In the past month, Santa Clarita planners have spent hours talking about their major efforts for 2026-27, first through the city’s annual budget, and then through the announcement of the city’s latest five-year plan.
On top of finishing long-discussed projects like the Dockweiler Drive extension, and some that have been in the works, like The Rink and Old Town Newhall’s revitalization, it mentioned a couple of ambitious new projects: a business center and the potential “acquisition” of the former Santa Clarita Elementary School site.
One omission that was questioned: the Town Center Specific Plan.
In June 2024, the Santa Clarita City Council gave its blessing to a “flexible place-making framework” for development by Centennial Real Estate, a Dallas-based developer-owner-operator, which bought the mall property nearly three years ago.
The goal was to turn the “retail island,” as one of its new owners described it, into a desirable spot for living and shopping, a la the Irvine Spectrum Center.
Like Old Town Newhall, the framework was intended to help give the mall — a major source of funding for the city through its generation of sales tax revenue — what was perceived by many to be a much-needed shot in the arm.
“It’s really not good to have 111 acres in the center of your city that just isn’t vibrant and exciting, and seems to be sludgy and slowing down and really having problems,” Mayor Laurene Weste said at the time, thanking the city staff for its efforts on the Town Center Specific Plan, which began in 2022. “And so this is a really exciting opportunity to see a company come in that can work through a plan that will take years and start recreating a very special dynamic place that severely suffered due to the many years of shutdown with COVID, severely suffered, as well as many other buildings and areas in our valley.”
But there was no mention of funding for that in this year’s budget discussion or much mention of it in the city’s five-year plan.
When asked why there was no mention of the mall’s development — after the city spent more than a year working on a framework — a city official said Friday the city’s planning effort is complete, and now it’s a Centennial project.
There was no mention of any plans associated with the mall’s revitalization, although Carrie Lujan, communications director for the city, said Santa Clarita planned to keep up its business-retention and attraction strategies, which would impact the mall.
Centennial has declined several times to discuss its plans with The Signal, which reported in December 2024 on a Centennial request for more than $50 million in city subsidies for a parking structure at the new mall.
“We do not have any new or confirmed information to share at the moment. We understand the importance of this project to the community and appreciate your coverage,” read a statement Friday from Yanique Johnson, marketing manager for Centennial. “We have included you on our media list and will be happy to provide updates once there is confirmed information available to share.”
Questions about the status of the plan are arising among council members, too.
Councilman Jason Gibbs mentioned the Town Center Specific Plan in a question during the presentation of Pathway Forward, the city’s new five-year plan.
The City Council had identified a business center as one of its five-year goals, with the previous discussion looking at the mall as a possible destination. Gibbs wanted to know if the “feasibility” of that had changed, since the center was not being mentioned as part of that plan.
“The idea was to not restrict us solely to the Town Center Specific Plan, and allow opportunities to look citywide,” said Michael Villegas, interim director of neighborhood services, who gave the city staff presentation.
There was no follow-up inquiry about the Town Center Specific Plan or what feasibility and restrictions might now apply.
However, since the city created that specific plan, the state announced plans to put an eight-story courthouse on the former site of The Greens miniature golf course, which the city had not previously envisioned in its framework for the area, according to officials.
Councilman Bill Miranda also raised the question of the mall’s future during City Manager Ken Striplin’s budget presentation to the City Council last week.
“The mall is a financial … it could be a financial gain, a big financial gain for us,” Miranda said at the meeting.
“The last meeting I had with the mall people, they didn’t seem to have anything planned over the next year that, in my opinion, was a ‘game mover.’ They have little things planned, but is there anything we can do, as a city, to invigorate them?” Miranda asked, calling the situation a “double-edged sword.”
“If they do what they’re supposed to do, we’re going to be even more vibrant than we are today,” he said, but if they don’t, “it’s going to drive people away.”
David Guenther, a longtime proprietor of J David’s, an upscale clothing store at the Patios shopping area in the Town Center, said he’s very happy with new management. The maintenance of the grounds and any issues has been much improved with the new ownership, he said, praising the efforts of Michael de Leon, the new general manager.
But as someone who’s invested significantly in the mall — his new lease doubles his store space, because he’s very optimistic, he said — he would like to hear about what’s in store, so to speak.
He said as someone who had built his career building relationships through his business, there’s a potential cost every day that he can’t share the good news and bring more new customers into the fold.
He echoed Miranda’s concerns about sending people away, mentioning he has customers who come up from the San Fernando Valley because of the connections built over time.
“There is already the point where people, for the last few years, you have people leaving Santa Clarita to go shop at different places, whether it’s, you know, the Beverly Center, or Topanga, or wherever they’re going to shop,” Guenther said, “and the feeling is, once you send people away to go start shopping, they may still come back, and hopefully they do come back. But … they are going to start building relationships with merchants in other shopping centers. And once they start building relationships with other people, whether it’s a clothier, a jeweler, it doesn’t matter what it is, once they start building relationships with other places, they’re not coming back.”
