An eye-catching floor-to-ceiling banner teases the arrival of a stand-alone John’s Incredible Pizza inside Westminster Mall.
The family restaurant and entertainment concept is opening next month and is projected to boost the mall’s foot traffic and sales.
Founder and owner John Parlet said the Rancho Santa Margarita-based company started negotiations four years ago, though the 1.2-million-square-foot mall didn’t have a space large enough at the time to house its arcade, themed dining rooms and all-you-can-eat buffet.
“There wasn’t the availability in the building that there is now,” he said. “We wanted something on the 405, and this became available, and we were able to make a deal.”
Though space was hard to come by for Parlet four years ago, a recent stroll through the two-story mall revealed roughly 20 empty spots. That doesn’t include anchor tenant Sears, which will vacate its main 200,000-square-foot space and its 18,000-square-foot auto center in April. The mall declined to reveal its vacancy rate.
But what it lacks in occupancy, it makes up for in location and neighborhood density, two things that can bait retailers to come aboard, Philip Voorhees of CBRE Group Inc. said.
“It’s one of the best, most visible and most accessible in all of OC” but needs a refresh, he said. “Thinking about the future of mall properties, it’s extremely good real estate. I bet if we were having this conversation 10 years from now, there would be a lot more density at the property.”
Columbus, Ohio-based real estate investment trust Washington Prime Group (NYSE: WPG) owns and operates the 1.2 million-square-foot mall. The REIT formed in 2014 in a spinoff from mall operator Simon Property Group Inc.
Filling Spaces
Westminster Mall opened in 1975, and by the mid-1980s ranked No. 2 in the county in taxable sales after South Coast Plaza. But now it’s parked at No. 10 with $223 million in taxable sales and 120 tenants.
General Manager Valerie Flores said the company is trying to bring in the right mix of tenants and cited last year’s addition of footwear chain Shoe Palace and trampoline park Sky Zone, and Las Vegas-style restaurant Luxe Buffet in 2016.
“We’ve seen other malls in the area going through development, and we know that it’s time for us to do that, as well, so we’ve been talking to all the other shareholders,” she said.
The mall’s last full-scale remodel came more than a decade ago.
The majority of its anchor tenants, including buildings unattached to the mall, such as Best Buy and Babies R Us, are independently owned, Flores said. Sears is owned by Seritage Growth Properties, the REIT established by distressed Sears Holdings Corp.
“We’re trying to get all those owners together and develop something that will work for everybody,” Flores said.
Voorhees of CBRE said a mall with multiple owners could hold up potential redevelopment plans or the addition of tenants, since each party gets to participate in the decision-making process.
Flores said there have been discussions with local and regional retailers and restaurants but wouldn’t identify the companies since there are no signed lease agreements.
For now, mall executives anticipate the opening of John’s Incredible Pizza, the chain’s 12th store and second in Orange County. The 41,000-square-foot concept takes up about a quarter of its lower level, Flores said.
Parlet, who plans to open a 13th store in Carson this year, said he was concerned that the Westminster outpost would cannibalize its 58,000-square-foot Buena Park spot 10 miles away until he started digging into the area’s demographics.
“We think it’s two different markets, and it’s very dense,” he said. “There’s over 2 million people in a 10-mile ring of each of the locations, so we felt the presence here would work for us.”
