The top 33 shopping centers in Orange County notched a sixth straight year of growth in taxable sales, with an overall performance that suggests the local retail scene is hot heading into the crucial year-end holiday season.
Retailers, restaurants and entertainment venues at the various centers rung up $7.9 billion in sales during the 12-month period that ended June 30, according to this week’s Business Journal list. That’s up 8.6% year-over-year—more than three times higher than the 2.3% gain reported for the year-earlier period.
Twenty-three of the centers reported sales increases, five had declines, and five were flat based on Business Journal estimates.
The 33 retail centers combined for 2,670 tenants, 69 more than a year ago. Gross leasable space added up to 23.4 million square feet.
The centers range from luxury-focused South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa and the increasingly toney Fashion Island in Newport Beach to the Costco-anchored Bella Terra in Huntington Beach, and the Tustin Market Place.
The list’s leaders include:
• South Coast Plaza retained its perennial No. 1 position with $1.7 billion in taxable sales, up nearly 18.9% from same period last year. The shopping center added several luxury tenants, including Céline and Dolce & Gabbana, for a total of 250.
“Now more than ever, the aspects that differentiate us from the other retail centers are our significant marketing efforts to reach local and regional customers, extensive international and national tourism programs, long-standing and authentic relationships with cultural institutions, selective partnerships with the California business sector, and a brand identity that always connotes quality,” said Debra Gunn Downing, South Coast Plaza’s spokesperson.
The center also said goodbye to its founder Henry Segerstrom, who passed away in February at age 91.
• Fashion Island in Newport Beach reported $685 million in taxable sales during the period, up 6.8% and good for the No. 2 spot.
Green Street Advisors LLC, a Newport Beach-based commercial real estate research firm, gave the outdoor mall an “A++” grade, citing new luxury services and restaurants at the 172-store property.
Market Place
• The Market Place in Tustin and Irvine posted $515.7 million in taxable sales. That’s up 21.6% year-over-year—the highest percentage increase of any center on the list. The center placed No. 3 with seven new retailers for a total of 132.
“The Market Place has continued to evolve over the last few years as part of our commitment to continually keeping a fresh and diverse mix of tenants,” said Easther Liu, chief marketing officer for the Retail Properties Division of Newport Beach-based Irvine Company, which owns the center. “We’ve bolstered [its] one-stop shopping and dining appeal by adding to our growing collection of notable dining concepts, from bringing in dining powerhouses such as TAPS and California’s first Bonefish Grill to popular fast-casual concepts such as Pieology and G Burger—all concepts that resonate with our core customers throughout Orange County and Southern California. We’re looking forward to welcoming even more great restaurants in the next year, from Hopdoddy Burger Bar and Urban Plates to first-to-Orange County concepts like Snooze and Texas de Brazil.”
• South Coast Collection, a 301,000-square-foot outdoor center near the San Diego (I-405) Freeway in Costa Mesa, recorded $61.2 million in taxable sales stemming from 66 furniture, fashion, design and food tenants. That’s good for a 21% year-over-year increase and the No. 30 spot on the list. New additions include furniture merchants HD Buttercup, Cisco Home and Roche Bobois, as well as Miel, a fast-fashion retailer.
“For SoCo’s sales in particular, we can attribute at least a part of the increase to the maturity of the venue itself,” said Scott Burnham, chief executive of Newport Beach-based Burnham USA, whose affiliate Burnham-Ward Properties sold an undisclosed interest in the center this month to Rockwood Capital LLC in Los Angeles for $120 million. “SoCo has clearly become a destination with … a wide array of unique tenants that cannot be found elsewhere, which translates into retail sales. But frankly, the other part of the equation is while the retail world has dramatically changed, for those retailers who have made it a point to evolve with the retail market’s demands and trends, they reap the benefits because they appeal to people’s desires, also contributing to their sales and success.”
Declines range from a 12% drop at Laguna Hills Mall to a 2% dip at Anaheim GardenWalk.
• Westminster Mall dropped one spot to No. 10, posting $238 million in taxable sales, a 3% decrease. The mall lost 11 tenants over the course of the 12 months and now has 194.
Laguna Hills Mall
• Laguna Hills Mall moved a couple of spots down to No. 19, with nearly $122.6 million in taxable sales and 74 stores. The mall’s owner, Merlone Geier Partners in San Francisco, is looking to remodel the property by demolishing everything south of J. C. Penney Co.’s department store, including a vacant Sears building. The additions will include a luxury movie theater, retail shops, and an apartment complex—a portion of which would be completed in the summer of 2018 during the first phase of development.
