Mall developers are trying on the suburbs for retail’s next look with some surprising results.
While distress made 2024’s retail real estate headlines, this year’s may lean more toward the seemingly staid submarkets running north and east of Los Angeles shopping hotspots.
Certainly, high streets will always have their place for shoppers and tourists looking to scoop the next emerging brand. However, the newest mall entrants are miles from the retail corridors that have long been viewed as primary markets.
What follows are the retail centers we’re watching in 2025 and beyond.
River Street Marketplace
Where: San Juan Capistrano, Calif.
Developer: Almquist
If a mood board was created for Almquist’s River Street Marketplace, it likely had pictures of surf spots, the American West and scenic agrarian imagery.
The twist? Almquist’s retail center pooled a mix of trendy boutiques and homegrown brands for its latest retail development.
Built in the Los Rios district, the state’s oldest neighborhood, River Street includes contemporary apparel brand Seager, which makes hats and clothing inspired by the West, surf and outdoors. There’s also Orange County surf staples such as Hobie Surf Shop and Toes on the Nose, women’s boutique Common Thread and basics brand Rowan.
In food and beverage, visitors to the 60,000-square-foot center can enjoy beer and cocktails at Capo Leisure House, wood-fired cuisine from Finca and McConnell’s ice cream.
The Post Montecito
Where: Santa Barbara, Calif.
Developer: Runyon Group
Runyon Group’s handiwork is well known.
The Culver City, Calif.-based developer’s projects are like a fashion magazine come to life – thoughtfully designed and carefully plucked tenants.
Their track record’s a solid one having started out leasing on high streets such as Fillmore Sreet in San Francisco and Venice’s Abbot Kinney Boulevard. They moved on to larger projects with the boutique lifestyle center Platform in Culver City, while also leasing out the retail at Atlas Capital’s ambitious Row DTLA project in downtown Los Angeles.
The Post Montecito, their latest project, fits the Runyon mold.
Visitors can shop the women’s collection of Emily Current & Meritt Elliott’s The Great, visit the pop-up of Brooklyn-based Merlette, scoop the latest in resortwear from Colombia-based designer Maygel Coronel or buy a well-crafted accessory from Janessa Leoné.
Buzzy Buellton coffee shop Little King is there for a snack in-between shopping, while Ospi and Bogavante are expected to open early this year.
For Good Measure
Call them anachronisms or throwbacks, but some Southern California malls are doing just fine with their enclosed, 70s-style selves.
Take a look at the Glendale Galleria, built in two phases with the first completed in 1976. It’s owned by Brookfield Properties, which made some bad timing bets on their downtown Los Angeles office investments. The Galleria was a solid play.
The over 1.3 million-square-foot mall is anchored with the usual players: JCPenney, Target and Macy’s. Caruso’s neighboring Americana at Brand complemented the indoor center, which has healthy foot traffic no matter the hour. Weekends and evenings pull in families, couples and teenagers shopping, hanging out or dining.
The idea of the mall being a community center never went away at this property. The same can be said for Los Cerritos Center, about 30 miles southeast of the Galleria.
Built in 1971, the Cerritos mall draws from Los Angeles and Orange County. Like the Galleria, there’s nothing groundbreaking about the tenant merchandising. Nordstrom, Forever 21, Dick’s Sporting Goods and Macy’s anchor the one-level mall that’s over 1 million square feet.
Chains such as The Cheesecake Factory, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Chick-fil-A and Lazy Dog help attract even more visitors.
Los Cerritos Center is owned by Santa Monica-based Macerich, which made the decision to give back the keys to the lender on its Santa Monica Place after defaulting on its $300 million loan in April. It’s now shopping for a buyer, with the mall’s value dropping nearly 60 percent to $255 million in November.
Macerich isn’t even thinking about selling off Cerritos, which it’s categorized as a “Fortress” property in its portfolio. That’s code for the real estate it sees as top producing with the greatest potential.
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