Just outside of Los Angeles, California,

down Interstate 405, past Long Beach and

south of Anaheim, is the Westminster

Mall in the town of Westminster. It was

a mall which opened with great fanfare

and success through the later half of

the 20th century. But that success would

later change by the 2020s, and following

its unceremonious closure, the mall had

been completely trashed beyond

recognition. So today, let's take a look

at what happened here. From the mall's

golden years to the decline and later

abandonments, this is the Westminster

Mall.

For decades prior to the mall, this was

open rural land. Not a ton around, just

some small farms and single family

homes. In fact, following World War II,

a Japanese couple would actually set up

what would become the world's largest

goldfish farm here. That would

eventually change, though, and by the

1960s, much of the surrounding land had

now been populated by master plan

neighborhoods. With a quickly growing

middle class and subsequent suburban

sprawl, the San Diego freeway was also

now being constructed. This portion

known as Interstate 405. This remaining

farm area now made it the perfect

developable plot of land. And what

better to build than something that had

been sweeping across suburban America.

In 1972, the Hormart Development

Company, which was the nation's second

largest mall developer and actually

owned by Sears, announced a new shopping

center for the city of Westminster.

Marketed in the local press as a

Searsbuilt shopping center, the

Westminster Mall, as it was now

officially named, was promised to be the

largest of its kind in Orange County,

California. Upon its 93 acre site, the

mall would contain four anchor stores,

Robinson's, Maze, Buffams, and of

course, Sears. The interior of the mall

would be populated by over 150 smaller

retailers, while the out parcels would

feature a cinema and other tenants. So,

after 2 years of construction, the 1.2

million square ft Westminster Mall had

officially opened to the public on

August 7th, 1974. Quite a large grand

opening had been held with civic leaders

making speeches, a full band

commemorating the ceremony, and

customers lining outside the doors. It

was reported that the entire enormous

6,600 car parking lot was pretty much

full. And it was easy to see why this

opening was met with such enthusiastic

fanfare. Westminster Mall was a peak

example of 1970s shopping center design.

Across the multilevel complex, shoppers

would not only find plenty of stores,

but they would also find lush foliage,

beautiful bespoke sculptures, and cozy

sunken lounge areas. Its vast

pyramidstyle center court spanned three

levels with various elevated bridges and

staircases, some lined with red carpet.

It was an impressive piece of

architecture, some of the most

impressive many local shoppers had ever

encountered. By 1982, Sears had sold the

mall to an outofstate management firm

who were already looking to upgrade the

property, looking to what they called

bring the mall into the 1980s. So, in

1987, they announced a 2 and 1/2year

major renovation to the entire

structure. Everything would be

modernized, including a new food court

area, a redesign of the center court,

complete with new tiled floors, a

glassed enclosed elevator, and even more

retail space, which would occupy the

wide open area of that center court.

Charlotte Ruse would be the main tenant

for this new area. This $10 million

renovation proved to be pretty popular,

too, as Westminster Mall was now the

second highest grossing retail center in

the county. By the 1990s, the mall was

continuing on with pretty good success.

While some anchors would vacate, mainly

due to the May company merger, JC Penney

would take over the former Robinson

space, and by the dawn of the new

century, Macy's would actually construct

a brand new anchor space in 2002. They

would only stay there for a rather short

time, though, as they would then move to

a different anchor space in the mall,

with Target now taking their place. When

Target came in, the mall owners would

actually split up their land and sell

the store itself and surrounding parking

lot to Target outright. They would

eventually do this for other parcels of

land as well. By this point, the mall's

ownership had actually been changed once

again, now with the Simon Property Group

taking over. They would also embark on a

$10 million renovation, hoping to

modernize the entire property to attract

more upscale tenants. While the last

renovation may have taken the mall into

the 1980s, this one was going to take

them into the 2000s. This massive

renovation happened in 2008, and Simon

continued to make improvements, focusing

on the interior of the mall, sprucing up

decorations, adding in a children's play

area, and even a carousel. By the time

this renovation was complete, the

country was now reeling from the

nationwide financial crisis, and the

mall itself was now a modern, yet pretty

bland looking space. Worse yet for the

property, total sales within was way

down, sliding from second to now eighth

place in Orange County by 2012.

Occupancy was sliding, too. More stores

continued to close through the years.

