Residential uses, however, are a political no-no in Torrance, which has so far also resisted the entreaties of another developer who wants to build condominiums at the upscale north end of the mall, anchored by Nordstrom.īut housing may eventually have to become a reality just to save a mall that Torrance has long seen as a sales tax cash cow. Messerlian predicted that whatever development occurs, it will likely include non-traditional retailers and a mix of uses, including more entertainment activities to create a so-called stay-and-play shopping center. “However, no one can safely predict what will happen down the road as any development of a property as large as the Sears will take five to seven years from start to completion.” “At the moment - given the current economic conditions created by the (coronavirus) pandemic - retail, hotel and office uses do not seem to be in hot demand,” she said. While she called the store closure “interesting, yet predictable news,” her thoughts immediately turned to what could replace it. That company also owns an adjacent 1.28-acre site with a four-story office building. The Sears was an original anchor in what was then known as Del Amo Shopping Center, before the famous 1981 “marriage of the malls” that connected two separate shopping centers over Carson Street - and created what was the world’s largest mall at the time.Ī real estate holding company owned by Eddie Lampert, which has sold off Sears and Kmart assets to raise cash and redevelop its real estate, owns the main 21-acre site that houses the 262,420-square-foot store, said Sheri Messerlian, executive vice president of NAI Capital South Bay and a veteran of the South Bay commercial real estate market. Longtime Torrance residents reacted to the news with sadness. A spokesman at Sears’s real estate arm declined comment mall officials also didn’t respond to a messageĪ Sears in North Riverside, however, also reportedly began a liquidation sale last week and will close by the end of September, at the latest. The company has not officially announced the closure and messages left at the store were not immediately returned. Signs announcing the pending closure and store-wide sale went up late last week on the exterior of the Sears at Sepulveda and Hawthorne boulevards, which anchors the south end of the mall and has long been rumored to close. The Sears department store at Torrance’s Del Amo Fashion Center, a Hawthorne Boulevard fixture since the mall opened in 1959, has announced a liquidation sale that is expected to eventually lead to another major redevelopment of the sprawling shopping center.
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