Perched inside the cab of a 70,000-pound Volvo excavator, Shopoff Realty Investments founder Bill Shopoff pulled the levers back and forward and slammed the bucket into the fading Westminster Mall sign, sending a loud explosion of glass and metal beams crashing to the ground.
Standing nearby behind a fenced area, his wife and business partner, Cindy Shopoff, looked on, laughed and summed up the moment:
“This is every 10-year-old boy’s dream,” she said as others laughed along.
With another swing, the orange excavator grabbed the Westminster Mall entrance sign, revealing a blue banner behind it that read “Bolsa Pacific,” the name of the new $2.5 billion mixed-use community that will replace the mall after five decades.
The ceremonial demolition on Wednesday marked the official start of Bolsa Pacific, a major redevelopment by Irvine-based Shopoff Realty Investments.
The project will revitalize 83 acres of former retail space into a modern mixed-use neighborhood with shops, a hotel and parks.
“It’s time to stop talking about the future,” Shopoff told the crowd, “And start building it.”
The Westminster Mall redevelopment reflects a broader shift across Orange County, where struggling malls are transforming into mixed-use social districts with housing, open space and retail.
Last month, Centennial and Lowe Enterprises broke ground on a $250 million project at Santa Ana’s MainPlace Mall that includes a 408-unit apartment building and a 17,000-square-foot outdoor dining plaza and open space.
In Brea, Simon Property Group recently finished a 119,000-square-foot outdoor plaza at Brea Mall.
Redeveloping Westminster Mall
Shopoff is one of the most active developers in Orange County, including developing a 29-acre mixed-use project in Huntington Beach, the “Uptown” area of Newport Beach near John Wayne Airport and an 18-acre housing development near Mile Square Park in Fountain Valley.
In 2023, Shopoff won an Excellence in Entrepreneurship Award from the Business Journal.
For Shopoff, the Westminster groundbreaking was the result of years of work to bring the property together and rethink one of Orange County’s best-known sites, located just south of the San Diego (405) Freeway.
According to reports, Shopoff spent roughly $239 million acquiring different portions of the mall, starting with the 2022 $46.3 million purchase of the 14.1-acre Sears site from Seritage Growth Properties and the $49 million acquisition of the 12-acre Macy’s site from Macy’s West Victoria LLC.
Earlier this year, he completed the acquisition of the remaining mall properties, totaling seven properties and 57.5 acres, from Washington Prime Group for $144.2 million, according to CoStar.
“We were finally able to put the full assemblage together in the last couple of months,” Shopoff told the Business Journal.
Since then, the developer has gone through what he called “probably 100 iterations” of the site plan with the city before agreeing on the current design.
Shopoff plans to build 2,250 homes, including about 860 for sale, 1,200 market-rate apartments and 225 affordable units. The project will also have a 120-room hotel, 80,000 to 220,000 square feet of retail, and over 15 acres of parks and open space.
Retail developer Shaheen Sadeghi, founder and president of LAB Holding, is advising Shopoff on Bolsa Pacific’s retail component. Shopoff said the plan is to focus on higher-quality, curated local retail spaces.
He added that Target, one of the last anchor stores, will move to a new, much larger location within the development.
Standing near the future for-sale housing area, Shopoff said homebuilders are expected to start buying lots next year, and model homes could open by late 2027 or early 2028.
Demolition of the mall is already underway, he said.
Crews have stripped most of the mall’s interior, removed graffiti and vandalism after the mall closed and cleared hazardous materials and debris to prepare for full demolition.
Shopoff officials said entitlement plans have been submitted to the city for review, with anticipated approval sometime later this year.
“We’re ready to start,” Shopoff said. “You’ll see grading and infrastructure work later this year, and buildings coming out of the ground next year.”
The Revitalization of the Once Famous Westminster Mall
For the city, the transformation represented the revitalization of a former economic asset and an opportunity to restore a sense of place for residents that had faded over time.
“This site has always been important,” said Christine Cordon, Westminster city manager, to the Business Journal. “But right now, it’s more important than ever because it needs revitalization. It needs to be updated to what the standards are today.”
The site was a goldfish farm until 1974, when the two-story super-regional mall opened.
Westminster Mall had been a central gathering point for many residents in the city and Orange County and an economic generator, featuring as many as 160 stores.
Like many regional malls, the mall has struggled in recent years with vacancies, store closures and declining foot traffic, a trend accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, e-commerce, bankruptcies among national retailers and shifting consumer shopping habits.
“It’s followed the trend of other malls,” Cordon said. “More vacancies, more turnover, and people just weren’t coming here the way they used to.”
This decline had wider effects. With fewer visitors, the city collected less sales tax and nearby businesses saw less economic activity.
“It becomes a domino effect,” she said. “If people aren’t coming, they’re not spending. It starts to feel isolated.”
City leaders now see the $2.5 billion redevelopment project, called Bolsa Pacific, as a way to turn things around by bringing new residents, businesses and energy back to the area.
The project could bring in 8,000 to 10,000 new residents, help Westminster meet state housing requirements and create what officials call a new community hub.
“You can’t ignore the fact that a site this big can support housing and retail together,” Cordon said. “It becomes a mini community.”
Officials say they expect that identity to continue, especially with this new project.
“It’s been an icon for about 50 years,” Cordon said. “What we’re excited about is that it will be reimagined for the next generation but still remain iconic.”
For developer Bill Shopoff, the project is “a great honor and a great responsibility.
“People have told me about their first dates here, their first jobs here. What we want Bolsa Pacific to be is that same kind of place for the next 50 or 100 years.”
