Laguna Hills Mall was a shopping mall in

Laguna Hills, California Laguna Hills (; ''Laguna'', Spanish for "Lagoon") is a city in south Orange County, California, United States. Its name refers to its proximity to Laguna Canyon and the much older Laguna Beach. Other newer cities nearby— Laguna Niguel and L ...

, in southern Orange County that is being redeveloped by the owners as Five Lagunas. The enclosed mall closed on December 31, 2018, and will be demolished. The exterior stores remain open. New retail, a movie theater, apartments, and a parking structure are currently planned to replace the old mall structure.

History

1973 launch

The mall opened in phases starting in Spring 1973 with

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...

as the first anchor open, followed by a two-level

Buffums Buffums, originally written as Buffums' with an apostrophe, was a chain of upscale department stores, headquartered in Long Beach, California. The Buffums chain began in 1904, when two brothers from Illinois, Charles A. and Edwin E. Buffum, ...

on September 5, 1973. The Broadway followed, opening in August 1975, and

J.C. Penney Penney OpCo LLC, doing business as JCPenney and often abbreviated JCP, is a midscale American department store chain operating 667 stores across 49 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. Departments inside JCPenney stores include Mens, Womens, Boys, Girl ...

in 1976. Up to that point, the mall had cost an estimated $50,000,000 to build and contained of retail space in Phase I with 55 shops and and 83 shops in Phase II.

1990s

In May 1991, Buffum's closed due to the chain being liquidated and three years later, the store's second level was converted into an upstairs food court. The food court, which operated from 1994 to 2011, was the only part of the general mall on the second level. The Broadway converted into

Macy's Macy's (originally R. H. Macy & Co.) is an American chain of high-end department stores founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. It became a division of the Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores in 1994, through which it is affiliated wi ...

in May 1996.

2010s

In May 2013, Merlone Geier Partners purchased the property from

Simon Property Group Simon Property Group, Inc. is an American real estate investment trust that invests in shopping malls, outlet centers, and community/ lifestyle centers. It is the largest owner of shopping malls in the United States and is headquartered in In ...

. A year later, Merlone Geier purchased the Sears anchor store. Sears (the mall's original anchor store) closed in July 2014. Renovations started in 2016.

Re-branding

The Laguna Hills Mall is scheduled to be renamed "Five Lagunas". According to Laguna Hills' city documents, the renovations include pedestrian plazas, new retail sections, a 988-unit apartment complex, a multi-screen movie theater, new signage, and a 1,500-space parking structure. On January 3, 2018, it was announced that Macy's would be closing in March 2018 as part of a plan to close 11 stores nationwide, which halted construction on its end of the mall and left JCPenney as the only remaining anchor. On July 10, 2018, it was announced that JCPenney would be closing in October 2018, making it the last anchor store to close which left the mall with no anchors. On December 18, 2018, it was announced that the interior of the mall would close on December 31, 2018. The exterior stores will remain open.

Plans for Five Lagunas

At a November 2019 City Council meeting, Merlone-Geier unveiled two major changes to the previous plans proposed since 2016: adding housing and reduction of retail space. Previously, the proposal called for 880,000 square feet of retail space and 988 residential units. Another reduction was made in office space to make room for the seasonal events. The revised proposal includes a new 110,000 square-foot cinema, 225,000 to 300,000 square feet of retail, a 125-room hotel, 390,000 to 520,000 square feet of office space, two three-story parking structures, and a potential of 1,200 to 1,500 more apartments.

References

{{Shopping malls in California Shopping malls in Orange County, California Laguna Hills, California Shopping malls established in 1973 Shopping malls disestablished in 2018 Mixed-use developments in California Demolished shopping malls in the United States 1973 establishments in California 2018 disestablishments in California