Even in a region known for its dead shopping malls, Hawthorne Plaza holds a unique distinction.
It has been closed longer than it was ever open, and the sprawling property in the center of the South Bay suburb has been the subject of debate and fascination for decades.
It opened along Hawthorne Boulevard in 1977, at the height of the mall-boom years, as every city wanted its air-conditioned main street anchored by department stores and plenty of parking.
But Hawthorne Plaza faltered earlier than most, shutting down in 1999 and remaining eerily preserved. The mall still has huge signs for the Broadway and Montgomery Ward, two once-famous department stores that went out of business decades ago.
The mall’s abandoned status has made it a setting for movies as well as urban adventurers, who have broken in and taken YouTube videos of what they found.
But the days of Hawthorne’s “haunted” mall are numbered.
On a recent Friday morning, at least three large dump trucks filled with rusted metal debris exited from behind security gates, the latest sign that the long-promised demolition is at hand.
There have been growing complaints about blight at the site, including homeless people living there, pervasive graffiti and skateboarders using it as a playground. Neighbors say it has cast a shadow over the rest of Hawthorne’s central district.
“It became like a landfill,” said Francisco Diaz, 72, who lives in the neighborhood behind the mall. “People would come and toss their old furniture and everything there.”
Still, demolition is coming with bittersweet memories of the mall in its heyday as the very center of the city.
Longtime Hawthorne residents shared wistful goodbyes to the nostalgia-inducing site as demolition started thanks to a 2025 court order, obtained by the city, mandating that property owners Charles Co. and affiliate M&A Gabaee commence the process.
At the sight of the truck, Ervin Gomez shouted, “Al fin, al fin!” (Finally!)
Gomez, 53, has fond memories of going to the mall with friends and on dates in his youth in the ’90s.
Hawthorne Plaza opened to great fanfare. Ads promised to bring “luxury” to the South Bay shopping experience with 4,200 parking spots and estimates of 25,000 visitors a day.
It was designed to give Hawthorne’s fading downtown a boost with three major department stores — JCPenney in addition to the Broadway and Montgomery Ward — as well as numerous shops and a movie theater. But it faced stiff competition from nearby malls including the South Bay Galleria and Del Amo Fashion Center.
By the early 1990s, the center was fading, with the storefront count dropping from 130 to 87.
See’s Candies, Woman’s World, Regal Shoes and B. Dalton Bookseller were just a few of the stores that deserted the mall in 1994.
At the time, officials blamed the exits and plummeting sales on layoffs at Northrop Grumman Corp. — an aerospace and security technology company that once had a major manufacturing plant and offices in Hawthorne.
There were a few efforts to turn things around, with the city hoping for a regional light-rail line that never came to pass. A proposal to revitalize it as an open-air plaza fizzled.
A trustee was soon appointed to the mall by the Los Angeles Superior Court after its then-owner failed to make more than $900,000 in mortgage payments in five months.
The trustee had about a year to make up for the mall’s financial shortcomings.
Hawthorne Plaza was shuttered in 1999, 22 years after the estimated $50-million shopping center opened its doors to the public and seven years after Gomez graduated from Hawthorne High School.
It has been empty ever since.
“It’s been a while, and finally the owner let it go,” Gomez said. “But the city has been going through a long process of trying to get [the property owners] to do something about it.”
In 2001, the property was sold to its present-day owner, a West Hollywood property development firm, Charles Co., for $7 million, according to the Hawthorne Historical Society.
Empty, it served as the backdrop for music videos for Beyoncé and Taylor Swift; the parking garage is now famously known as a street-race setting in “The Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift.” Steven Spielberg shot parts of his film “Minority Report” there.
But not much else has occurred with the remains of the mall.
Plans to revitalize or repurpose the plaza were announced but later fell through, including a plan to establish a “lifestyle center” containing condominiums, offices and shops, according to the Hawthorne Historical Society.
Soon Diaz, a neighbor of the mall, observed that the parking garage doors were welded shut to keep out trespassers, and signs went up that stated cameras were on the premises, but “I haven’t seen them.”
Tensions between the development firm and the city escalated in 2021 when the city filed a lawsuit against Charles Co. for a number of alleged health and safety violations, including using the empty parking garage to rent parking space for Tesla and Amazon, a claim the owners denied.
The following year, Charles Co. co-founder and co-managing partner Arman Gabaee was sentenced to four years in prison for bribing a Los Angeles County official with dozens of cash payoffs during furtive meetings in cars, restaurants and men’s rooms while reaping lucrative real-estate leases in return.
In 2025, the commissioners who oversee the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety declared the plaza a nuisance “after years of inaction by the property owners,” the city of Hawthorne stated in a news release.
Not long after, the city secured a permanent court injunction requiring the owners of the long-vacant mall to move forward with redevelopment or demolition no later than Aug. 14.
“Redevelopment of the site is considered critical to the economic recovery of the City’s downtown and will also provide relief to surrounding neighborhoods,” the release stated.
The property owners, who could not be reached for comment, have abided by the court order so far, installing a perimeter fence, gates and a job site trailer within the property, as well as issuing demolition notices in advance to the adjacent community.
Demolition will occur in five phases, the first beginning at the south end of the site and progressing north, according to the Hawthorne Mall Work Plan.
When demolition will conclude is unclear, as are future plans for the property.
It’s a prime site, sitting right at the intersection of Hawthorne and El Segundo boulevards. Hawthorne has seen a revival in recent years, thanks in part to SpaceX locating its headquarters there and the booming sports and entertainment complexes to the north in Inglewood.
There is a nationwide trend of old malls turning into housing, such as the recently shuttered Westminster and Laguna Hills shopping centers. The former Westminster Mall is on track for demolition and will be replaced with housing, plus some shops and stores. Down Hawthorne Boulevard, the once-booming South Bay Galleria in Redondo Beach is looking for a revival. The city is considering a plan to build hundreds of apartments on one side of the mall.
Audrey Lopez, 61, looked at the bones of Hawthorne Plaza from the other side of Hawthorne Boulevard and said, “I miss it.”
The building is decrepit now, but it reminds Lopez of being dropped off at the shopping center to hang out with friends, walk around and eventually cross over to the movie theater. “It was a whole day” of activity for her.
“It’s devastating because I could go to the mall to get what I need and then see a sale at a store or go into Broadway,” Lopez said.
“I spent a lot of time in that mall, and they got a lot of money out of me too,” she said with a laugh. “But it was worth it.”
Lopez said Hawthorne Plaza was more than just a mall. “It was a gathering place where we could get together and have fun as well as shop.”
“It’s a memory now because the building still is here,” Lopez said. “But what’s next?”
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