MainPlace Mall (formerly known as Westfield MainPlace) is a shopping mall at the north edge of

Santa Ana, California Santa Ana () is the second most populous city and the county seat of Orange County, California. Located in the Greater Los Angeles region of Southern California, the city's population was 310,227 at the 2020 census, making Santa Ana the 13th-m ...

, adjacent to the

City of Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower *Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum * ...

and the

Orange Crush interchange The Orange Crush interchange, frequently called The Crush, is a freeway interchange in the city of Orange, California, near the borders of the cities of Orange, Santa Ana, Anaheim, and Garden Grove. The Disneyland Resort, The Outlets at Orange, ...

of the Santa Ana, Garden Grove and

Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower *Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum * ...

freeways. The anchor stores are

JCPenney 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, Gi ...

24 Hour Fitness 24 Hour Fitness is a privately owned and operated fitness center chain headquartered in Carlsbad, California. It is the second largest fitness chain in the United States based on revenue after LA Fitness, and the fourth in number of clubs (behi ...

Ashley HomeStore Ashley (formerly known as Ashley HomeStore and still known as Ashley Furniture HomeStore in some countries) is an American furniture store chain that sells Ashley Furniture products. Opened in 1997, the chain comprises over 2000 locations worldwi ...

, Round 1 Entertainment, DXL Mens Apparel, and

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 ...

. There is 1 vacant anchor store that was once

Nordstrom Nordstrom, Inc. () is an American luxury department store chain headquartered in Seattle, Washington, and founded by John W. Nordstrom and Carl F. Wallin in 1901. The original Wallin & Nordstrom store operated exclusively as a shoe store, and ...

History

Anchor stores, current and former

Fashion Square

MainPlace Mall was built on the site of the much smaller open-air center that Los Angeles-based department store

Bullock's Bullock's was a chain of full-line department stores from 1907 through 1995, headquartered in Los Angeles, growing to operate across California, Arizona and Nevada. Bullock's also operated as many as seven more upscale Bullocks Wilshire special ...

opened in 1958, first called Bullock's Fashion Square. The center cost Bullock's $11.5 million to build and was designed by

Pereira & Luckman Pereira & Luckman was a Los Angeles, California architectural firm that partners Charles Luckman and William Pereira founded in Los Angeles in 1950. They had been classmates at the University of Illinois’ School of Architecture and had each beco ...

, a popular architect in the area. Bullock's Fashion Square debuted with 32 stores including branches of boutique department stores

I. Magnin I. Magnin & Company was a San Francisco, California-based high fashion and specialty goods luxury department store. Over the course of its existence, it expanded across the West into Southern California and the adjoining states of Arizona, Oregon ...

Desmond's ''Desmond's'' is a British television situation comedy broadcast by Channel 4 from 1989 to 1994. Conceived and co-written by Trix Worrell, and produced by Charlie Hanson and Humphrey Barclay, ''Desmond's'' stars Norman Beaton as barber Des ...

Haggarty's Haggarty's (also J. J. Haggarty, the New York Cloak and Suit House, the New York Store) was a department store chain founded in Los Angeles in 1906, which closed in May 1970 due to not keeping up with fashion trends and a resulting $4.4 million i ...

and Mandel's, plus the Jolly Roger restaurant. There was parking for 3000 cars and opening day drew crowds of 40,000 people from across Orange County, according to the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...

''.“Santa Ana's Fashion Square makes debut", ''Los Angeles Times'', 18 September 1958, part 3, page 1 As Bullock's opened similar Fashion Square malls in other Southern California cities, the venue was renamed Santa Ana Fashion Square. Mainplace-ext

Transition to MainPlace

After a period of decline, JMB Property demolished most of the shopping center, except for the anchors, and had it replaced by MainPlace in 1987. Bullock's chose to stay on while I. Magnin ultimately decided not to remain and therefore closed on February 14, 1987. Along with Bullock's,

and J.W. Robinson's were the anchors when MainPlace first opened. In November 1990, a new wing opened with May Company California becoming the mall's fourth anchor store which opened in May 1991. By January 1993, Robinson's merged with May Company to become

Robinsons-May Robinsons-May was a chain of department stores operating in Southern California, Arizona and Nevada, from 1993 until 2006. It was created when May Department Stores combined two of its chains, May Company California and J. W. Robinson's cha ...

and as a result, the original May Company store closed and reopened as the Robinsons-May Women's & Children's store while the original J.W. Robinson's store closed and reopened as the Robinsons-May Men's & Home store. The Bullock's became

in May 1996. In 2000, JMB Urban, the successor to JMB, sold MainPlace and other mall properties to the American branch of Rodamco. Rodamco, in turn, sold its North American properties to

Westfield Group Westfield Group was an Australian shopping centre company that existed from 1960 to 2014, when it split into two independent companies: Scentre Group, which owns and operates the Australian and New Zealand Westfield shopping centre portfolio ...

in 2002. Following the acquisition, the mall was renamed Westfield Shoppingtown MainPlace, and the "Shoppingtown" moniker was dropped in 2005. By September 2006, the Robinsons-May Women and Children's store closed due to the chain being acquired by Macy's &

Bloomingdale's Bloomingdale's Inc. is an American luxury department store chain; it was founded in New York City by Joseph B. and Lyman G. Bloomingdale in 1861. A third brother, Emanuel Watson Bloomingdale, was also involved in the business. It became a di ...

in which the Robinsons-May Men's & Home store remained opened but became the Macy's Men's and Home store. In March 2007, JCPenney opened in the vacant Robinsons-May Women's & Children's store. In 2006,

sought to revamp the mall in the face of losing local retail market share to South Coast Plaza, California's largest and highest-volume mall, only to the south. In 2014, Westfield announced a $50 million renovation to the mall. Macy's closed its Men's & Home Store at the mall in 2012, and consolidated those merchandise categories into the main store. The building, originally the J.W. Robinson's store, was split between 24 Hour Fitness, Ashley Furniture Home Store, and an entertainment center. In December 2015, Westfield sold the mall to a consortium that was headed by Centennial Real Estate Company and included Montgomery Street Partners and USAA Real Estate Company. Nordstrom, an original anchor when MainPlace opened in September 1987, closed in 2017.

Plans for transformation

By 2019, MainPlace Mall had seen 35 store closures and a $54 million drop in gross sales over a two-year period. In March 2019, it was announced that a project would transform the mall into

mixed-use development Mixed-use is a kind of urban development, urban design, urban planning and/or a zoning type that blends multiple uses, such as residential, commercial, cultural, institutional, or entertainment, into one space, where those functions are to ...

, adding a food hall in "European marketplace" style, an interactive play center for children, upgrades to its movie theater, a grocery store, and two apartment communities with 700 new residential units. Together with new residential communities adjacent to the mall, there would be a total of 3,000 new residential units in the immediate area.

References

External links

Westfield MainPlace Official Site
{{Shopping malls in California MainPlace Buildings and structures in Santa Ana, California History of Santa Ana, California Postmodern architecture in California Shopping malls in Orange County, California Shopping malls established in 1987