In 1950, the land at 8308 On the Mall in Buena Park, California, was still used for orange and walnut groves. A small number of modest houses stood among the rows of trees.
At that time, the city had only 5,483 residents. Then the Santa Ana Freeway came through in 1954 and changed how the area worked. Buena Park became an incorporated city in 1953, one year before the freeway opened.
The new road cut through the old downtown business district and shifted traffic, shoppers, and investment toward the outer parts of the city.
By 1960, Buena Park's population had reached 45,683, almost nine times higher than it had been ten years earlier.
Growth on that scale needed new shopping space, and the former orchard land just east of Knott's Berry Farm was a natural place for it.
Sears started construction in 1959, building a large store and an auto service center on the west side of the property.
The larger shopping center opened in stages during 1960 and 1961. By March 26, 1961, thirteen stores were already open.
In less than ten years, land that had held orange trees and scattered farmhouses had turned into one of Orange County's first large regional shopping centers, with parking lots full on weekends as new Buena Park residents came to shop there.
Before It Was Called Buena Park Downtown
The shopping center first opened with a simple name: Buena Park Regional Shopping Center. Over time, the name changed several times.
It was Buena Park Center from 1961 to 1975, Buena Park Mall from 1976 to 2003, and Buena Park Downtown from 2004 onward.
In the early 1960s, the key change at the time was that May Company had joined Sears as the second main anchor store, and about fifty other retailers had opened in the space between them.
The center's location near the I-5 and SR-91 interchange made it easy for people from around the region to get there.
As new residential tracts filled in around Buena Park during the 1960s, the open-air shopping center served those growing neighborhoods while the property continued to develop.
The property expanded in stages over many years.
City records list a central mall built in 1961, a southern addition in 1979, a northern detached building in 1980, an eastern addition in 2003, and more northern buildings added in 2003, 2004, and 2009.
What many people saw as one enclosed mall was actually the result of fifty years of construction on the same city block.
How City Freeholds Remade Buena Park Mall
Australia's City Freeholds bought the property in 1976 and spent the next several years rebuilding it from the inside out.
By around 1980, the open-air corridors were enclosed. A basement-level lower mall added roughly fifty stores. A 30,000-square-foot theater complex went in.
A 75-foot glass tower replaced the old main entrance. The renamed Buena Park Mall reached 1.2 million square feet and ranked as the fourth-largest shopping center in Orange County.
In 1988, the mall covered 75 acres with 170 occupied units and 5,500 parking spaces.
Sears held 330,000 square feet on the west end, May Company filled 249,000, and J.C. Penney occupied 152,500. Taxable retail sales ranked seventh among all Orange County malls.
UA 8 Movies opened August 17, 1984, as United Artists' Orange County flagship - eight screens, 2,182 seats. The theater brought evening crowds that daytime retail alone could not generate.
On a busy Saturday in the mid-1980s, the parking lot filled by mid-morning, the food court ran without a quiet moment, and Buena Park Mall felt like the center of its corner of the county.
The 1990s would not be kind to that feeling.
May Company's Closure and What Followed
In March 1991, the Buena Park City Council publicly went after May Company during a routine sign variance hearing, calling the store unsafe, ugly, and an embarrassment to the city.
That kind of language at a council meeting did not arrive without reason - the department store that had anchored the mall since 1963 was visibly deteriorating, and the city was done pretending otherwise.
The Robinson's-May merger in 1992 sealed the outcome. Buena Park was among the affected Orange County locations, and May Company's 249,000 square feet at the heart of the mall became a problem to solve.
In April 1993, Fedco announced it would spend more than $11 million converting the former May Company building into the largest store in its chain - a three-level, 240,000-square-foot operation with a farmers' market on the ground floor, general merchandise at the mall level, and electronics and home furnishings above.
It was the first Fedco ever placed inside a shopping mall. When the store opened in November 1993, officials expected 30,000 shoppers on day one.
