The Promenade (California)

Opened in 1973 as the Woodland Hills Promenade,[1] the shopping mall was originally a high-fashion center anchored by J. W. Robinson's, Bullocks Wilshire and Saks Fifth Avenue. The Bullocks Wilshire store was renamed I. Magnin in 1990 and in 1995 became a Bullock's Men's store, being renamed Macy's in 1996. The Robinson's store was closed in 1993[3] and sold to Bullock's,[4] becoming Macy's in 1996 as well. Following the 1994 Northridge earthquake, Saks Fifth Avenue used the opportunity to close their underperforming store[5] and it was demolished in 1994 for the addition of the AMC Theatre, which opened in 1996.[6][7]

The 34-acre retail development was originally conceived and developed by Kaiser Aetna as part of their master commercial-retail-residential development plan for their section of the massive former Warner Ranch now known as the Warner Center.[8] Coldwell Banker was the property manager and Ernest W. Hahn, Inc., was the general contractor. A few months before the first store opened, Kaiser Aetna sold their interest in the mall to Continental Illinois Properties for an estimated $15 million.[9] In March 1973, Robinson's was the first anchor store to open.[10] Both Saks[11] and Bullock's Wilshire[12] followed by opening five months later.

In 1989, the center was acquired by the O'Connor Group from Pan American Properties.[13][14]

The center was briefly acquired by Simon Property Group in 1997, before being sold in 1998 to Westfield America, Inc., a precursor to The Westfield Group.[15] At that time it was renamed "Westfield Shoppingtown Promenade". The unwieldy "Shoppingtown" name was dropped in June 2005.[16]

Westfield Promenade was plagued for years by tenant problems and slow business, although the addition of the movie theatre during renovations after the 1994 Northridge earthquake, more recent renovations in 2001[17] and the addition of several new retailers and restaurants briefly reignited interest in the center. However, a redevelopment of the Westfield Topanga (which is also owned by Westfield) in the mid-2000s overshadowed the Promenade, leaving the interior mall languishing and causing several tenants such as Barnes & Noble Booksellers to leave.[18] In 2015, Macy's shuttered their two Promenade stores.[19]

By September 2015, Westfield had purchased the properties that it did not own within the mall area, usually owned by anchors, to enable the company to resell the property as an entire package for other uses. The company also had removed information about the mall from the Westfield website and had stripped the Westfield name from all of the signs at the mall. As of 2017, links to the mall's former website was redirect to the Westfield Topanga website. Although Westfield still owned the property as of January 2016, the property is essentially a dead mall. Current tenants have filed a lawsuit against Westfield for allowing the property to deteriorate.[20] According to a July 2016 Los Angeles Daily News article, Westfield told their tenants that they plan to close the interior of the mall "soon". Vacancy rates were estimated to be over 80%. It was also reported that Westfield officials told a Woodland Hills neighborhood council that Westfield was considering replacing the mall with upscale apartments.[2] The Los Angeles Times called the decaying retail property "a drag on the neighborhood" while a Los Angeles City Councilman called it a "blighted site".[21] In March 2016, a video was posted on YouTube which showed the state of the interior of the mall during the daytime with the mostly vacant interior shops, the lack of people within the sunny interior corridors, and a few customers within the restaurants located on the mall exteriors.[22]

In October 2016, Westfield officially announced that they will replace the mall with a mixed-use residential and retail development that includes 1,400 upscale housing units, a grocery/pharmacy, a hotel, an office complex, plus an entertainment and sports center. The housing units would range from studio units to luxury villas.[21] The name of the new development will be Promenade 2035. Current plans is to have new development open in stages, starting in 2020 and continuing on until 2035. Exterior tenants, such as the AMC Promenade 16, are going to be gradually moved over to Westfield Topanga's large expansion, The Village at Westfield Topanga, while the interior of the mall is being demolished.[23][24][25]

In June 2017, the United States Postal Service moved their Woodland Hills Post Office into the vacant Macy's Men's and Furnishings departments after signing a short term 18 months lease.[26] In August 2020, the post office relocated once again, this time to 21200 Oxnard Street.[27]

Many residents of the surrounding area voice their concerns that Westfield's plan to replace the existing dead mall with a new development that includes a major sports and entertainment venue without helping to improve the inadequate existing roads and transportation systems in the surrounding area would be detrimental to the local community, which will cause delays.[28][29][30][31]

In February 2020, a few weeks prior to the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, AMC announced its plans to move a few blocks to the nearby Westfield Topanaga at the location where Sears once stood.[32] It is not clear if AMC would reopen the theater after the pandemic and for how long. In June 2020, AMC expressed "substantial doubt" it can remain in business after closing most of its locations across the globe during the coronavirus pandemic.[33] There is no word about the fate of the rest of the mall in preparation for the construction of the Promenade 2035 project.

In December 2020, the Los Angeles City Council officially approved Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield's plan to replace the dead mall with a new development that includes a sports arena, two hotels, a 28-story office tower and more than 1,400 new apartments calling it a "mini-city ... within this larger city".[34]

• AMC Theatres (120,000 sq ft.)

AMC Theatres Promenade 16 in 2006

The Promenade currently features the following businesses, amongst others:

• AMC Theatres
• Corner Bakery Cafe
• Maggiano's Little Italy
• Ruth's Chris Steak House

• Westfield Corporation

• Last archive of the official Westfield Promenade website at the Wayback Machine (archived October 17, 2012)
• Promenade2035 website — proposed multi-use development project to replace Westfield Promenade.