And even with an 85% occupancy rates,

Westminster still had the lowest

occupancy rate in the area. In fact,

many of the former bigname tenants

inside Westminster had moved to other

shopping areas in the area, places like

the enormous South Coast Plaza. With it

only being a 15-minute drive away, why

would any customer make the trip out to

Westminster when South Coast had so much

more variety and was arguably a nicer

place to spend your time? Not to mention

that this is Southern California where

the need for a climate controlled indoor

shopping mall is not all that necessary.

And even in the direct surrounding areas

of Westminster, you can find all types

of strip retail and attractive outdoor

plazas. With lower foot traffic in the

building, it was beginning to become

much harder to attract big brand names.

And as such, the vicious cycle

continued, all as Westminster Mall began

to earn a dead mall reputation. Now,

that's certainly not to say that this

was a completely dead mall. The property

still had plenty of stores and people

walking around, but the signs were

there, mainly for lease signs. By 2018,

as a part of the company's continued

financial issues, Sears, one of the

original stores and the original

developer, had closed their anchor

location. By now, Simon Property Group

had spun off a division of their company

called Washington Prime Group. This new

corporate entity would now operate the

slowly dying mall. But this owner

wouldn't be in the greatest financial

condition as by the time the pandemic

hit in 2020, they would later file for

bankruptcy. Westminster Mall, in an

already declining state, was obviously

heavily affected by the pandemic, seeing

a massive decrease in foot traffic and

sales. Layoffs and store closures would

all plague the mall through 2021.

developers knew that something had to be

done with the property and already

architectural firms were being hired to

draw up potential redevelopment plans.

First with the idea of demolishing only

two of the anchor tenants and using the

lots to build out dense residential. It

was thought that by adding a mix of

housing and commercial essentially

attached to the existing mall structure,

it would reinvigorate the dying

property. This idea expanded into

something even larger by 2022 as a new

plan was developed by the city council.

This one would essentially redevelop the

vast parking lot and densify a series of

residential buildings, potentially

building out up to 3,000 new homes. City

Council would ultimately approve this

framework for a development. They just

needed someone to actually make the

investment. Meanwhile, California-based

developer Shopoff Realy Investments had

acquired the empty Sears parcel as well

as the flanking Macy's parcel. They

wanted to build out their own

development dubbed Bulsa Pacific at

Westminster and this would follow a

similar design which previously had been

proposed. One that would build out a

hotel and several residential

structures. While these plans were

announced in 2023, very little movement

had actually been made on the

development thereafter. Within the mall,

very few brandame stores still operated

inside, and that number would only

continue to decline. In 2025,

Westminster would lose both Macy's,

which would close in March, and J C

Penney, which announced they would be

closing permanently by the end of the

year. With two more major anchor tenants

now closing, Washington Prime Group,

which still owned the majority of the

property, had clearly seen the writing

on the wall. With the aging structure

and continued pushes for redevelopment,

the mall was now on life support. While

the company gave no official indication

as to the financial state of the

property, it's easy to infer that the

rising cost to operate the building and

the decrease in tenant income were more

than enough reasons to shutter it for

good. After giving a notice to all

remaining tenants that their leases

would expire in October, Westminster

Mall officially closed for good on

October 29th, 2025. J Penney would stay

open a few more weeks as it slowly

liquidated its inventory. It would close

in November while Target, the only

remaining anchor store left, continued

to do good business and claimed that

they would continue to operate into the

near future. The rest of the property,

however, was shuttered and now

effectively abandoned. This meant that

in the middle of a massive metropolitan

area, there was an abandoned mall, one

which was rather easy to get inside of.

Early videos inside following the

closure showed the structure in pretty

good condition. The power remained on

inside the building with signs that were

still illuminated across the silent open

space. Only some storefronts and glass

had minor spray painted graffiti while

the owners had removed the carousel from

the Macy's wing. Squatters had taken up

refuge inside the disheveled former

storefronts and began scrapping copper

and other materials. Everything else was

left exactly as it was the day the mall

closed, even leaving behind the full

trampoline park. This suspended

animation of the structure wouldn't last

forever, though. With reportedly only a

single security car periodically

circling the property, the massive

building was more or less easy enough to

get into. And boy, did people get in.

