Another major enclosed mall has announced plans to add residential. Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield will add 550 luxury apartments to the 1.2 million-square-foot, 1950s-era Westfield Garden State Plaza regional mall in Paramus, New Jersey. Existing green space will make way for the apartment complex, which Mill Creek Residential will develop. URW also will add a “main street’ outdoor district, featuring restaurants and convenience- and services-oriented retailers.
Plans for Westfield Garden State Plaza redevelopment, also rendered at top
Construction is scheduled to begin in 2024, and the first residential units will become available in 2026. Redevelopment plans also call for the conversion of surface parking areas into additional apartments, plazas, parks, gardens, health and wellness amenities, commercial office space and a transit center. Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, Macy’s and AMC Theatres are the mall’s current anchors. Other users include upscale restaurants Eddie V’s Prime Seafood and Seasons 52 and entertainment concepts Pinstripes and Nerf Action Xperience.
Meanwhile, in nearby Eatontown, New Jersey, Kushner plans to make over the 1.2 million-square-foot Monmouth Mall. The redo includes replacement of a soon-to-close JCPenney with a 1,000-unit apartment complex called Monmouth Village. Kushner is seeking city approval to demolish the mall’s parking deck and build a flat parking lot with 638 fewer spaces.
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And URW Completes U.S.’s Largest Mall Sale Since 2018
URW has sold Arcadia, California’s 1.5 million-square-foot Westfield Santa Anita for $537.5 million to an investor who owns other retail property in Southern California. Eastdil Secured, which advised URW, said it’s the largest mall sale since 2018.
Westfield Santa Anita is 96% leased, and URW reported sales of $611 per square foot.
The transaction brings URW's U.S. dispositions to $900 million dollars since last year, when Commerce + Communities Today reported, the owner announced it would sell its $5 billion U.S. portfolio. URW also has sold the site of the former Promenade Mall, in Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley, and the Palisade residential building associated with San Diego’s Westfield UTC mall and transferred the ownership of five other properties. URW also has disposed of 80% of the planned 4 billion euros worth of disposals it’s planned.
—Additional reporting by Commerce + Communities Today editor-in-chief Amanda Metcalf
By Brannon Boswell
Executive Editor, Commerce + Communities Today