Fallbrook Mall Owners Plan to Raze the Roof
Looking for a winning formula to spur flagging sales, owners of one of the San Fernando Valley’s oldest shopping malls unveiled plans Monday to transform the aging 75-acre property into an open-air center.
Fallbrook Mall, to be renamed Fallbrook Center, will shift from a traditional mix of anchor tenants and smaller specialty shops to concentrate on larger stores, said officials for Chicago-based General Growth Properties Inc., owner of the 1.2-million-square-foot center in West Hills.
The new tenants will include organic-food store Henry’s Marketplace, Designer Shoe Warehouse, Linens ‘N Things, Party City and a seven-screen Laemmle Theatre, which will replace the 10-screen General Cinema multiplex that closed last year. They will join Kmart, Target, Mervyn’s, Burlington Coat Factory and Sport Chalet, which will remain open through the renovation. Old Navy and Ross Dress For Less will be expanded and relocated within the center, General Growth officials said.
Construction will begin this fall and continue through most of next year. General Growth officials said the changes were prompted by sluggish sales and closures of smaller stores in niches such as women’s fashions, shoes and gifts.
At the end of March, the owners of the 120-store mall declined to renew the leases of many smaller retailers.
Sharon Polonia, senior vice president of asset management at General Growth, said the company surveyed local shoppers before settling on the new lineup.
“It was actually consumers saying this is what Fallbrook should be,” Polonia said. “We’re very excited about the project and look forward to doing business as the transformed Fallbrook.”
Competition for the fickle consumer dollar is fierce in the retail industry. Typically, shopping centers renovate or expand every five to seven years. Fallbrook Mall, which opened in the 1950s, hasn’t undertaken major changes since 1985, according to the 2001 Directory of Major Malls Inc.
“Historically, we saw enclosed malls with anchor tenants and smaller specialty stores,” said Patrice Selleck, a spokeswoman for the International Council of Shopping Centers. “But the trend nowadays is for shopping centers to have a mix of retailers that are consumer-oriented and allow for quick and convenient shopping.”
The changes might be too little, too late, said Chris Mailing, a senior director of the national retail group at Encino-based Marcus & Millichap, a real estate investment firm.
“The problem is that this market is saturated with other stores that provide similar products and services [to those the new Fallbrook Center will offer],” Mailing said. “Add to that the fact that [it’s] not freeway-accessible, and it limits consumers to a three- to five-mile radius.”