The aisles were packed. Parking enforcement worked overtime. For the moment, the old May Company box looked like it had been given a second life.
Saving Buena Park Mall: Walmart, Renovation, and Krikorian
The Pritzker family's Sunrise Buena Park partnership paid $41 million for the mall in 1995.
By that time, sales per square foot had already fallen from the high $300s to the low $200s.
A $30 million overhaul followed: a 500-seat food court, family-style restaurants, a new exterior, redesigned storefronts, and a possible expansion of the theater complex.
Target acquired Fedco in 1999 and left behind a lease restriction that blocked Walmart and similar large discount stores from the building.
The city of Buena Park paid $3.2 million from its redevelopment fund to take over that lease and clear the way for Walmart.
The planned store was 175,000 square feet and was projected to deliver roughly $600,000 in annual sales tax.
By early 2002, a five-year, $70 million makeover was nearly complete. The center carried a new name: Buena Park Downtown.
On May 2, 2003, Krikorian Buena Park Metroplex 18 opened on the former JCPenney site - an 18-screen complex built as Krikorian's flagship and its first "metroplex" concept.
For everyone who had watched the 1990s gut the old mall, Buena Park Downtown finally looked like it might hold together.
John's Incredible Pizza and the Value Strategy
In 2004, a joint venture between Developers Diversified Realty and Coventry Real Estate Advisors paid $91 million for the property.
Buena Park Downtown had not become an upscale destination. By 2007, the anchor lineup was Bed Bath & Beyond, DSW Shoe Warehouse, Ross Dress for Less, Sears, and Walmart.
Annual sales across 1.1 million square feet totaled $123 million - a large number, but far below what comparable malls were producing per square foot.
The lower level had started as a truck service tunnel for Sears and still felt like one: low ceilings, dark paint, and tenants that had nothing to do with each other.
John's Incredible Pizza was the answer management settled on - a 58,000-square-foot restaurant-and-arcade complex with seating for 900 people across six themed rooms, ten party rooms, buffet service, rides, and games.
It opened in July 2009. Stores nearby reported traffic increases of up to 35 percent. Movie ticket sales rose as well.
A 535,000-square-foot portion of the complex sold for $85 million in 2016 at 93 percent occupancy.
Listed tenants at that point included John's Incredible Pizza, Krikorian Theatres, 24 Hour Fitness, Ross Dress for Less, Bed Bath & Beyond, TJ Maxx, DSW, and Big Air Trampoline.
From Sears to the Village at Buena Park
Merlone Geier Partners bought the former Sears building in 2019 and leased it back to Sears for two more years.
Sears closed the Buena Park store in early 2020, just before the pandemic began. By late 2021, many storefronts inside the mall were dark, and security gates were down along the corridors.
Before the shutdown, a food hall called Grange Hall 39 had opened in the Krikorian Courtyard to bring in more visitors, but it opened at a very difficult time.
The City of Buena Park approved the Village at Buena Park on June 27, 2023.
The project replaces the former Sears building and auto center with 1,302 housing units - 1,176 apartments and 126 townhomes - on about 25 acres.
The new buildings range from three to seven stories. The project also expands the main entrance to Buena Park Downtown. By February 2026, construction was underway.
On January 24, 2026, Krikorian Buena Park Metroplex 18 held its last screenings and posted a farewell message thanking patrons and staff for 22 years.
The center is still operating, but it no longer has a traditional full-line mall department store, it no longer has a multiplex theater, and the place where Sears stood for more than sixty years is now a construction site.
Buena Park Downtown
Shopping mall in Buena Park, CA
Address: 8308 On the Mall, Buena Park, CA 90620
Opened: 1961
Developer: John S. Griffith
Management: Cirrus Asset Management Inc.
Floor area: 1,100,000 square feetClosest cities:
Anaheim, CA
Fullerton, CA
Cypress, CA
La Palma, CA
Cerritos, CA
La Mirada, CA
