Finding Costa Mesa mall Triangle Square isn’t a problem.
“It’s the gateway to downtown,” said Wil Smith, principal of real estate investor and developer Greenlaw Partners, the mall’s new owner.
Getting tenants and drawing shoppers is another story.
The three-story mall, which sits at the end of the Costa Mesa (55) Freeway, has struggled to lure and keep tenants since it opened in 1992 at a cost of $62 million.
Newport Beach-based Greenlaw and partner Wilton, Conn.-based Commonfund Realty Inc. bought the mall in September for an undisclosed price from Triangle Square Investment LLC.
Pasadena-based Triangle Square Investment bought it in 1998 for an estimated $47 million.
In the past year, the mall has seen big tenants NikeTown, Barnes & Noble and Virgin Megastore leave.
Property managers and leasing teams also have come and gone.
City officials, frustrated by the mall’s floundering, had a frosty relationship with Triangle Square Investment.
Even shoppers,including Smith,were dissatisfied.
“Like anyone walking around the mall, I would wonder ‘Why aren’t they doing this? Why aren’t they doing that?'” he said.
Now Greenlaw is looking to breathe some life into Triangle Square.
Smith and John Tumminello, both former executives at Newport Beach-based Makar Properties LLC, started Greenlaw in 2003.
The Triangle Square deal marks the first shopping center buy for Greenlaw. The company has bought roughly 20 office and industrial properties, primarily in Orange County, totaling about $550 million.
The mall deal also marks the company’s first foray into housing development. Before the buy closed, Greenlaw worked with the city to get the go-ahead for adding condominiums.
The developer envisions homes with ocean views atop the mall, part of a city plan to revitalize the west side of Costa Mesa.
The city is pushing to add smaller, low-rise condos to the area, alongside live-work lofts, shops and offices.
“We don’t need the project to stand out. We want to make it work within the framework of the city,” Tumminello said. “They have a great vision for the area.”
For more on this story, see the Dec. 4 edition of the Business Journal.
