Costa Mesa Historical Society discusses repurposing of historic spaces with developer of LAB Anti-Mall

One of the developers behind the LAB Anti-Mall and the Packing House will share her experiences repurposing historic structures in Orange County during a talk at the Donald Dungan Library next Saturday afternoon.

The event begins at 2 p.m. and will be hosted by the Costa Mesa Historical Society. Its guest speaker will be Linda Sadeghi, a developer known for incorporating pre-existing buildings into modern retail spaces for local businesses.

“Her approach preserves and repurposes them, even if they might not have been the most iconic buildings, rather than just tearing them all down,” Barbara Becks of the Costa Mesa Historical Society said.

An exterior mural painted by Gabriella Kohr lines a pathway at the LAB Anti-Mall in Costa Mesa. Costa Mesa was recently named a top destination for public art by Men’s Journal magazine.

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

The first space she developed with her ex-husband, Shaheen Sadeghi, was the LAB Anti-Mall. It had been a manufacturing facility of night-vision goggles for the military before they bought it in 1993.

They were both project managers in the clothing industry at the time and wanted to create storefronts that would allow friends designing surf apparel to circumvent large corporate retailers, Linda Sadeghi said during a brief interview Friday.

“I needed security clearance to tour the LAB, if you can believe it,” she said. “Right after I did I called Shaheen and said ‘I found the place, but you gotta quit right now before someone else swoops it up.’”

Linda Sadeghi still owns the LAB and said it took decades to see it become a success. Revitalizing older structures instead of putting up new ones comes with additional maintenance and zoning concerns that took time for her team to learn to navigate.

“You’re going to know your tenants and see a lot of them because you have to be there practically every day,” Linda Sadeghi said. “You can’t be an absentee landlord when something goes wrong in a 100-year-old building.”

A mother and daughter look down a tunnel cut through brush and covered with old music CDs at the LAB Anti-Mall in Costa Mesa. Costa Mesa was recently named a top destination for public art by Men’s Journal magazine.

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

Later, Linda Sadeghi became tapped as a consultant on the renovation of the Packing House in Anaheim, which reopened its doors in 2014. Now a trendy shopping and dining center, it was originally built for Sunkist Growers Inc. in 1919 and is the last remaining historic citrus packing warehouse in the city.

“The city had already bulldozed others, and residents came together to get them to save it,” Linda Sadeghi said. “It’s really thanks to the community that the building is still standing.”

She plans to thank the historical society and local residents for their efforts to preserve historic architecture in Orange County during the chat she leads next Saturday. She will also likely discuss progress on the rehabilitation of the Balboa Theatre in Newport Beach. The plan is for the building to return as a performance center, hosting live music, drama, film and private events.

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