New owners plan to improve the South Bay shopping center with enhanced entrances and customer areas, as well as expand the mall’s dining options
Westfield Plaza Bonita, which sits on 78 acres of land at the southern boundary of National City, has new owners that are looking to elevate the 45-year-old mall as an even more popular destination for the community.
A joint venture between Charleston, S.C.-based private equity real estate firm Henderson Park and Los Angeles-based developer Lowe purchased the 1 million square-foot, indoor mall at 3030 Plaza Bonita Road, the companies announced in a press release.
The partners, which have already removed Westfield branding, plan to improve Plaza Bonita with enhanced entrances and customer areas, as well as expand the mall’s dining options with an emphasis on specialty and local eateries.
“There always is a desire to have better, people-oriented places, so that’s better restaurants and cafes,” said Joel Mayer, a Lowe executive who leads the company’s national retail efforts. “We want this to be more of a community place. More people can spend more time there, and get more things done. And if there are better choices to eat, then that should increase not only the dwell time for the customers that are there, but (make Plaza Bonita) a more family-oriented place.”
Henderson Park and Lowe will also consider adding residential units to the site, but there are no concrete plans to introduce housing, Mayer said.
Sellers, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, sold the property for $201.5 million to the joint venture, HP Bonita Investments LLC, property records show. Westfield said in a regulatory filing that the sales price was greater than the value it had assigned to the property internally.
