A recent visit to Kaleidoscope in Mission Viejo felt like showing up to a party two days early.
Several forthcoming eateries and entertainment venues were fine-tuning their interiors, offering passersby a glimpse of what’s to come this summer—Union Market food hall, with a roster that includes Portola Coffee Roasters, Milk Box, Mole, Hummus Bowl, Oyu Shabu, Diced, Dry Society and Market 2 Plate.
“I’m very excited,” said Cheryl Beck, chief executive of nearby Bold Girlz, who opened the boutique and party store for girls two years ago at the mall that’s been a favorite hangout spot for younger crowds rather than a source for the latest fashion trends. “A lot of people go to the movie theater, but not very many walk over to our side of the center.”
A few storefronts dotted around the outdoor mall remain boarded up, but not for long, according to Colby Durnin, chief executive of Irvine-based Sentinel Development Services Inc., which manages the center for owner Westport Capital Partners LLC in Wilton, Conn.
“There is more coming, I can tell you that, but I can’t quite release it yet,” Durnin said, referring to a 26,000-square-foot space on the plaza level that will have an “entertainment-focused” tenant and an adjacent 6,493-square-foot suite holding a “restaurant concept.”
Tacos Cancun will open across from Union Market at the end of June, and Panini Café, a Los Angeles-based chain of Mediterranean-style restaurants serving breakfast, lunch and dinner, will arrive in 2017 next to Burke Williams Spa. Islands Fine Burgers & Drinks, meanwhile, says it will leave in July to move across Crown Valley Parkway to the 7,300-square-foot space at the Shops at Mission Viejo that Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlour & Restaurant vacated in January. Durnin said he’s had several inquiries from restaurateurs about the space but no lease just yet.
Union Market owners Andrea and Russell Young took a 27,800-square-foot anchor space formerly occupied by Crunch Fitness and subleased it to about a dozen eateries, including seafood restaurant Anchor Hitch, which opened May 12. They run a similar concept at The District in Tustin.
The 245,000-square-foot Kaleidoscope, which according to the city of Mission Viejo generated $15.4 million in taxable sales last year, completed a “multimillion-dollar” renovation effort that included installing new covered escalators, updating the center’s exterior with a “modern color palette,” and putting in new signage and glass accents, according to Sentinel.
It’s technically a shopping mall—that is, if you’re in the market for a mattress or a new smartphone. Traditional apparel or footwear retailers, which dominate the 150-store lineup at the neighboring Shops at Mission Viejo, are nowhere to be found. And that’s OK with Durnin.
The center has embraced its entertainment and lifestyle feel, he said. It recently hosted the inaugural Mission Viejo Film Festival, “a showcase for impassioned filmmakers” that also supported cancer research and treatment at City of Hope.
It’s looking to fill remaining vacant spaces with “experiential retailers” that could provide cross draw for its other tenants, including LA Fitness, Sola Salon Studios, Howie’s Game Shack, Laser Quest, Riptide Rockin’ Sushi & Teppan Grills and Edwards Cinemas.
There’s an open 2,390-square-foot suite next to Bold Girlz, for example, “that would be a prime spot for experiential retail, something that people are looking for, not just your everyday commodity,” Durnin said.
The center’s occupancy rate is at 82%, and should the new leases come through this week, the ratio would rise to 92%, Durnin said. The Shops at Mission Viejo’s occupancy rate last year was 96.7%, according to parent company Simon Property Group Inc.
Kaleidoscope, built in 1998 by Samsung Pacific Construction Inc., was taken over by Westport for $22 million in a 2010 foreclosure sale—a little more than a third of its reported $60 million construction cost.
