Westminster Mall, a once-popular shopping center that has been desecrated by graffiti and vandalism since it closed last year, is on track for demolition soon.
It will be replaced with housing, a hotel and some shops and stores, part of a nationwide trend that is seeing outdated, failed malls in high-traffic locations swapped for mixed-use development that typically includes apartments. The process is often lengthy, leaving empty malls in danger of abuse
In recent weeks, videos have circulated on social media showing rampant paint tagging and destruction inside the structure that was a cultural touchstone in the Orange County city of Westminster for decades after it opened in 1974.
In its heyday, the mall was a gathering spot when there were few other places to hang out. It was where kids found the latest fashions and where “mall rats” roamed in packs after school.
The owner, Irvine-based Shopoff Realty Investments, has formally finished acquiring the property visible from the 405 Freeway and announced last week that demolition of the massive indoor mall would begin by April. Target will continue to operate during this time, the owners said.
The company paid nearly $93 million for the bulk of the old mall, according to real estate data provider CoStar. Shopoff Realty acquired the mall’s former Sears and Macy’s parcels in 2022.
Shopoff Realty now controls the mall and surrounding retail properties on an 89.3-acre site that it plans to turn into a mixed-use complex called Bolsa Pacific at Westminster.
Plans for Bolsa Pacific call for 2,250 residences involving a mix of for-sale housing and market-rate and affordable rental housing, the developer said.
Since its closing, vandals have broke into the mall, covered it in graffiti and destroyed the interior.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
The project is also to include a 120-room hotel and more than 220,000 square feet of shops and restaurants. Bolsa Pacific is to include more than 15 acres of open space, including private spaces for residents, open-air promenades and a network of walking trails.
Shopoff Realty anticipates that city officials will approve its plans in the months ahead and that construction will begin by the end of the year after demolition is complete.
“The Westminster Mall meant a lot of things for a lot of people for many years,” Shopoff Realty President Willliam A. Shopoff said. “it was a gathering place and it was a place where people had their first jobs, or first dates or first kiss — or all of the above. We envision a new kind of gathering place that can have the same kind of meaning for people for the next 50 or 75 years.”
As many as 8,000 people will live there, he said, and hundreds will be employed at the hotel.
“It’s hard to accumulate this much land in Orange County,” Shopoff said. “This is a really special opportunity.”
The Westminster Mall opened in 1974 on the former site of the world’s largest goldfish farm, according to city documents. It underwent major renovations in the 1980s and in 2008.
As malls have closed because of shifting consumer shopping habits and a desire for more lucrative development opportunities, the expansive empty buildings have taken on a new draw as a kind of postapocalyptic wasteland, much to the chagrin of local officials. Leveling such large structures and building something new in their place often take years, leaving the malls vacant and ripe for abuse.
Videos on social media and YouTube show people tagging empty storefronts, skateboarding or riding bicycles indoors and urban explorers touring the abandoned spaces for posterity or to look for signs of paranormal activity.
After the Hawthorne Plaza closed in 1999, it became the eerie setting for music videos for artists including Taylor Swift, Beyoncé and Travis Scott. Graffiti, trash, trespassing and safety issues at the sprawling mall vexed local officials for so many years that they secured an injunction forcing the property owners to redevelop it or demolish it by August.
Valley Plaza in North Hollywood, once touted as the largest shopping center on the West Coast, had been abandoned for nearly a decade, becoming a hot spot for fires and criminal activity, before it was demolished last year.
Times staff writer Hannah Fry contributed to this report.
