LEGACY LEADERSHIP: When Henry T. Segerstrom joined his family’s firm in 1949, he took the company from farming to commercial real estate and retail by spearheading the development of South Coast Plaza and nearby office towers. Henry was the one who decided to emphasize the plaza as “a luxury headquarters.” The Segerstrom family patriarch was known for recruiting a variety of luxe operators to the city, many who have maintained a space since opening. Elizabeth, Henry’s widow, and Sandy, the daughter of Henry’s cousin Harold and his wife Jeanette, are managing partners of the company.
HQ: Santa Ana
OC SIGNIFICANCE: C.J. Segerstrom & Sons operates some of Santa Ana and Costa Mesa’s most valuable commercial properties. The family-owned firm helped shift OC from an agricultural community into an urban center, from building and opening South Coast Plaza to later donating land to create the foundation for the arts scene in OC, starting with Segerstrom Center for the Arts. South Coast Plaza has the highest gross sales of any planned retail establishment in North America and the largest collection of luxury retailers. Also controls the Westin South Coast Plaza and a cluster of high-rise office towers across Bristol Street in Costa Mesa, including Plaza Tower, Center Tower and Park Tower, along with the surrounding office campus. These buildings collectively total over 1.3M square feet and house major law firms, financial services companies and corporate tenants. Segerstrom is currently planning to develop a major mixed-use project on Sunflower Avenue dubbed The Village Santa Ana as well as a new industrial park located some two miles west.
DEFINING MOMENT: Opening South Coast Plaza in 1967. The shopping center was built on a former lima bean farm and has become home to several Orange County flagship and West Coast exclusive stores of luxury brands like Tiffany & Co., Hermès, Manolo Blahnik, Bvlgari and is visited by local and international shoppers alike.
BY THE NUMBERS: South Coast Plaza, the largest shopping center in Orange County and highest-grossing mall in the U.S., reports annual taxable sales of $2.5B and brings in over 20 million visitors a year. The firm is in the process of developing The Village Santa Ana, with plans to build 1,583 residential units and nearly 400,000 square feet of office and retail space. Segerstrom is also gearing up for its largest ground-up development in years — a roughly 10-acre industrial park in Santa Ana with an estimated cost of more than $126 million.
QUOTABLE: “Luxury likes to be near or next to luxury.” — Anton Segerstrom, son of Henry Segerstrom
FUN FACT: Before real estate, C.J. Segerstrom & Sons was the nation’s largest independent producer of lima beans.
