Hawthorne Plaza will begin coming down within the week, ending a more than two decade nightmare for city officials and residents.
A recent court order requires the owner of Hawthorne Plaza, a long-vacant and abandoned shopping mall that has blighted the community for 25 years, to start demolishing the building no later than Friday, Aug. 14, Hawthorne officials have announced.
About a year ago, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge ordered the property’s owner, Arman Gabaee of real estate developer Charles Company, to either break ground on a redevelopment or demolish Hawthorne Plaza, 12000 Hawthorne Blvd., no later than Aug. 31.
A hearing on July 30 sealed in that permanent injunction, a final ruling in the nuisance abatement lawsuit the city filed in 2021 in an attempt to restore order to the chaotic site.
Redeveloping the site, city officials have said, is critical to the economic recovery of Hawthorne’s downtown — and will provide relief to surrounding neighborhoods.
Hawthorne Plaza opened in 1977 and struggled to compete with other South Bay malls, like the once-bustling South Bay Galleria and the Del Amo Fashion Center. It eventually closed in 1999 and Gabaee purchased it in 2001. It has since become a popular spot for homeless encampments, break-ins and unauthorized waste dumping.
Graffiti is scrawled on the walls, light fixtures have been torn out, the roof is partially collapsed and code violations abound. It’s been a hellscape, according to city officials — with a city inspector even describing a “wall of feces,” an area homeless people would use as an open-air toilet.
Through the years, Gabaee and the city had struggled to agree on plans for the 35-acre site’s redevelopment, project proposals repeatedly fell through and the property continued to decay.
Plans did get approved in 2016 to turn it into a mixed-used residential and retail building, but the place remained at a standstill, so the city canceled those plans in 2018.
Fed up with nothing happening a few years later, Hawthorne filed the lawsuit to force a change.
By then, Gabaee was also in prison for attempting to make money under the table off the property. He had been arrested by the FBI in 2018 on charges of bribing a Los Angeles County official to secure a lease for the county to rent space inside the Hawthorne mall property.
Sentenced in 2022, Gabaee served most of the four-year prison stint. He was set to be released in November, but was no longer in custody as of Oct. 27, according to federal inmate records.
Upon getting out, he continued facing the challenge of fixing the 25-year-old Hawthorne Plaza problem.
If the owners do not meet the Friday, Aug. 14, deadline, Hawthorne officials will request a receiver be appointed to assume control of the property on behalf of the court and determine its disposition, per the injunction.
But concrete plans are in place to knock the building down, according to a city press release.
Charles Company and Gabaee will retain ownership of the site, City Attorney David Caceres said this week, and it’s unclear what will happen on the property next.
Charles Company representatives did not respond to requests for comment.
The city’s press release, however, mentions the owner’s Hawthorne Mall Work Plan.
Last year, Gabaee was mandated by the injunction to secure the property, conduct structural and asbestos testing, install fencing to prevent trespassing, provide daily cleanup, and maintain on-site security to prepare for demolition.
Gabaee must also submit demolition permit applications, Judge Steve Cochran ordered at the July 30 hearing, for the site’s two parking structures by Aug. 28.
The project appears to be on track, as the court during the hearing noted good faith efforts made by Gabaee and the Charles Company so far, including installing perimeter fences, gates and a job site trailer, and issuing advance demolition notices to surrounding neighbors.
“This court decision provides a clear, enforceable schedule for the remediation of the Hawthorne Mall property,” City Manager Vontray Norris said in the release. “The City remains committed to utilizing all available legal avenues to pave the way for future development that will benefit residents and local businesses alike.”
AMPCO Contracting Inc. will tear down the building, the release said.
A phased demolition will begin at the south end of the site, according to the work plan, and progress north toward 120th Street through five phases, labeled A through E.
Dump trucks will enter and exit the site only through West 120th Street, with the load secured and covered in tarps, in an effort to minimize impact to traffic and the surrounding community.
Designated haul routes will also direct construction traffic to major freeways, the release added, to transport mixed debris to California Waste Services in Gardena, and scrap metal to SA Recycling in Long Beach.
Hawthorne staff and officials will continue monitoring the site closely alongside the project’s management team to ensure full compliance with court mandates, project timelines and safety protocols, the release said.
Gabaee and the Charles Company, meanwhile, have found themselves in similar situations all around Los Angeles County.
The Charles Company also owns Victory Plaza in North Hollywood, which has been in disrepair since 2014 when Gabaee purchased the property with the intention of redeveloping the site into a mixed-use building, Los Angeles Councilmember Adrin Nazarian, whose Second District includes the site, said previously.
Los Angeles’ Board of Building and Safety Commissioners declared the property as a public nuisance last year, Nazarian said, and the plaza’s demolition began in October, with Gabaee footing the bill.