Owners Propose Face-Lift for Plaza Pasadena Mall

The owners of Plaza Pasadena are hoping to add a gourmet food market, movie theaters and sports club to the indoor mall.

Trizec Hahn officials said Wednesday that they are proposing a massive face-lift for the mall that would eliminate its interior and have storefronts facing the streets. The firm’s plan calls for dividing the ailing mall into three separate units. At the east end, an upscale grocery store along with restaurants would replace the J.C. Penney. In the center of the mall, multi-screen movie theaters with seats for 4,000 would be built on the second floor. And at the mall’s west end, plans call for a sports club with a swimming pool and a climbing wall.

The proposal will be discussed Friday at a meeting of the mayor’s City Center task force, which has spent several months examining how to spruce up the area surrounding City Hall, the library and Civic Auditorium. The task force is scheduled to make a recommendation on the mall’s future Tuesday. That recommendation will go to the council April 6.

But task force member Claire Bogaard said she doubts that the city needs more movie theaters and restaurants. “I was hoping for a whole lot more,” she said.