Bella Terra

Bella Terra
Location	Huntington Beach, California, United States
Coordinates	33°43′54.43″N 117°59′37.04″W / 33.7317861°N 117.9936222°W / 33.7317861; -117.9936222
Address	7777 Edinger Avenue
Opening date	1966/2006
Management	DJM Capital Partners
Owner	DJM Capital Partners
Architect	Perkowitz & Ruth
No. of stores and services	100
No. of anchor tenants	10
Parking	Parking lot, parking garage
Website	bellaterra-hb.com

Bella Terra is an outdoor shopping mall in Huntington Beach, California. It was built on the site of the former Huntington Center. The center's current anchors are; Kohl's, Burlington Coat Factory, Barnes & Noble, Cinemark Theaters, Whole Foods Market, and Costco Wholesale.

History

Huntington Center opening

The Mervyn's was closed in late 2008. It sat vacant from 2008 to 2010 before it was demolished.

The Huntington Center was the first enclosed, all-weather mall in Orange County. It opened in 1966 at a cost of $20,000,000 with 55 retailers occupying a total of 842,855 square feet (78,303.8 m²) of retail space on a 58-acre (23 ha) lot, and parking for 3,700 cars.^[1][2]

Department store anchored the center:^[3]

• The Broadway 2 stories, 150,000 square feet (14,000 m²) on a 12-acre (4.9 ha) lot,^[1] Charles Luckman and Associates, architects^[2]
• JCPenney 2 stories, 206,090 square feet (19,146 m²) plus a 20,000 square feet (1,900 m²) auto service center
• Montgomery Ward 2 stories, 168,900 square feet (15,690 m²) plus a 29,000 square feet (2,700 m²) auto service center on a 13.6-acre (5.5 ha) lot^[1]
• Barker Brothers a 2 story furniture store (built with the same architectural style as The Broadway) across the parking lot and an unenclosed strip of several shops adjacent.

Additional tenants at opening included Lerner's, Judy's, Harris & Frank, Leed's, Kinney Shoes, Thom McAn, Security First National Bank, Crocker-Citizens National Bank Food Fair supermarket and Thrifty Drug Stores.^[3]

An eight-ton statue from Budapest, Hungary was installed in the center of the mall.^[3]

Later developments

• 1986: New wing was built with Mervyn's added as its fourth anchor store and a new food court added and all opened in November.
• 1993: JCPenney closed in November and relocated to Westminster Mall.
• 1995: Burlington Coat Factory replaced JCPenney. Barnes & Noble opened in October, moving into the long-vacant former Barker Bros. building.^[4]
• 1996: The Broadway closed in August due to the company being purchased by Macy's and liquidated and the wing between the closed The Broadway building and Burlington Coat Factory was closed and sealed off shortly thereafter as the mall's business begins to decline rapidly.

Closedown

• 2000: Burlington Coat Factory sued mall owners, claiming they are being "forced out" during the mall's redevelopment.^[5]
• 2001: Montgomery Ward closed in March due to liquidation making it the last original anchor store to close.
• 2003: Mall closed, except for Mervyn's and Burlington Coat Factory, which closed shortly after the mall closed. The mall was demolished soon afterward, except for Burlington Coat Factory, Mervyn's and the empty Montgomery Ward and The Broadway.

Rebirth as Bella Terra

• 2006: Bella Terra opened with Kohl's in the old The Broadway building. The empty Montgomery Ward building was left standing and was demolished in 2010.
• 2008: Mervyn's and Circuit City closed, Mervyn's due to liquidation and Circuit City due to bankruptcy.
• 2010: The vacant Montgomery Ward and Mervyn's buildings were demolished. ^[6] Whole Foods Market replaces former Circuit City.
• 2012: Costco opened in May.^[7]
• 2013: The Residences at Bella Terra, a 467-unit apartment complex with retail space on the ground level, opened on the site of the former Montgomery Ward.^[8]