West LA’s Westside Pavilion mall for sale

The Westside Pavilion on Pico Boulevard is up for sale, and its owners tell the Wall Street Journal that the property could change hands within a year.

There are no deals in place yet for the transfer of the 755,000-square-foot West LA mall, though there has been interest from “a number” of buyers, the Journal says.

Like many indoor malls, the Westside Pavilion has been facing “weakening occupancy rates,” and recently lost one of its largest tenants, Nordstrom. Nordstrom moved north, to flashy Westfield Century City. The Macy’s in the Pavilion is expected to close in 2018.

“West L.A. has too many malls chasing the same customer and it was due for consolidation,” Macerich CEO Art Coppola told the Journal.

About a year ago, it was reported that Macerich was planning a drastic refresh that would take the front walls completely off of the building, making the ground-level stores more inviting to Pico Boulevard pedestrians and theoretically cashing in on that open-air mall hotness.

But it doesn’t seem likely that the mall’s future owners are going to want to carry out those plans.

The Pavilion’s proximity to the relatively new Westwood/Rancho Park Expo Line station has many potential buyers thinking about options for the site that aren’t a mall.

“It’s quite likely that other users are going to value that real estate more than a horizontal retail facility,” Coppola said, hinting at a possible rezoning in the site’s future.

• Macerich to Sell West Los Angeles Mall [Wall Street Journal]
• The Westside Pavilion Mall is Planning to Tear Down Its Walls [Curbed LA]