LA's Westside Pavilion mall closes doors, to be transformed into creative offices

By

Cassidy Mantor

Published
Mar 12, 2018

After losing its anchor tenants of Nordstrom and Macy's to nearby Westfield Century City, LA's Westside Pavilion mall will be redeveloped into creative offices and a movie theater in order to revitalize the real estate.

Westside Pavilion's fate was essentially sealed when former anchors Nordstrom and Macy's chose to invest in Westfield Century City after it underwent its $1 billion renovation. Nordstrom moved its store last October and Macy's updated its existing store in Century City, planning to move out of Westside Pavilion at the end of this month.

It has therefore been decided that the mall will be revitalized in a different format. Owner Macerich Inc. made the announcement last week that it will transform the 600,000-square-foot property from a former shopping and retail sprawl to 500,000 square feet of creative office space. The remaining 100,000 square feet will be converted into a Landmark movie theater that will show foreign and independent films.

To start the new project, Macerich formed a joint venture with Hudson Pacific Properties, Inc., a real estate developer and operator that will run the daily operations of the future property.

Art Coppola, Macerich’s chairman and CEO said, "Hudson Pacific brings great expertise in the creative-office-space segment, and we are pleased to partner with them on this."

The new project is estimated to cost between $425 and $475 million, and is slated to be completed by mid-2021.

Westside Pavilion opened in 1985 and the now defunct mall property is following the evolution of nearby retail spaces that saw their heyday and have since been remodeled into creative office and lifestyle spaces. Sears on Colorado Avenue in Santa Monica, for example, is currently undergoing a transformation to become The Mark 302, a mixed use creative office, retail and dining space.

Platform and Row DTLA are other examples of success stories in which previously stagnant LA real estate has been revitalized into retail, dining and lifestyle destinations.