{"id":29522,"date":"2025-10-30T01:44:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T01:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/29522\/"},"modified":"2025-10-30T01:44:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T01:44:09","slug":"demolition-begins-at-valley-plaza-once-the-largest-mall-on-the-west-coast-daily-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/29522\/","title":{"rendered":"Demolition begins at Valley Plaza, once the largest mall on the West Coast \u2013 Daily News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Demolition crews on Wednesday began tearing down parts of Valley Plaza, once touted as the largest shopping center on the West Coast when it opened in 1951, marking a turning point for the long-neglected North Hollywood landmark.<\/p>\n

The teardown follows an Aug. 19 vote by the Los Angeles Board of Building and Safety Commissioners<\/a> to declare six buildings on the site a public nuisance. The decision had come at the urging of Councilmember Adrin Nazarian, who represents the area, and has pushed for action after years of stalled redevelopment and rising safety concerns.<\/p>\n

\"Demolition<\/p>\n

Demolition of the derelict buildings declared a public nuisance last summer began at the Valley Plaza in North Hollywood on Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025. Heritage Disposal workers begin to clear a site. (Photo by Dean Musgrove, Los Angeles daily News\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

\"Demolition<\/p>\n

Demolition of the derelict buildings declared a public nuisance last summer began at the Valley Plaza in North Hollywood on Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025. (Photo by Dean Musgrove, Los Angeles daily News\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

\"Demolition<\/p>\n

Demolition of the derelict buildings declared a public nuisance last summer began at the Valley Plaza in North Hollywood on Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025. Heritage Disposal workers begin to clear a site at lower right. (Photo by Dean Musgrove, Los Angeles daily News\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

\"Demolition<\/p>\n

Demolition of the derelict buildings declared a public nuisance last summer began at the Valley Plaza in North Hollywood on Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025. Heritage Disposal workers begin to clear a site. (Photo by Dean Musgrove, Los Angeles daily News\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

Show Caption<\/p>\n

1 of 4<\/p>\n

Demolition of the derelict buildings declared a public nuisance last summer began at the Valley Plaza in North Hollywood on Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025. Heritage Disposal workers begin to clear a site. (Photo by Dean Musgrove, Los Angeles daily News\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

Expand<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThese properties have been a blight on the community for over a decade,\u201d Nazarian said in a statement Wednesday. \u201cDerelict buildings like these are an open invitation to criminal activity. We\u2019ve seen constant break-ins, fires, overdoses and violent crime at this site.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nazarian said the demolition is a necessary step toward revitalizing the site.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I brought community members to the Board of Building and Safety Commissioners in August we made it clear that the city had to put an end to this nuisance,\u201d he said. \u201cThis demolition is the first step towards preparing this area for the kind of positive development the neighborhood deserves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fred Gaines, a lawyer for The Charles Company, the property owner, clarified that the city is not carrying out the demolition itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe property owners at Five Points\/Charles Company are the only entity actively demolishing structures and improving conditions in the entire area,\u201d Gaines said. \u201cThe city is not doing the demolition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walter Hall, a 40-year resident of the neighborhood, said, \u201cThe surrounding neighborhoods are over the moon with the announcement that the derelict and abandoned properties at Valley Plaza are coming down. We\u2019re looking forward to development that will surpass the success of NoHo West, its immediate neighbor on the east side of Laurel Canyon. We\u2019re happy that using Valley Plaza as a setting for dystopian film productions will now be a thing of the past.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jennifer Clark, a North Hollywood resident who lives about a mile from the site, said she\u2019s glad to see the rundown structures finally coming down and hopes the move will help address public safety issues. \u201cI\u2019m more leaning toward excitement \u2013\u2013 like 99% more excitement,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Valley Plaza was once dubbed the largest shopping center on the West Coast. For decades, it was a neighborhood hub anchored by Sears and home to dozens of mom-and-pop retailers, offering everything from shoes to power tools and served as a gathering place for generations of Valley residents.<\/p>\n

But overtime, it began to unravel<\/a>, a decline some trace to the early 1990s recession and the 1994 earthquake<\/a>, which damaged buildings and led many retailers to shutter or never return.<\/p>\n

What followed was a string of stalled promises and unrealized plans.<\/p>\n

In the early 2000s, a developer unveiled an ambitious plan to transform the plaza into a modern mixed-use complex and evicted tenants in anticipation of construction. But the project stalled, ownership changed hands, and empty storefronts were left to decay. The 2019 closure of Sears<\/a> \u2014 a longtime anchor \u2014 dealt another blow.<\/p>\n

While big-box stores like Burlington and Target remain open, much of the plaza has sat in disrepair. Boarded windows, graffiti, and break-ins became commonplace.<\/p>\n

It remains unclear what will happen to the site next. No redevelopment plans have yet been finalized, Gaines said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Demolition crews on Wednesday began tearing down parts of Valley Plaza, once touted as the largest shopping center…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29523,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152,7,23,47,137,100,7495,136],"class_list":{"0":"post-29522","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bakersfield","8":"tag-bakersfield","9":"tag-bakersfield-headlines","10":"tag-bakersfield-news","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-local-news","13":"tag-los-angeles","14":"tag-los-angeles-county","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-north-hollywood","17":"tag-top-stories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}