Heavy machinery rolled onto the 35-acre Hawthorne Plaza site Tuesday, Aug. 18, finally delivering the demolition that residents and city officials have pursued for years at the long-abandoned mall on Hawthorne Boulevard.
The property's owners hired AMPCO Contracting Inc. to tear down the former shopping center at 12124 Hawthorne Blvd., according to the city. Crews and equipment were visible at the site days after a court-ordered deadline of Aug. 14 required owners to begin work, Patch reported.
The teardown follows a permanent injunction issued July 30 by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Steve Cochran, the final ruling in a nuisance abatement lawsuit Hawthorne filed against the mall's owners in December 2021.
Five phases, south to north
The demolition plan calls for five phases, labeled A through E, starting at the southern end of the property and progressing north toward 120th Street, according to the Daily Breeze. Dump trucks will enter and exit exclusively via West 120th Street with loads covered in tarps. Mixed debris will go to California Waste Services in Gardena; scrap metal to SA Recycling in Long Beach.
Ahead of the July 30 hearing, the court noted the owners had already installed perimeter fences, gates and a job site trailer, and issued demolition notices to surrounding neighbors.
The court also ordered the owners to submit all outstanding demolition permit applications for the site's two parking structures by Aug. 28.
Decades of blight
Hawthorne Plaza opened in 1977 and once housed J.C. Penney, The Broadway and Montgomery Ward. It closed in 1999 after losing shoppers to the South Bay Galleria and Del Amo Fashion Center. Arman Gabaee of the Charles Company purchased the property in 2001 for $7 million, according to the Daily Breeze, and it deteriorated into a magnet for homeless encampments, illegal dumping and graffiti. A city inspector once described a "wall of feces" used as an open-air toilet.
The mall is finally coming down.
The city issued hundreds of administrative citations before filing its 2021 lawsuit, which listed more than 50 violations of state and local laws. Gabaee was sentenced in December 2022 to four years in federal prison for bribing an LA County official to secure a $45 million lease at the mall.
"This defendant gamed the system during a seven-year bribery spree," U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said at Gabaee's December 2022 sentencing. A $500 million mixed-use redevelopment plan approved in 2016 stalled, and the city canceled it in 2018.
What comes next
Hawthorne City Manager Vontray Norris said in a July 31 announcement that the court decision gives the city a clear, enforceable schedule for remediating the property.
Charles Company and Gabaee will retain ownership of the site after demolition. What will replace the mall remains unclear; the company did not respond to the Daily Breeze's requests for comment. City officials said they will continue monitoring the property to ensure compliance with the court's demolition schedule and safety protocols.
The next deadline: parking structure permit applications, due Aug. 28.
