Westfield Plaza Bonita Sold for $201.5M
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New owners plan to improve the South Bay shopping center with enhanced entrances and customer areas, as well as expand the mall's dining options
Westfield Plaza Bonita, which sits on 78 acres of land at the southern boundary of National City, has new owners that are looking to elevate the 45-year-old mall as an even more popular destination for the community.
A joint venture between Charleston, S.C.-based private equity real estate firm Henderson Park and Los Angeles-based developer Lowe purchased the 1 million square-foot, indoor mall at 3030 Plaza Bonita Road, the companies announced in a press release.
The partners, which have already removed Westfield branding, plan to improve Plaza Bonita with enhanced entrances and customer areas, as well as expand the mall’s dining options with an emphasis on specialty and local eateries.
“There always is a desire to have better, people-oriented places, so that’s better restaurants and cafes. We want this to be more of a community place. More people can spend more time there, and get more things done. And if there are better choices to eat, then that should increase not only the dwell time for the customers that are there, but (make Plaza Bonita) a more family-oriented place.”—Joel Mayer, a Lowe executive who leads the company’s national retail efforts
Henderson Park and Lowe will also consider adding residential units to the site, but there are no concrete plans to introduce housing, Mayer said.
Sellers, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, sold the property for $201.5 million to the joint venture, HP Bonita Investments LLC, property records show. Westfield said in a regulatory filing that the sales price was greater than the value it had assigned to the property internally.
The transaction, which closed on July 21, was financed with a $163 million loan from Morgan Stanley Mortgage Capital Holdings LLC, property records show.
Built in 1981 and renovated in 2011, Westfield Plaza Bonita features more than 150 shops and restaurants, including Macy’s, Target, JC Penney, Nordstrom Rack and Round1 Bowling & Arcade. It is currently 95% leased, Mayer said.
The indoor mall, southeast of the intersection of Interstate 805 and State Route 54, also features 4,571 parking spaces, according to Westfield’s website. In a recent 12-month period, the property drew around 11 million visitors, according to Placer.ai data cited by Lowe.
Westfield has owned the South Bay shopping center since 1994, when it first entered the San Diego market and simultaneously purchased stakes in three other major malls in the region. In 2012, Westfield sold a 45% stake in Plaza Bonita to the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.
Paris-based Unibail-Rodamco purchased Westfield in 2018, forming what’s now known as Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield. The company has, since 2021, been selling off most of its U.S. assets. In 2023, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield sold its two Mission Valley shopping centers to separate buyers. With the Plaza Bonita sale, Westfield UTC is the Paris-based company’s last remaining asset in San Diego County.
Lowe is part of a joint venture that acquired the 41-acre Westfield Mission Valley East mall, now branded The Valley, just east of Mission Center Road at 1640 Camino del Rio North. The developer views Plaza Bonita as a similar pickup to the Mission Valley mall, although the South Bay asset won’t require as much work.
“The neighborhood engages with the property, and vice versa in a lot of similar ways to Mission Valley, in that the trade areas do a good job for their residents, but sometimes the offerings aren’t exactly what everybody wants. We always try to adjust those things to bring them into the modern era. We’re not going to do nearly as much work to Plaza Bonita as we’re doing at Mission Valley. … Plaza Bonita has a lot less vacancy, and all the anchors are in place and doing well.”—Joel Mayer, a Lowe executive
Henderson Park and Lowe have hired Dallas-based retail operator Centennial to serve as Plaza Bonita’s property manager.
Written by Jennifer Van Grove | August 3, 2026 | San Diego Union-Tribune
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