Westfield Topanga

infobox shopping mall
shopping_mall_name = Westfield Topanga

---

image_width = 250
caption =
location = Canoga Park, Los Angeles, California, USA
opening_date = February 10, 1964
developer = May Centers, Inc.
manager = The Westfield Group
owner = The Westfield Group
number_of_stores = 347 [ [http://www.westfield.com/topanga/ourstores/ Westfield ] ]
number_of_anchors = 4
floor_area = 1.6 million sq.ft. http://westfield.com/corporate/retailer/us/topanga.html, accessed August 18, 2006]
floors = 2
website = [http://www.westfield.com/topanga westfield.com/topanga]
parking = 5,448

Westfield Topanga, formerly known as the Westfield Shoppingtown Topanga and more commonly known to locals as the Topanga Mall or Topanga Plaza, is a two-story shopping mall consisting of 230 tenants spread across three sections. It is located on Topanga Canyon Boulevard on the border between the communities of Canoga Park and Woodland Hills in the western part of Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley and is owned and operated by The Westfield Group.

Nordstrom, Robinsons-May, and Sears previously anchored the center. While all three stores continue to do business in the mall, the Robinsons-May was renamed Macy's on September 9, 2006, the Nordstrom was moved to a custom-built new building on the opposite side of the mall during restructuring, and a Neiman Marcus now occupies a new building on the former site of the Nordstrom.

A massive $330 million expansion meant to refresh the mall and make it more upscale began in 2006, with work set to be finished by late 2008. Over 100 new stores including a large new Target, several new restaurants, a "dining terrace", a two-story indoor carousel and three new parking structures are key parts of the expansion, along with a Neiman Marcus, which is set to open in 2008 as part of phase two of the expansion.

During the 5.4 Ritcher Scale on July 29, 2008 Earthquake the Macy's store at Westfield Topanga closed after a water pipe ripped on the third floor, flooding the entire store.

History

Opened February 10, 1964, Topanga Plaza was California's first enclosed shopping mall. It was originally anchored by The Broadway, May Company and Montgomery Ward. Nordstrom was added in 1983.

In 1992 May Centers, Inc., the original developer, was renamed CenterMark Properties and sold by May Department Stores in 1993 to a consortium led by Westfield Holdings, Ltd., a predecessor of The Westfield Group.

The May Company location was renamed Robinsons-May in 1993 and completely rebuilt following the 1994 Northridge earthquake, The Broadway location was sold to Sears in 1996 after its acquisition by Federated Department Stores, and the Montgomery Ward closed in 1999 following the chain's bankruptcy. As previously mentioned, Robinsons-May was renamed Macy's in September 2006, and despite rumors to the contrary, the store will continue operating despite the close proximity of a second Macy's store at the Westfield Promenade up the street.

2006-2008 Expansion

The Westfield Group recently completed the first phase of an expansion project, which added over 100 stores, including a large two-story Target, and three-story Nordstrom department store. A stunning "Canyon" court area, several new restaurants with a cafe-style dining terrace, "Westfield Playtown" for children, "family lounge", and indoor carousel were also added to the existing mall. The former Montgomery Ward, which had been largely out of use for years, was demolished as part of this project.

Nordstrom was moved to a new building at the southeast corner of the parking lot, which faces Victory Boulevard and Owensmouth Avenue. Neiman Marcus will open in fall 2008 at the site of the former Nordstrom building, on the mall's west end. Three new parking structures have been erected to supplant the ground level parking lost when the mall's outer walls were expanded to accommodate the new stores, the largest of these being the five-level Owensmouth Garage complete with an electronic parking space indicator system.

Future expansion

In July of 2007 Westfield revealed partial plans to link the Topanga mall with their other local indoor mall, the Westfield Promenade, which is less than two blocks away. In addition to the two major malls, Westfield owns a small, outdoor shopping center located almost exactly between the other two and on the same major boulevard as the others; the company's plans involve renovating the outdoor mall to refresh it and to make it a hub for people traveling between all three shopping locations.

Many different retail/office space configurations are being considered, some of which could take construction costs as high as $750 million USD. How the three malls will be connected is still up for debate, although Westfield has semi-publicly considered a monorail system on more than one occasion, a novel but unlikely idea made nearly impossible by several logistical problems. Original plans called for the work to be finished by early 2010, but much of that work is being delayed while planning revisions and budget issues are being handled.

When the project is completed, the three mall behemoth will be the largest in California with a total of convert|3800000|sqft|m2.

Anchors and Majors

*Macy's (Formerly May Company and later Robinsons-May, 251,887 sq ft.)
*Nordstrom (149,761 sq ft.)
*Neiman Marcus (NOW OPEN!!!!!)
*Target
*Sears (160,271 sq ft.)

References

External links

* [http://www.westfield.com/topanga/ Westfield Topanga website]