by Garth Meyer
The South Bay Galleria is for sale. Listed by broker Newmark earlier in July, no price is given for the 1.272 million square-foot, 29.6-acre site, including parking lots.
New owners Kennedy Wilson (Beverly Hills) took over the property in foreclosure from L. Catterton (Greenwich, Conn.).
“It’s good news,” said Zein Obagi, Jr., Redondo Beach city councilman for district four, where the property is located. “Whoever is going to come in now is aware of the macroeconomic conditions; tariffs and interest rates.”
Obagi, Jr. noted the existing, reciprocal easements at the site for Macy’s, Kohl’s and AMC Theaters.
“In a dream world, someone would come in with enough money to buy out the three, demolish the property and start from scratch,” he said. “The best thing to be built would be mixed-use and affordable housing, like a village, such as Americana at Brand (Glendale).”
L. Catterton had proposed to turn the Galleria into a “South Bay Social District,” a mixed-use project originally slated for 650 residential units. The owners later pared it down to 300, then brought it back up.
“Who has a vision to take advantage of the unique mix at the site?” Obagi said. “But it will take a lot of money to make money.”
In February 2024, L. Catterton switched back to 650 residential units for the “Social District” plan, submitted in an application to the city.
The added units would have been built in the Galleria’s southwest parking lot, behind Kohl’s on Kingsdale Avenue.
The South Bay Social District would have meant a redesign of the interior of the current mall; much of today’s Galleria remaining intact, with a final mix of office and retail, and the building’s “doors taken out” to make for an indoor/outdoor experience.
The project was fully designed, with a city-approved environmental impact report from 2019 still current.
Pre-pandemic, construction appeared imminent, but since then, inflation rose, followed by interest rates, and financiers largely preferred housing over retail/commercial space. So L. Catterton made the Redondo Beach venture smaller and more outdoor, said a company representative, Stuart Miller, project partner, to a crowd at a community meeting last year at the mall. He reported that in turn, interest rose from financiers.
Miller told the assembled at the March 2024 gathering that construction on South Bay Social District could start by the end of the year, if financing came through that day.
A general contractor had been hired and Miller said “pre-leasing (was) going well.”
Kennedy Wilson is a major real estate investor, managing $29 billion in assets across the world. L. Catterton manages international assets of $37 billion.
A representative from Newmark declined comment for this article. Efforts to reach Miller were unsuccessful. ER
650 units is pathetic. There needs to be at least 1500 units going in there. Close to the train station and the freeway.
The South Bay is full, there are no roads or infrastructure for more people. We need to block all of these high density housing projects.
We would have infrastructure if you didn’t continue blocking public transit and affordable rent! What’s with all these TX and AZ plates coming in and jacking up our rent?
California wants to be like China so why not make super tall buildings. If it is good enough for Russia and China, it is good enough for CA. CA is 60% democrats so don’t expect much change.
Not a problem if all services, amenities, and a good amount of jobs were “on campus” like a self contained village. No need to go anywhere. Like Irvine’s master planned communities specifically the Irvine Spectrum area.
That property is a public transportation hub. It should be developed with very high density housing. Your NIMBY attitude is a major reason for housing unaffordability.
No way do we need that there
Those plans have been publicly posted for about 10 years now, but have been postponed multiple times.
They should knock down the big wall on the parking garage that was a part of the old transit center. It’s sad they never tore it down in 2023.
How about the State forcing every resident of Torrance to house one unhoused person like in China?
No one has the grease for these kinds of things this close to the end of the cycle. It already seems to be passed as collateral. Probably best to wait until there is a little more certainty in the economy.
i’m out they’re destroying our South Bay. I know the mall needs some rehab, but for God sake more housing. Have you looked around lately? There’s more vacancies than we’ve had in probably 15 years. These councilmen need to know their stats instead of going by ideology. Or what Newsom says telling you we don’t need more housing. Traffic is gonna be unbearable. Parking is gonna be a nightmare. I’m going to a little small town somewhere. This is ridiculous. they don’t even have enough services to handle that stop with the propaganda and do the research.