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Macerich and Simon Join Forces to Develop an LA Outlet Mall
Two major shopping-center developers are getting together to construct a big outlet mall that will be located south of Los Angeles and not far from the new Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers football stadium.
Macerich, the owner of the Santa Monica Place shopping center in Santa Monica, Calif., as well as other malls, announced on Sept. 11 that it had formed a 50/50 joint venture with mall and outlet developer Simon Property Group Inc., headquartered in Indianapolis, to construct the Los Angeles Premium Outlets. It is scheduled to open in the fall of 2021 in Carson, Calif., said Macerich President Ed Coppola.
“We are very pleased to partner in the development of this one-of-a-kind outlet project on great, well-positioned real estate to serve one of the nation’s most attractive markets,” Coppola said in a jointly prepared statement with David Simon, Simon’s chief executive officer and chairman. “We look forward to creating the ultimate outlet destination of choice for both local residents and international visitors to Los Angeles.”
Los Angeles Premium Outlets will be constructed in two phases. The first phase will encompass 400,000 square feet, and the second phase will add 166,000 square feet to the project.
The site, which sits right next to the San Diego Freeway, is a former landfill on which developers had proposed building a football stadium for the San Diego Chargers and the Oakland Raiders. But Inglewood won out in getting a new football stadium.
The land has been vacant for some 50 years, ever since the landfill closed. Before there was a football-stadium proposal, the city of Carson had been looking at some kind of shopping center to fill the space, which cannot be used for residential purposes.
Macerich currently runs two outlet centers—Fashion Outlets of Chicago in Rosemont, Ill., and Fashion Outlets of Niagara Falls in Niagara Falls, N.Y. It also is developing an outlet center called Fashion District Philadelphia with the Pennsylvania Real Estate Trust, which also is headquartered in Philadelphia.
Simon has developed and currently manages 12 prominent outlet-mall centers in California, which include Desert Hills Premium Outlets in Cabazon, Camarillo Premium Outlets in Camarillo, Carlsbad Premium Outlets in Carlsbad and The Outlets at Orange in Orange.
One of the last new outlet centers to be developed in coastal Southern California was The Outlets at San Clemente in 2015, located in the seaside town of San Clemente. It was developed by the Craig Realty Group, which also runs the Citadel Outlets in Commerce, Calif.
Earlier this year, Macerich embarked on a novel plan to transform its Westside Pavilion mall in Los Angeles into creative office space after Westside Pavilion’s anchors, Nordstrom and Macy’s, moved to the newly renovated Westfield Century City, located a short drive away.
