The Brea Mall is a shopping mall located in the Orange County city of Brea, California. Since 1998 the mall has been owned and operated by the Simon Property Group. It is home to four major department stores, over 175 specialty shops and boutiques, and a food court. It is approximately 1,310,000 square feet (1.31 million). Though the Brea Mall is a high-quality and somewhat upscale shopping mall, it is overshadowed by its Orange County shopping center rivals, South Coast Plaza (Costa Mesa, CA) and Fashion Island (Newport Beach, CA). While the Brea Mall does have a Nordstrom store, it lacks an ultra high end anchor such as Neiman Marcus. Despite the mall managements best efforts, and while Brea, nearby Yorba Linda, and the northern end of Fullerton are generally considered affluent, they are not on par with the likes of Newport Beach and as such the Brea Mall does not warrant an ultra high end anchor.
The mall opened in 1978. Originally, the mall was anchored by Sears & May Company California. A couple of years later The Broadway was added and Nordstrom constructed their second California store. J. W. Robinson's and an all-new replacement Nordstrom (larger store) was then constructed along with a Y-shaped addition to the main mall, in the early 1990s. In 1993, May Department Stores merged J. W. Robinson's and May Company California to form the former Robinsons-May. As a result, the J. W. Robinson's store was sold to J.C. Penney, and the May Company California location was renamed Robinsons-May and later expanded. The Broadway was converted to Macy's after Federated Department Stores purchase of The Broadway's parent company Carter Hawley Hale Stores in 1996. In 2006, due to the merger between Federated Department Stores and May Department Stores, the Robinsons-May location was converted to a Macy's Furniture Store. In the 1970s and 1980s the Brea Mall also had an ice skating rink that was later removed to expand the food court and to make room for the previously mentioned Y-shaped addition.
The Brea Mall is generally considered to be among the premier shopping destinations in North Orange County and owes much of its success to its strategic location near the 57 freeway.
The Brea Mall has also been host to recording artists such as Ashlee Simpson, Mýa, Ryan Cabrera, and The Summer Obsession.
Read more about Brea Mall: Bus Routes Serving The Mall, Fame, Anchors
Famous quotes containing the word mall:
“Finishing schools in the fifties were a good place to store girls for a few years before marrying them off, a satisfactory rest stop between college weekends spent husband hunting. It was a haven for those of us adept at styling each other’s hair, playing canasta, and chain smoking Pall Mall extra-long cigarettes.”
—Barbara Howar (b. 1934)