La Costa Shopping Center Gets $10M Renovation

A La Costa shopping mall has undergone a more than $10 million renovation as property owners upgrade the look and feel of the center with new shops and open areas for people to gather.

“Our vision for The Beacon from the beginning has been to create an environment and merchandising mix that’s tailored to the individuals and families that make up the local community,” said Clare Walsh, director of leasing strategy at Asana Partners. Asana Partners, based in Charlotte, NC, bought The Beacon La Costa at 7710-7770 El Camino Real in 2019 for $57.6 million, according to CoStar, a real estate research firm, and began work on the renovation in 2020. The renovation was designed by AO architects of Orange. The general contractor was Good & Roberts of Carlsbad. Part of the 122,287 square-foot center was vacant when Asana Partners bought it, Walsh said. The Spanish style-architecture of the center was retained but outdated storefronts were replaced with a new façade, Walsh said. A driveway between two buildings was closed to create a 1,000 square-foot open area.

“For us, it was very important for people to have a place to gather,” Walsh said. “We’ll be planning events there as well.” The renovation also included adding 20,000 square feet of office space to existing office areas on the second story, for a total of 29,000 square feet of office space. Retail accounts for 93,287 square feet. “We loved the mixed-use nature of the project,” Walsh said. “We feel like there’s really good synergy in having both office and retail. We like to think office likes being around office and retail likes being around office.”

Tenants

The center is anchored by Equinox Fitness Center & Luxury Spa. New additions include Shake Shack, The Wise Ox butcher shop, Glow Theory dermatology studio, and Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream. Plans also call for full-service restaurants to be added.

“In the retail space where we like to invest is really creating an environment where people are coming multiple times a week and how you do that is pulling together the right tenants,” Walsh said. Retailers and restauranteurs were especially hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, but Walsh said the market for both is improving. “I see promising signs,” Walsh said. “A lot of what we’re seeing is people are excited to get back out and try the best new restaurants and go to events again, maybe go to the spa or get their nails done.”

Acquiring and renovating The Beacon was “an incredibly rare opportunity,” Walsh said. “It’s located along El Camino, a real major thoroughfare,” and “there’s significant barriers in the marketplace to build anything new.”

La Costa Shopping Center Gets $10M Renovation

July 23, 2021
By Retail Insite

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