Reports claimed that the mall had

various doors which were just left

unlocked. And with the general Los

Angeles reputation for tagging, word

quickly got out on how easy it was to

get inside the mall. In a matter of just

three weeks, I'm not kidding. The mall

went from looking like this to this.

Obviously, a lot of people started

getting into the structure. Kids,

vandals, taggers, and artists. It was an

absolute free-for-all. And in just 20

days, it looked like the apocalypse had

occurred. While the pitch black anchor

stores had some graffiti and fallen down

ceiling tiles, the condition within

wasn't too bad. It wasn't until you

entered the main mall concourse where

the true destruction was. Basically,

every easily accessible surface had been

tagged by someone, while everything else

had been destroyed by vandals. Shop

windows had been completely smashed in,

furniture had been piled in one of the

concourses, [music] and pretty much

every fire extinguisher had been set

off. Photos inside showed a ghostly haze

in the air from all the dust. What's

especially crazy about all of this,

especially from an urban exploration

perspective, was that the building was

still relatively clean. The skylights

are still intact. The floors aren't

pooling with water. The walls aren't

moldy. I mean, there's still power on

inside. Yet, the whole building in terms

of tagging and destruction looks like

it's been abandoned for a decade and a

half. All of this is happening, mind

you, while Target on the other side of

this wall is still very much in

business. Even the outside has clear

signs of destruction, right down to the

main entrance sign, which has graffiti

all over it with the exterior glass all

smashed out. Clearly, local officials

had had enough. Westminster [snorts]

police had already said they had gotten

over 400 calls of people inside with

individuals who had been inside claiming

that they had seen up to 60 people

inside the mall at one time, which is

insane. At the end of the day, this many

people inside an abandoned structure

that is this well-known is probably a

recipe for disaster. It's effectively a

lawless place in there. While this was

all happening, Shopoff Realy

Investments, the company which owned the

Macy's and Sears lots, had actually

started to make big moves on the site.

They would ultimately acquire the

remaining 57 acres of land, including

the entire mall itself. By combining all

of their already purchased parcels, they

were now proposing a new plan. This one

would effectively clean sheet the site,

tearing down the existing mall and

building out a mixeduse master plan

community. This would all be made up of

low and mid-density residential housing,

a hotel, some commercial trails, and a

small park, all while constructing a new

target building and lots. With the whole

site in their possession and city

council already on board with reszoning

the land, the new developers had very

few roadblocks and were ready to get to

work. A chainlink fence was erected

around the property on January 13th. And

by February 2026, crews were already

inside securing the structure, tearing

out the carpet, and gutting out the

former anchor stores, starting with the

former Macy's. Shopoff says that by

spring, actual demolition of the

building will start, marking the end of

the 51-year long history of the shopping

mall. And what a journey it has been.

Westminster Mall started out as the

classic suburban mall experience. One

which featured luxurious, striking

interiors and all of the iconic

retailers you could want from the Disney

Store to Sears. But of course, that

interior would change over time. And as

other developers continued to build

retail basically unchecked, and as

online retail drew shoppers away, many

of those big brand name draws either

close their doors or move to other spots

that could provide the shoppers.

Westminster just wasn't successful as a

mall at a lower occupancy rate with

low-end stores, which really meant its

closure was almost set in stone by the

2010s. and it really did die a quiet

death. In the making of this video, I'm

actually shocked at how little has been

documented and archived of this

property. Just finding photos and videos

from inside was tedious. But at the same

time, I know for a fact that so many

have shared memories here. But when it's

all said and done, I think what truly

will cement this mall's legacy are the

few weeks that followed its closure. The

sheer insanity which occurred inside the

building through January 2026 a shocking

free-for-all which made national news

and came as quite a shock for local

residents. It's honestly very similar to

what happened to Ocean Plaza in downtown

Los Angeles. A series of towers which

left unchecked allowed all kinds of

people to leave their mark on it. In the

end, I think through its 51-year long

history, there might be no better

physical representation of the fall of

the American Mall than this.

If you like this video or learn

something new and want to support my

work further, including my upcoming

feature documentary about, well, the

rise and fall of the American Mall, you

can find me over on Patreon. There you

can watch videos before anyone else, get

exclusive updates, and get your name at

the end of each video. If you're

interested, you can visit

patreon.com/brightunfilms.

A link will also be in the description

below. Anyway guys, my name is Jake and

thank you very much for watching.

[music]

Heat. Heat. N.

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