Brea sits in northern Orange County, California, about 30 miles southeast of Los Angeles. For most of its history, the city remained a small oil and citrus town.
Things started to change in the early 1970s when the 57 Freeway opened and made it easier for Brea to reach other nearby areas. City leaders soon started planning a much larger commercial project.
They chose a site covering about 74 acres, bordered by State College Boulevard, Imperial Highway, South Randolph Avenue, and East Birch Street.
The plan was to build a large shopping center that would serve nearby towns and bring big stores to northern Orange County.
The project created a new retail center for the area, but it also changed Brea's existing shopping patterns. Downtown Brea sat about two miles west of the new mall site.
After the shopping center opened, many shoppers started driving east to the mall instead of going to the older downtown stores.
Sales in the city center went down as more people started shopping at the new mall. Downtown Brea then spent years getting used to the change.
At the same time, the mall kept expanding and drew shoppers from all over the county.
Notable Milestones
1977 - Brea Mall opens with 306,000 square feet of retail space, anchored by Sears and May Company California.
September 28, 1977 - Formal grand opening ceremony takes place at 9:30 a.m.
1987 - Brea approves a $120 million expansion and renovation plan.
1989 - A larger Nordstrom opens as part of the overhaul.
May 1991 - Robinson's opens, and the expansion adds a new wing of shops.
July 1993 - JCPenney joins the anchor lineup.
1995-1996 - The Broadway converts to Macy's after the holiday season.
1998 - Simon acquires Brea Mall through its merger with Corporate Property Investors.
2013-2014 - A full renovation updates entrances, lighting, flooring, restrooms, and common areas.
January-April 2018 - Sears announces its closure and shuts down in April.
April 9, 2018 - Simon unveils plans to redevelop the former Sears site.
May 2 and May 16, 2023 - Brea City Council approves the 15.5-acre mixed-use project.
November 2025 - A 119,000-square-foot outdoor plaza is complete, and work shifts to phase two.
July 2026 - Life Time is scheduled to open at 1600 Brea Mall Road with 85,000 square feet.
Brea Mall opens to shoppers in 1977
Brea Mall opened to shoppers in the summer of 1977. The formal grand opening ceremony was held on Wednesday, September 28, 1977, at 9:30 am.
The center started with 306,000 square feet of retail space, with Sears and May Company California as the two anchor stores.
Both were major department store chains and drew shoppers from across northern Orange County.
The original plan called for four department stores and more than 100 shops, so the 1977 opening was always a first phase rather than a finished product.
The mall was also planned as part of a larger "Regional Center" that would include an adjacent financial center and Brea Plaza, creating a full commercial district rather than a single shopping center.
The early mall had an ice rink that became popular with families who came to skate as much as shop. The rink stayed for about a decade before being removed during the renovation of the late 1980s.
A $120 million overhaul reshapes the mall
In December 1987, Brea city officials gave final approval to a $120 million expansion and renovation plan that had been in development for more than five years.
The project called for a new Nordstrom building, two additional major department stores, four new parking garages with more than 4,000 spaces, and a full interior renovation.
The new Nordstrom opened in 1989 at 184,000 square feet, replacing an older Nordstrom that had been in place for about nine years.
The old building was converted into roughly 75 new specialty shops.
Interior changes followed alongside the anchor work - the food court was remodeled, about 60 new specialty stores were added, and new carpeting, marble floors, fountains, and landscaping went in throughout.
Robinson's opened as a new anchor in late May 1991. A 95,000-square-foot expansion wing opened at the same time, with 17 stores up and running and plans for 45 by late fall.
By 1989, annual sales had already climbed to $223 million, up 19 percent from the prior year.
Department store names keep changing faces
The 1990s brought a series of name changes to Brea Mall's anchor stores, driven mostly by corporate mergers and chain consolidation rather than by the mall alone.
In October 1992, May Department Stores merged May Company California and Robinson's into a new chain called Robinsons-May.
That put the Robinson's name - only recently added during the expansion - under the same corporate flag as the May Company banner that had been there since 1977.
