SDC Confirms Talks on Mall in La Habra : Developer Has Plans for Community Retail Center
If SDC Development Co. gets its way, La Habra shoppers may soon have a new $45-million shopping center with no department stores.
The Newport Beach-based developer confirmed Tuesday that it is negotiating to buy the majority interest of La Habra Fashion Square--the small, tired mall that SDC would like to transform into a neighborhood shopping center.
“It’s obvious somebody will have to do something to overhaul that center--it’s obsolete,” said Tod Ridgeway, a vice president with SDC. He said a sale to SDC is “technically in escrow,” but declined to elaborate.
About 14.4 acres of the La Habra center were bought in late 1985 by City Freeholds USA Inc., a private developer in Buena Park that also owns the Buena Park Mall. La Habra Fashion Square, the 40-acre retail shopping center at the corner of Imperial Highway and Beach Boulevard, is anchored by Buffums and Bullock’s department stores. City Freehold owns everything but the Buffums and Bullock’s sites and parking lots.
Ranked Last in Southland
For years, the center has been one of Orange County’s worst performers, largely because of poor freeway access and growing competition from nearby Brea Mall. The La Habra mall’s sales of $50.78 per square foot, for instance, ranked last among 48 Southern California shopping centers in a 1985 study compiled by The Times.
All that could change, however, if SDC follows through with its plans to spruce up the mall. Ridgeway said the company envisions a $40-million to $50-million community shopping center “probably with a hardware store or home improvement store” and maybe a high-volume, discount operation.
As for Buffums and Bullock’s, “It probably would not include major department stores,” Ridgeway said. Executives with both companies said they’ve been contacted by prospective buyers but are unaware of plans to sell.
Industry sources have said that to complete its plans, SDC will need at least one of the other parcels now owned by Buffums or Bullock’s. “If you can’t put a sufficient number of ducks in a row, it’s not a good deal,” said one source who asked not to be named.
City Freehold and SDC executives said that plans for the center should be finalized by mid-August.
