The giant South Coast Plaza retail center will reopen Monday, June 1 with limited hours and many of its amenities sidelined to ease shoppers’ concerns about the novel coronavirus.
The Costa Mesa center quietly announced details of the reopening on its webpage late Thursday, May 28. California’s easing of stay-at-home orders now allows indoor malls to open. The mall closed March 16 after learning a store employee had contracted the virus.
“The health and safety of everyone in the shopping center is our top priority,” the South Coast Plaza’s website states.
The center’s plan gives shoppers a preview of what mall life could be like in the pandemic era.
Operating hours have been shortened, beginning at 11 a.m. and closing at 7 pm, Monday through Saturday, and noon to 7 p.m. on Sundays.
Customers are advised to check individual shops and restaurants to see which ones would be open. Many indoor malls have reopened their shopping halls in the past week, but many merchants were not yet ready for business.
Visitors to South Coast Plaza should bring a face covering or mask. It’s required in the parking lots, to enter the mall and in stores. Costa Mesa and the county both require masks at most indoor facilities open to the public. The mall will offer free masks to customers who need one.
How South Coast Plaza handles its reopening will be carefully watched in the shopping center industry. The mall, which caters to high-end shoppers, is known to be a cutting-edge provider of customer service.
For example, South Coast Plaza’s reopening notice cited a new “state-of-the-art air treatment system” and intensified cleaning efforts, especially in high-touch areas. Hand sanitizer stations are placed in high traffic areas, and mall personnel will help manage social distancing along with signage encouraging visitors to keep 6-feet apart.
Services such as valet parking and holding packages are shut, but the SCP2GO curbside pickup service remains active. Many common areas where the public gathered are closed, including the popular carousels.
The mall reopens in a tough environment for shopping centers. The pandemic has spooked shoppers — skittish about spending with record-high unemployment — and shattered the finances of many merchants — the folks who pay mall owners’ rents.
Real estate analysts at Green Street Advisors estimated mall operators nationwide collected about 25% of the rent they previously got and “collectability of unpaid rent will be tough.” That’s a key reason why the typical mall’s value has been cut by 25% this year.
It may not get better soon, Green Street wrote, as “retailer rent-paying ability could be impaired for years following this crisis.”
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South Coast Plaza reopens Monday, June 1 with most amenities shut - OCRegister
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