City to Sell Shopping Mall Holdings to Developer

In an effort to revitalize its downtown, the city has agreed to sell a large part of a shopping center to an Orange County developer to house a new Albertsons and other stores.

The city in recent years has spent $3 million acquiring 85% of the land in the Puddingstone Shopping Center with an eye to redeveloping the rundown 1960s strip mall, city officials said.

It also invested another $1 million from a bond issue for a new parking lot and soon-to-be completed new facade to blend with the city’s western theme downtown.

Now, the city has agreed to sell half of its part of the shopping center to Marketplace Properties of Newport Beach for $1.9 million.