Shorts & TikTok Edition: 966 Character Limit to be under a minute
“Would rich state college students want to live at a mall?” That question was sort of said by the owners of the Brea Mall, Simon Peoprtity Group, who owns the 180-retailer indoor regional mall since 1998, the mall was built in 1977. Located in Brea, California, is it two miles from Cal State Fullerton & ten miles from Disneyland. According to the Orange County Register, in 2022, the mall has over $700 million in combined sales. On May 2, 2023, Simon Peorpties went next door to the Brea City Hall to seek approval for a multi-use development to the former Sears anchor store, which sat vacant since 2018, the building & parking lots to be redeveloped for new shopping and restaurants, 380 unit apartment building, 983 parking space garage, outdoor plaza, and fitness center. However, there would only be 10% affordable units, about 38 units, and no mentions of grocery or drug stores, to make it a nearly car-free errand runs. Please do better Simon Properties.
Blog Edition:
Indoor shopping malls in the 2020s are becoming a relic of the past as a haven for one-stop clothing shopping and getting away from the “urban decay” of the downtowns post World War II, like Bullock’s department store in Los Angeles on the interurban street car at the Southern California Railway Museum.
As many regional malls are declining in popularity and/or tenets, they have to remake themselves to stay relevant. One idea is to redevelop the part of the dead mall to be a mixed-use development, that is the idea that Simon Property Group is asking the city of Brea, California did with their indoor regional mall, the Brea Mall, owned & operated by Simon Properties, opened in 1972. It currently has 180 shops & restaurants, currently four anchor tenants, and one currently vacant tenant, Sears, which closed in 2018. According to the OC Register, is it still popular even during the 2022 holiday shopping season, with a combined sales of over $700 million in 2022. With over 1.2 million square feet of leasable space, the Brea Mall is always buzzing with shoppers, even on a Friday afternoon before school is out in May. What is planned for the Brea Mall? Who would want to live there, And would it work?
According to the Orange County Register, which I am a subscriber of and this is a subscriber article, 15.5 of 75 acres of the mall will be dedicated for the development at the former Sears building & parking lots to be redeveloped for new shopping, restaurant, 380 unit apartment building that would probably be the typically class 5 residential over 1 class one commercial fire code building, 983 parking space garage, outdoor plaza, and fitness center, probably an LA Fitness. There are no mentions of grocery stores or drug stores, to make it more well rounded so you don’t need to go outside of the mall premises to get essential everyday items that the mall lacks, at least there is a Target across Birch Street to help with groceries and pharmacy, and stores along the Imperial Highway, CA 90. It is a win-win for everyone since it adds more housing to the area, especially is popular for California State University, Fullerton students 5 miles down State College Blvd., adds more shopping & dining options, and incentivizes spending more on site to add to the over $700 million spent at the Brea Mall last year.
I was curious about what my followers on Instagram would think of living at a multi-family residence, either renting an apartment or buying a condo, at their local indoor regional mall. Much of them usually skip over it and these questions are more skewed towards younger adults. Two of the yes respondents are young adults which is more attractive to those demographics, while the no was an adult with kids, not making it the most optimal living situation unless there are townhomes & single family homes. Then I realized who is more for, California State University, Fullerton students as it is two miles away, along with the many older and newer apartments in the area as well, with one of the newer buildings, Avalon Brea Place, where a two bedroom unit starts at $3,400.
My family member’s roommate and I live in an apartment by Angel Stadium which is a pseudo mixed-use neighborhood that has offices and several apartment buildings, condos, and townhouses. However, it is not really dense and walkable yet to run errands, but walkable to Angel Stadium, Honda Center, and the ARTIC.
The closest I lived or stayed a few days at a shopping center is the Marriott Grand Residence, Lake Tahoe. A timeshare resort of Marriott Vacation Club, which my parents are owners of, and we stay there during the summer for hiking and exploring South Lake Tahoe. Along with the Marriott Timber Lodge across the way, is built inside Heavenly Village, a shopping center at the ski lift base of Heavenly snow resorts.
The vacation clubs are built on top of the shopping center, giving it a dense dynamic feel at all hours with shopping at snow sports & souvenir stores, and restaurants of various cuisines. We can eat breakfast at our unit or eat at one of the restaurants like Starbucks, go hiking in the afternoon with trail mix & sandwiches for lunch, go back to the resort in the evening, shower, and eat dinner at the restaurants and get Cold Stone for dessert. It was an experience that we all loved and was much different than living at an isolated single-family home with a strict homeowners association where you need approval for having an to add solar panels to your home’s roof. I eventually want to live in a denser neighborhood like that for convenience & a more vibrant neighborhood, then I had my chance.
In 2021, I moved to an apartment near Angel Stadium with a family member as my roommate, where there are plenty of multi-family residential & office buildings in walking distance to plenty of entertainment, transit, and cycling paths. In 2002, the city of Anaheim made development plans to densify the surrounding Angel Stadium area, now called Platinum Triangle, and rebuilt the train station from downtown in 2015 as the Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center (ARTIC) thanks to being right between Angel Stadium & Honda Center. Honda Center, home of the Anaheim Ducks, both currently owned by Henry Sumeli, the co-founder of Broadcom, who is working on the initial development of the OCVibe, a mixed-use development on the existing sea of parking surrounding Honda Center & the ARTIC. The Angel Stadium & Parking lot was supposed to be redeveloped, however, it fell through when due to bribery of the previous Anaheim Mayor, the sale was canceled to Arte Moreno, the current owner. Angel Stadium & Parking is still owned by the city of Anaheim. The neighborhood is dynamic…with car traffic on event days and commute time, and really packed before evening games as commuters are trying to get around the game day traffic on State College & Katella, with nine to eleven lanes, it is a really big street road. People fly on the roads like they are driving on a clear Interstate 5. Unfortunately, is part of the problem with the area unless lanes are taken away, protected bike & bus lanes are put in, lower speed limit, and add maybe add a tram line.
