Macerich Co. is in talks to sell its struggling Westside Pavillion, a 755,000-square-foot mall at 10800 W. Pico Boulevard in West L.A., the Wall Street Journal reported. The company said it has seen interest from several potential buyers.
Art Coppola, chief executive at Macerich, said during a third-quarter earnings call that he predicts the property will have a new owner within a year. He expects the new Expo Line station nearby to draw buyers looking to rezone and redevelop the site.
“It’s quite likely that other users are going to value that real estate more than a horizontal retail facility, and we’re seeing that in terms of the demand and that’s coming from really a tremendous number of people,” Coppola told WSJ.
The three-story mall – like many others across the nation – has been suffering from weakening occupancy rates and the surge of online shopping. It lost one of its anchor stores, Nordstrom Inc., to the recently renovated Westfield Century City last year, while its other major department store, Macy’s, announced its shuttering just this week. Victoria’s Secret and H&M are among some of the retailers still operating at the aging mall.
Macerich had contemplated giving the property a makeover and said it was “in the planning process” in March 2016. It was considering tearing away the fortress-type walls that surround the 1970s mall and opening its ground-level stores to Pico Boulevard pedestrians. [WSJ] – Natalie Hoberman