Getting up to Speed on Westfield’s “The Village” Shopping & Entertainment Destination

Woodland Hills business owner and friend to the blog Tanya Peel writes:

I get the feeling you don’t know about the Westfield Plaza 3 year project going in. It will essentially be The Grove. Trolleys, walking, retail, office and condo living. The city has approved the plans and now they are pushing through LEED certification. I hope they continue with their efforts in that department. They are supposed to break ground next year. It will bring 6,000 local jobs and I think increase our property values!

Tanya you are absolutely correct that I was ignorant of this!  I could tell that Westfield was up to something but didn’t realize there was as full blow plan like this about to be executed.  Obviously I am going to need to bring myself up to speed on this.

This is Westfield’s July 17, 2007 Press Release on the project. Thankfully, it seems, M. Night Shyamalan is not associated with this “The Village” – that would be a disaster.

In 2008 when Westfield submitted their first firm fleshed-out proposal for the project, and LA.StreetBlogs.com did a good writeup and grabbed this graphic from the Daily News:

As noted in this blog, the first phase of the operation, the construction of a wonderful Crate & Barrel has already come to fruition.

Interestingly several articles I came across talk about using a peoplemover to connect the three malls.  But, here’s reality folks.  This new “The Village” complex will probably be very busy, on par with Topanga Plaza.  But, Topanga Promenade Mall is essentially a joke beyond the northern section that contacts Corner Bakery, Maggiano’s, and uWink.  Honestly they should be bulldozing that haphazardly renovated relic of a mall and just put “The Village” there.

This new development ties into a train of thought that I am saving for another post.  Basically, the reality is that Topanga Plaza is in Canoga Park, not Woodland Hills – though I’m sure we’d like to claim in for ourselves.  This new development is firmly below Victory, and thus belongs to the Hills of Woodland.

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