Peninsula Shopping Center falls out of escrow, sale still hopeful
The beleaguered Peninsula Shopping Center reportedly fell out of escrow earlier this year after a pending sale with Phoenix-based Vestar, a large real estate holding company. Neither party could discuss what possibly sent the deal astray.
Principal Life Insurance, which owns the property, reportedly hasn’t given up on the deal. A possible sale to Vestar went into escrow in the Fall. In recent years, the shopping center has seen increased vacancies as the economy declined and the mall itself began to feel outdated.
“There’s definitely more vacancy than we’d like to see,” said David Wahba, planning director of Rolling Hills Estates. “We’d love to see some more regional tenants come in. Part of it is the economy and existing management hasn’t done a great job to bring in new tenants and retain the tenants they had.”
Susan Brooks, who’s been hired to help promote the shopping center, acknowledge the facility could use some work, but that there was a lot they could do to bring in more shoppers.
“While it’s in this stage of limbo, we are going to do a variety of activities,” Brook said. One of the promotional events includes an Easter egg hunt on March 23. Children can search for 1,000 plastic eggs all with cash or coupon prizes worth up to $100. ER