JCPenney joined the lineup in July 1993. The new store had a more polished look than older JCPenney locations. It expanded women's clothing, accessories, and fine jewelry space by 50 percent.
The Broadway location at Brea Mall converted to Macy's branding after the 1995 holiday shopping season. That placed Macy's alongside JCPenney, Robinsons-May, Nordstrom, and Sears in the anchor lineup.
Robinsons-May was later absorbed into Macy's as well.
By 2012, the anchor stores were Nordstrom, Macy's, JCPenney, Sears, and a separate Macy's Men's, Children & Home location - the end result of two decades of chain consolidation working through the lineup.
Simon takes the mall into a national portfolio
Brea Mall changed ownership in 1998 when Simon Property Group acquired Corporate Property Investors, the company that owned the mall.
Simon already operated the Mission Viejo and Laguna Hills malls in Orange County, so the acquisition brought three major local properties under one owner.
At the time, Brea Mall measured about 1.3 million square feet - Orange County's second-largest mall.
City records put annual sales for 1996 at $344 million. Sales remained strong through the following decade.
During the 2009 recession, taxable sales fell 6 percent to $465 million, but the mall stayed among the highest-volume retail properties in Orange County.
Under Simon's ownership, the mall went through a major renovation in 2013 and 2014 and later into a large mixed-use redevelopment that began after the Sears closure in 2018.
A head-to-toe renovation wraps up in 2014
Brea Mall went through another major update between February 2013 and April 2014. The project covered both the inside and outside of the center and addressed a long list of specific elements.
New mall entrances and updated light fixtures went in on the exterior. Inside, the renovation added family-style restrooms, a children's play area on the lower level, and a larger and faster elevator in Center Court.
New flooring, landscaping, handrails, signage, and lighting were installed throughout the building.
The focus was on modernizing the experience inside the mall rather than changing its structure. No major buildings were torn down, and no new anchor spaces were built.
The work left the center with a more contemporary and inviting environment from one end to the other.
This renovation was the last full-building update before the much larger change that followed the Sears closure in 2018.
Sears closes, and a new plan takes shape
Sears had been part of Brea Mall since it opened in 1977, one of the original anchors that stayed through four decades of renovations and expansions.
On January 4, 2018, Sears announced the Brea store would close as part of a nationwide plan to shut 103 locations. The store closed in April 2018.
Simon did not wait long to act. On April 9, 2018, the company announced that Brea Mall was one of five former Sears locations where it would begin major redevelopments.
The initial plan called for a new three-story, 120,000-square-foot Life Time Athletic facility along with residential units, restaurants, entertainment venues, and new retail brands on the southwest corner of the property.
In August 2019, the City of Brea began reviewing a proposed 17.5-acre redevelopment area on the southwest side of the mall.
That plan involved demolishing the Sears building, auto center, and 12 acres of surface parking to make room for apartments, retail, a fitness center, and an outdoor gathering space.
Construction phases and major tenant openings
The Brea City Council approved the mixed-use project on May 2 and May 16, 2023.
The approved plan covers 15.5 acres on the southwest side of the mall. Simon put the total investment at $300 million.
By November 2025, a 119,000-square-foot outdoor plaza on the southwest side had been completed, and work moved to a second phase centered on the Life Time fitness center and Dick's Sporting Goods.
New tenants are arriving throughout 2026. The Melt and Evereve are already open. Dick's Sporting Goods is set to open on April 15.
Williams-Sonoma and North Italia are both planned for spring. Din Tai Fung is set for summer with a 13,000-square-foot space, with seating for 300 guests.
Life Time is scheduled to open in July 2026 at 1600 Brea Mall Road, with 85,000 square feet across 3 acres featuring an outdoor Beach Club, cabanas, and pickleball courts.
More than 27 new tenants are expected to open across late 2025 and 2026.
Brea Mall
Shopping mall in Brea, CA
Address: 1065 Brea Mall, Brea, CA 92821
Opened: 1977
Developers: Homart Development Company
Owner: Simon Property Group
Floor area: 1,281,795 sq ftClosest cities:
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