https://www.ocregister.com/2019/01/...choices-a-beer-garden-and-more-entertainment/
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The latest owner of Anaheim’s GardenWalk, its third in a decade, is hoping a slew of changes and new additions will lead to a level of success that has so far eluded the open-air mall that sits less than a mile from Disneyland.
Whittier-based STC Management has signed leases with restaurants that will serve Indian street food, Japanese fusion cuisine, Taiwanese desserts, boba tea and more, company CEO John Hsu said. Also expected to fill out the mall’s vacant storefronts: a board game cafe, a bar with arcade games and a year-round haunted house.
Hsu is aiming to have many of the incoming businesses open by summer, soon after an AMC theater that closed last year at Downtown Disney opens at GardenWalk on Memorial Day weekend.
The already signed leases should bring the mall’s occupancy to about 90 percent.
“We’re hoping by the end of the year we should be 100 percent,” Hsu said. “We’re very aggressive.”
STC – which manages commercial properties around Southern California, including the Whittier office building that housed Richard Nixon’s first law office – bought the struggling GardenWalk in December for $80 million, which Hsu considered a bargain. Originally built for about $130 million, the center reportedly sold for $73 million in 2012, following a bankruptcy.<<
>>Besides adding restaurants, cafes and bars, Hsu plans to turn a large open patio near the House of Blues into a beer garden with local drafts and a small dog park where guests can bring pets. Community events, a farmers market and street performers are planned to draw people to the mall’s outdoor spaces, where upgraded artwork, lighting and landscaping will create inviting places to relax or take selfies.
The mall will still include shops and will add an on-site service allowing out-of-towners to ship purchases home instead of lugging shopping bags.
Another company owns the rights to build vacation time share units on top of the center’s parking garage, and Hsu said he’s interested in buying the rights and developing. Even without the time shares, GardenWalk will have a built-in audience from a recently renovated hotel and a new one under construction that flank the mall; two more adjacent high-end hotels have been discussed but are on uncertain timelines.
To attract guests from the JW Marriott under construction next door, Hsu envisions a small convenience store, a nail and beauty salon, and an urgent care in a less visible spot on the lower level. And he plans to court the Disney crowd with discounts for cast members and annual passholders.
His first priority is making customers happy, followed by his tenants, “because they’re our best PR,” Hsu said, so the center is undergoing extensive maintenance now.
“We don’t want to earn people’s money – we want to earn their respect,” he said.<<
>>
The latest owner of Anaheim’s GardenWalk, its third in a decade, is hoping a slew of changes and new additions will lead to a level of success that has so far eluded the open-air mall that sits less than a mile from Disneyland.
Whittier-based STC Management has signed leases with restaurants that will serve Indian street food, Japanese fusion cuisine, Taiwanese desserts, boba tea and more, company CEO John Hsu said. Also expected to fill out the mall’s vacant storefronts: a board game cafe, a bar with arcade games and a year-round haunted house.
Hsu is aiming to have many of the incoming businesses open by summer, soon after an AMC theater that closed last year at Downtown Disney opens at GardenWalk on Memorial Day weekend.
The already signed leases should bring the mall’s occupancy to about 90 percent.
“We’re hoping by the end of the year we should be 100 percent,” Hsu said. “We’re very aggressive.”
STC – which manages commercial properties around Southern California, including the Whittier office building that housed Richard Nixon’s first law office – bought the struggling GardenWalk in December for $80 million, which Hsu considered a bargain. Originally built for about $130 million, the center reportedly sold for $73 million in 2012, following a bankruptcy.<<
>>Besides adding restaurants, cafes and bars, Hsu plans to turn a large open patio near the House of Blues into a beer garden with local drafts and a small dog park where guests can bring pets. Community events, a farmers market and street performers are planned to draw people to the mall’s outdoor spaces, where upgraded artwork, lighting and landscaping will create inviting places to relax or take selfies.
The mall will still include shops and will add an on-site service allowing out-of-towners to ship purchases home instead of lugging shopping bags.
Another company owns the rights to build vacation time share units on top of the center’s parking garage, and Hsu said he’s interested in buying the rights and developing. Even without the time shares, GardenWalk will have a built-in audience from a recently renovated hotel and a new one under construction that flank the mall; two more adjacent high-end hotels have been discussed but are on uncertain timelines.
To attract guests from the JW Marriott under construction next door, Hsu envisions a small convenience store, a nail and beauty salon, and an urgent care in a less visible spot on the lower level. And he plans to court the Disney crowd with discounts for cast members and annual passholders.
His first priority is making customers happy, followed by his tenants, “because they’re our best PR,” Hsu said, so the center is undergoing extensive maintenance now.
“We don’t want to earn people’s money – we want to earn their respect,” he said.<<
The walk seemed really long. (We actually took a Lyft back to our hotel after.)
