Westfield Century City

Westfield Century City is a two-level, 1.3 million-square-foot outdoor shopping mall in the Century City commercial district in Los Angeles, California. A property of the Westfield Corporation, the mall is anchored by Nordstrom, Bloomingdale's, Macy's, a Gelson's supermarket, and a 15-screen AMC multiplex.

Westfield Century City
Demolition of the restaurant facing Santa Monica Boulevard, in Westfield Century City. High-rise buildings of Century City are in the background.
LocationLos Angeles, California
Address10250 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90067
Opening date1964
DeveloperDel E. Webb Construction Company
ManagementWestfield Group
OwnerWestfield Group
ArchitectWelton Becket Associates
No. of stores and servicesabout 200
No. of anchor tenants5
Total retail floor area1,300,000 sq ft (120,000 m2)
No. of floors2
Parkingabout 3,500 spaces
Websitewww.westfield.com/centurycity
[1]

History

Westfield Century City opened in 1964 as the Century Square Shopping Center, anchored by The Broadway. In 1976, the mall's parking lot was turned into an expansion of the mall, bringing a Bullock's and several new retail stores. An AMC cinema and a new food court, referred to as "The Marketplace" opened in 1987.[2] In 1996, both The Broadway and Bullock's closed when The Broadway's struggling parent Carter Hawley Hale was acquired by Federated Department Stores. Federated converted The Broadway store into Bloomingdale's and the Bullock's into a Macy's.

Australian shopping center developer Westfield Group acquired a 50% stake in the shopping center in 2002[3] and renamed it "Westfield Shoppingtown Century City". The Shoppingtown moniker was dropped from all Westfield properties in 2005.[4]

In 2004, Westfield initiated a $160 million renovation.[5] The renovation replaced the 1980s-era food court and movie theater with an alfresco Dining Terrace and a flagship 15-screen AMC cinema. The renovation also brought a new two-level retail building housing a Borders bookstore and a Container Store on the top level and numerous retailers on the bottom, a reskin of the existing Bloomingdale's store, the addition of a restaurant row facing Santa Monica Boulevard, and a general remodeling of the center. Borders went out of business in 2011.

Expansion

In 2009, a radical expansion and renovation of Westfield Century City was approved. The original plans for the expansion called for a 49-story residential and office building with a relocated Bloomingdale's at the base, the addition of more than 350,000 square feet of retail space, and more than 1,000 new parking spaces.[6] Ten stories were eliminated from the proposed building at the behest of Century City residents.[7]

After years of delays, lawsuits, and neighborhood protests, a revamped expansion plan was unveiled in 2013. After further tweaking, the expansion was approved and commenced construction in 2015. The oldest portions of the property, including the Welton Becket-designed Gateway West Building and Macy's, were demolished and replaced with new two-level and three-level retail buildings. A planned residential tower was removed from the project to make way for additional retail, which now numbered more than 1.3 million square feet. The first phase of the project, including the new Macy's store, opened on April 6, 2017.[8] The second major phase, including Nordstrom, opened to the public on October 3, 2017.[9]

The final piece of the $1 billion project, Italian marketplace concept Eataly, opened on November 3, 2017.[10][11]

See also

References
  1. "Property Portfolio Westfield Century City". Westfield. Westfield Group. Retrieved 30 March 2012.
  2. Sussman, Buster (1986-04-06). "Free Parking : Century City Shop Mall to Add Theaters, Food Hall". Los Angeles Times.
  3. Howard, Bob (2002-01-29). "Westfield to Gain Stakes in 3 Malls". Los Angeles Times.
  4. Albright, Mark (2005-06-01). "If you didn't call them 'shoppingtowns,' don't: Three local malls that called themselves by the Australian name will quietly drop the label". Tampa Bay Times.
  5. "Westfield Group Annual Report 31 December 2005" (PDF). Westfield Group. 31 December 2005.
  6. "Westfield Century City Goes to Planning Commission". KNBC. 2009-07-29.
  7. Groves, Martha (2008-11-14). "Century City mall expansion gets OK". Los Angeles Times.
  8. City, Westfield Century. "Westfield Century City Marks Major Milestone On Path To Fall 2017 Completion". www.prnewswire.com. Retrieved April 21, 2018.
  9. Inc., Nordstrom. "Nordstrom Opens Store At Century City". www.prnewswire.com. Retrieved April 21, 2018.
  10. Parsons, Russ (2014-09-30). "Mario Batali's Eataly heading to Westfield Century City; it's 'official'". Los Angeles Times.
  11. Crichton, Maddie (2018-05-21). "How Our Changing Habits Killed an L.A. Shopping Mall". Los Angeles Magazine. Retrieved April 30, 2020.

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