Westminster Mall is an enclosed, two-level

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a North American term for a large indoor shopping center, usually anchored by department stores. The term "mall" originally meant a pedestrian promenade with shops along it (that is, the term was used to refe ...

Westminster, California Westminster is a city in northern Orange County, California, known for its many Vietnamese refugees who immigrated to the city during the 1980s. They settled largely in Little Saigon, and the city is known as the "capital" of overseas Vietnam ...

, United States. Opened in August 1974, the mall features anchor stores

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, Gir ...

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 ...

, and

Target Target may refer to: Physical items * Shooting target, used in marksmanship training and various shooting sports ** Bullseye (target), the goal one for which one aims in many of these sports ** Aiming point, in field artillery, f ...

, with one vacant anchor space last occupied by

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 ...

. It is owned and managed by

Washington Prime Group Washington Prime Group Inc. is an American real estate investment trust that invests in shopping centers. The company is organized in Indiana with its headquarters in Columbus, Ohio. From January 2015 to September 2016, the company had the name WP ...

. Westminster Mall is situated on the corner of Goldenwest Street and Bolsa Avenue in Westminster, California.

History

In the 1920s, the world's largest goldfish farm was relocated to the area where the mall stands today. Construction of the mall began in the 1970s. Westminster Mall opened for business at 9:30 AM on August 7, 1974, with May Company, Sears and

Buffum's 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, ...

, with J. W. Robinson's being added in 1975 as the mall's fourth anchor store. Three of the mall's anchors changed names in the 1990s. Buffum's closed in May 1991 due to the chain being liquidated. By January 1993, Robinson's and May Company merged to form

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 ...

. As a result, the May Company store was rebranded Robinsons-May, and the J. W. Robinson's was closed as one of the 12 Robinson's and May Company stores closing as part of the merger. The closed Buffum's store became a Robinson's-May Home Store in March 1993 and in November of that same year, the closed Robinson's store became a JCPenney, which had relocated from Huntington Center Mall (now Bella Terra). In 2002, the Robinsons-May Home Store building was torn down for a new Macy's. When Federated Department Stores (now Macy's, Inc.) purchased Robinsons-May and other May Co. names in September 2006, Macy's moved to the Robinsons-May building, and the former Macy's location soon became a

Old Navy Old Navy is an American clothing and accessories retailing company owned by multinational corporation Gap Inc. It has corporate operations in the Mission Bay neighborhood of San Francisco, California. The largest of the Old Navy stores are its ...

was added as well. In 2008, the mall underwent a renovation, relocating the carousel and constructing a play area in its place. The Grand Re-opening was on November 15, 2008. In 2015, the Todai Seafood and Sushi buffet closed and Luxe Buffet replaced it. In 2015,

Sears Holdings Sears Holdings Corporation was an American holding company headquartered in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. It was the parent company of the chain stores Kmart and Sears and was founded after the former purchased the latter in 2005. It was the 20th- ...

spun off 235 of its properties, including the Sears at Westminster Mall, into Seritage Growth Properties.

Gymboree Gymboree Group, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Children's Place. History Gymboree was founded by Joan Barnes in 1976. Retail stores In 1986, the company opened a chain of clothing stores named Gymboree. Gymboree stores offered coordi ...

and

Crazy 8 Crazy Eights is a shedding-type card game for two to seven players and the best known American member of the Eights Group which also includes Pig and Spoons. The object of the game is to be the first player to discard all of their cards. The ga ...

closed on August 12, 2017, as part of a plan to close 300 stores nationwide. On January 4, 2018, it was announced that Sears would be closing as part of a plan to close 103 stores nationwide. The store closed in April 2018, making it the last original anchor store to close. As of January 2021, the space is still vacant. As of 2023,

Spencer Gifts Spencer Gifts LLC, doing business as Spencer's, is a North American mall retailer with over 600 stores in the United States and Canada. Its stores specialize in novelty and gag gifts, and also sell clothing, band merchandise, sex toys, room dec ...

is the last long-term tenant remaining from the opening era of the mall in their original location on the upper level. They were temporarily moved downstairs during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

Transit Access

OCTA The Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) is the transportation planning commission for Orange County, California in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. OCTA is responsible for funding and implementing transit and capital projects for ...

Routes 25 & 64

References

External links

Website
Washington Prime Group Shopping malls in Orange County, California Shopping malls established in 1974 Westminster, California 1974 establishments in California {{US-mall-stub