Westfield MainPlace in Santa Ana has marked the shedding of its teenage years with a makeover.
David Hosbein, the mall’s general manager, said he’s aiming to grow sales per square foot from about $425 now to an ambitious $600 in the next few years.
He’s hoping to add a little South Coast Plaza magic to the mall by attracting upscale stores. Costa Mesa’s South Coast Plaza, the county’s largest mall, has sales per square foot of about $500.
The redesign of MainPlace, the county’s eighth largest mall by yearly sales, marks its 20th birthday.
“We’re no longer a teenager,” is Hosbein’s mantra.
Hosbein is a couple of months into the job. He most recently was assistant general manager for Westfield’s Galleria at Roseville, which is slated for a $250 million redevelopment of its own, and the Downtown Plaza in Sacramento before that.
The MainPlace makeover is just a beginning for Hosbein, who sees his new position as a way to really reinvent the mall in five to 10 years.
For starters, Coach Inc. is coming into two spaces at the mall.
That’s the kind of name brand MainPlace wants, Hosbein said.
He said he hopes to bring in more upscale women’s clothing stores, like J. Jill and Ann Taylor, which already are at the mall, and stores for teens and twenty somthings to complement Abercrombie, Anchor Blue and Gap, which all do well, according to Hosbein.
Forever 21, already there, is opening up a larger 14,000-square-foot store in November.
MainPlace, owned by Australia’s Westfield Group, competes with South Coast Plaza for upscale tenants because the centers are within eight miles of each other.
“We won’t get a tenant because it’s there,” Hosbein said, referring to South Coast Plaza, which often signs stores on an exclusive basis.
For a luxury store looking to come to the area, MainPlace faces a tough sell against South Coast Plaza, said Cheryl Van Steenwyk, partner with Newport Beach-based Newmeyer & Dillion LLP, which works with shopping centers.
National retailers pick malls based on their own market research, said Van Steenwyk, who specializes in shopping center litigation. If they have a choice between South Coast Plaza and MainPlace, they’ll likely go to South Coast Plaza, she said.
MainPlace has made other moves in the past few years.
It bought the land under Macy’s and JCPenney, making the department stores tenants like any other store. That gives MainPlace more sway over remodeling and leases if a department store should stumble.
It’s also brought in trendier, upscale tenants such as Soma by Chico’s, Coldwater Creek, El Torito, Swarovski crystal and Crazy 8, a new kids store from Gymboree Corp.
And MainPlace has revamped its outside facing Main Street and added outdoor entrances to some stores.
The mall plans five or six upgrade projects a year, Hosbein said.
Westfield is on a $10 billion improvement spree for its malls.
In Century City, Westfield is spending $150 million to add homes and move stores to create a grander entrance. In Roseville, the developer started construction in January on a $250 million, 480,000-square-foot expansion. And in the San Fernando Valley, Westfield is spending $750 million to build an open-air center by connecting two centers.
For an indoor mall, MainPlace is surprisingly vibrant. That has a lot to do with the high ceilings and the natural sunlight that shines through the glass-paneled ceiling.
MainPlace has scattered sitting space but the furniture is more like comfy coffee shop couches and chairs instead of wooden benches. There are several promotional video screens throughout the mall and a lot directional signs. Right now, bees decorate the escalator and hang from the ceiling, advertising DreamWorks’ “Bee Movie” opening Nov. 2.
MainPlace’s move toward upscale retailers is no surprise to Erin Hershkowitz, spokeswoman for the International Council of Shopping Centers, a New York-based trade group.
“The luxury market has taken off and that has affected the way developers are creating shopping centers,” she said.
Luxury retailers tend to be attracted to open air lifestyle centers, where shoppers can get to stores without walking through a mall.
Irvine Spectrum Center and Fashion Island are considered lifestyle malls.
Going ‘Lifestyle’
Since most malls don’t want to take on the expense of ripping off a roof, they’re adding lifestyle mall touches with name-brand retailers and restaurants, outdoor wings and entertainment areas.
The last enclosed mall was built in 2006 in Arkansas, according to Hershkowitz. Through 2009, no enclosed malls are slated for development, even in cold regions.
Many lifestyle centers have been adding condominiums and office space, which could be in MainPlace’s future. It’s the next major phase, five to 10 years out, Hosbein said.
C.J. Segerstrom & Sons LLC, owner of South Coast Plaza, has development rights to some of the MainPlace’s surrounding parcels.
“That has to be worked out,” he said.
As is, the 20-year-old center is no dud. It’s 96% full and sales per square feet are in line with national statistics.
“This center is doing extremely well,” Hosbein said.
The mall’s demographics are broader than might be expected, he said. There is a large segment of affluent second- and third-generation Hispanic shoppers.
“This is really a mall that serves their needs,” he said.
What is that need?
“They’re looking for the same thing as anyone,” he said.
They want better quality retailers and name brands, Hosbein said. He plans to do more research on its shoppers and has been working closely with Nordstrom on identifying and targeting customers.
“They are on top of the best brands and the best service,” he said. “They know the customer. They’re serving it.”
Kelly McLeod, manager of the Nordstrom at MainPlace, would like to see the mall step it up. MainPlace lost many of its higher-end stores,Restoration Hardware, Pottery Barn,when tri-level malls fell out of favor.
“They all left,” she said.
The mall needs more brand names instead of mom-and-pop stores, she said. There are more than enough jewelry stores, she said.
For its part, Nordstrom has completely remodeled.
“Every single department has been revamped,” she said. “Every single tile, carpet.”
It added four new labels and has exclusives coming in soon. Saturday was its grand re-opening.
McLeod points to City Place, the lifestyle mixed-use center across the street from MainPlace, as a model of success with boutiques, specialty restaurants and high-end retailers. Townhomes and lofts, set to sell for about $700,000, are in the works.
That could be MainPlace’s distant future. In the meantime, MainPlace has turned its focus toward the all-important holidays. Events are in the works. Soon, holiday decorations will replace the grand opening gala balloons.
“It’s pretty intensive,” Hosbein said.
CORRECTION
Oct. 26
The above story should have said Santa Ana F/C Development LLC has development rights to some parcels around the Santa Ana mall.
