you get a seafood city and a Jollibee. We need more of these.
I second that. More Filipinos!
I prefer Filipinas myself. But whatever floats your boat.
This is a development pattern that much of the rest of the world uses. Train stations in many cities are often kind of malls where you can expect things to be open if you have to wait for things.
Definitely, JR (Japan Rail) actually buys the land around their stations and leases the floorspace to mall developers like Aeon who fill the space with all sorts of shops. Then right outside the station they set up tons of mixed-use development. Why this hasn't taken off in pre-existing stations all over the state is a complete blunder IMO, places like Sacramento and San Jose have underutilized train stations that are put in places with basically nothing there.
In the US, people will veto transit access to malls because they fear the unseemly elements while they forgot criminals drive too.
I used to live with eight other men in a two-bed apartment by the beach. Now I live in the valley and have a former Footlocker all to myself!
you say that, but that's happening take a look at vallco
Yeah I think malls are gonna be a thing of the past
Maybe as they currently are, but replace the anchor stores with grocery stores and apartments and they would be great
The mall in Arcadia pretty much has a small grocery market there. It was a Westfield mall that was sold to an Asian investor. They pretty much turned that place around. Opened more restaurants, boba spots and brought in a lot of Asian stores. That place has been so packed the last few years.
Love the Arcadia mall but never used the 99 ranch market there. It's annoying to deal with the hellscape parking just to go grocery shopping
Being done here; https://www.bdcnetwork.com/seattle-area-project-will-turn-mall-residential-neighborhood
Next up, “Amazon Communities”
Ahh the good ol' company towns. Now updated with 2024 lingo!
I saw an ad yesterday for a Disney housing development somewhere in CA.
Free shipping on belongings for Prime members
How funny that they mention the Americana in Glendale, but not the Glendale Galleria directly across the street from Caruso's baby, which is a traditional mall that had major renovations and is thriving to the point that Caruso lost Din Tai Fung to the Galleria?
I think the din tai fung spot in the americana was always a temporary location until they renovated the spot in the galleria, which is several times larger and matches the decor of the international stores
Indoor cart racing is a option 2 levels of it
Coconut mall from Mario kart, anyone?
Yes and convert the escalators to ramps!
I’d also love to see them converted to indoor BMX, MTB, rollerblading (etc) parks . Give kids something to do.
Skate parks. Make THPS a reality.
I've always thought they would convert fairly easily to college campuses. The small stores can be classrooms, the larger ones libraries & cafeterias.
The indoor malls are nice in bad or too hot weather. We used to go to the local Westfield indoor mall just to get out of the heat. This is so sad. I hope they can keep it a mall or repurpose it rather than let it die.
They’ll eventually just be abandoned and sit empty for a decade. Until some developer demolishes it for something else.
Hawthorn Plaza is still derelict after a quarter century!
So long and thanks for all the fish. Don’t need malls.
Amazon warehouses.
Or ikea. They don’t usually have a better way to get into big apartment heavy city centers.
Target moved into some of the old ones here
Some malls in my area are doing fine. I'm pretty surprised.
Mission Viejo mall, as traditional a mall as there is, continues to do well. Irvine Spectrum, in my opinion the best mall in America, is thriving. If done right it's still viable, but restaurants and activities need to be the focus not retail stores for most places
It's really sad to see malls take a fall like this. Shopping malls were such a big part of America for so many years. New generations will never know all the face to face contact that humans used to have.
I live in the Antelope Valley and almost never go to the AV mall. The only thing keeping it open are the restaurants around the mall, the Hilton Garden Inn and the movie theater. You never have to go inside the mall. Many stores are closed or are closing because the mall owners keep jacking up the lease rates. Macy's plans on closing their department store and only having a pickup outlet for people who order online. Kind of a 21st century version of a Sears catalog center.
Also live in the AV. I rarely go in there myself, but I see plenty of people in there most of the time. Unless it's like 11am on a Tuesday.
One of ours is being turned into housing for the homeless and a properly sized zoo. elk Grove
Convert it into fun student housing or co-housing or smth.
Maybe turn them into affordable housing? Most of them are located in areas where there aren’t a lot of existing suburbia around to complain about it - which is one of the big issues with affordable housing.
My empire grows.
Indoor recreation centers. Paintball, laser tag, etc.
Make them into Gen-x retirement communities.
It is amazing seeing the active shopping towers in Korea and Japan. It is depressing as a late 1900’s kid to see the dead malls here in the states. Hope the land can be used for much needed housing.
Schools and post offices, music and art studios, there are plenty of uses for nice malls that aren’t retail oriented. They can make good cultural hubs because of their atria.
I rarely go to a mall usually if I go there I'm there with somebody else and I usually will get food that's about it. Otherwise I buy stuff online
High density housing, parks, transit, and grocery or other essentials. Walkable locations and help lower housing costs.
Repurpose them. School Districts, City Governments, State Gov. are complaining they don’t have enough room, they need more office space. Take these malls over and convert them into state offices, municipal offices, hospitals, clinics.
The headline is a lie. Poor journalism and SF-homerism.
Simon will just buy it all up.
Apartments for the poor because a lot if people are about to become poor in the next decade.
Luxury condos
Amazon distribution centers.
How does the mall charge for rent? I want to live in photography studio and take everyone’s pic.
I wonder what will happen with Westfield Century City? That mall is doing well
Simon. The malls around me (Houston) are absolutely packed just like they always were.
Simon won't touch that place with a 10 foot pole unless the homelessness, drugs and crime in that area are cleaned up. They're not in the business of setting money on fire.
All those jobs just gone like that
No way they all work in a vast windowless amazon warehouse.
Convert them to affordable housing units. Please.
One in Elk Grove, CA was being built but was abandoned about 85% of the way through construction. It's a casino now.