Call it Mall Brawl II, the inevitable sequel to the 12-round Glendale grudge match.
Once again, developer Rick Caruso is seeking to build one of his signature open-air shopping villages — this time in Arcadia. And once again he wants to build it right next to an existing mall, whose owners are fighting him tooth and nail.
Behind both the Glendale and Arcadia disputes is a generational question about the future of American shopping habits. Caruso and others argue that the traditional covered mall is becoming obsolete.
"There is a belief that this sort of model has run its course," said professor Raphael Bostic of USC's Lusk Center for Real Estate.
Both locally and nationwide, the new trend is toward smaller, more stylized outdoor centers. Caruso's proposal for the new center, which would be built in an unused section of the Santa Anita racetrack parking lot, includes open-air plazas and a large lake at the center.
"What Caruso is doing is making a bet on his style of mall," Bostic said.