Posted July 2026 | By Eric Engelbert | Updated August 2026.
The Mall Is Not Dying. It Is Getting Apartments, a Fitness Resort, and Din Tai Fung.
The conventional narrative about American malls is that they are dead. Brea Mall is not following the script.
Simon Property Group, the Indianapolis-based REIT that owns more mall square footage than any company in the United States, has spent years fighting the "malls are over" story. Its answer at Brea is a multimillion-dollar transformation of the former Sears footprint into a 15.5-acre mixed-use development with 380 new apartments, a 90,000-square-foot Life Time Fitness athletic resort, Din Tai Fung, Zara, Rivian, Alo Yoga, UNIQLO, The North Face, and a redesigned streetscape with a central lawn and plaza. Phases started opening in 2025 and continue into 2026.
At the same time, a Bakersfield oil company is converting 265 acres of drilling land north of the 91 Freeway into a 1,100-home master-planned community. Lennar is building 180 single-family homes in the Glenbrook area. A new 120-unit apartment building is rising near the 57 Freeway interchange. And the state of California has told Brea it needs to plan for 2,365 new units by 2029. All of these threads are moving simultaneously and they are reshaping what Brea looks like as a place to live.
This page is an overview of all four projects. Each one also has a dedicated post with the full story.
The State Mandate: 2,365 Units by 2029
California's 6th Cycle Regional Housing Needs Assessment gave Brea an allocation of 2,365 units for the planning period running from October 2021 through October 2029. Of that total, 1,062 units must be designated for low-income to extremely low-income households. The remaining 1,303 are targeted at moderate and above-moderate income residents.
In context, 2,365 is a significant mandate for a city of roughly 45,000 residents, but it is considerably more manageable than the mandates facing neighboring cities. Buena Park is required to plan for 8,919 units. Fullerton must accommodate 13,209. Brea's lower number reflects its smaller size, limited available land, and the fact that it has historically built more housing relative to its population than some of its neighbors.
The projects currently underway and recently approved collectively address a substantial portion of that mandate. The Brea Mall apartments contribute 380 units. Brea 265 adds 1,100 more. Brea Plaza Living and the Village at Greenbriar together bring nearly 300 additional homes. That is roughly 1,780 units across four projects, covering the majority of the city's 6th Cycle obligation before accounting for smaller infill permits issued in the normal course of development.
The Brea Mall Transformation: Simon's National Strategy Lands in North OC
Simon Property Group announced in 2023 that it would invest $1.5 billion nationally to convert underperforming anchor space into mixed-use projects across its portfolio. Brea Mall is one of the most prominent California installations of that strategy. The former Sears, which closed in 2020, has been replaced by a 15.5-acre mixed-use development integrating 380 apartments, a 90,000-square-foot Life Time Fitness athletic resort, and 119,000 square feet of new retail and dining. Confirmed tenants include Din Tai Fung, North Italia, Zara, UNIQLO, Rivian, Alo Yoga, The North Face, and Chagee Tea Bar. First residents were targeted to move in during 2025 to 2026.
Simon's financial position is strong: approximately $10.1 billion in liquidity, 96.5 percent portfolio occupancy, and an S&P rating of A-minus with a positive outlook. They are not stretching to fund Brea. The mixed-use concept was tested at Phipps Plaza in Atlanta before being deployed here, so Brea is scaling a proven model rather than running an experiment.
Read the full story on the Brea Mall apartments and Simon Property Group's strategy »
Brea 265: An Oil Company Turns 265 Acres Into 1,100 Homes
The most unusual development in Brea is on the hillside north of the 91 Freeway, where a 265-acre property currently used for oil and gas production is being converted into the largest master-planned residential community in the city's history. The developer is Aera Energy, a Bakersfield-based oil company that concluded the land is worth more as residential real estate than as a drilling operation. The Brea 265 Specific Plan was approved by the Brea City Council on July 19, 2022. The project includes 1,100 residential units, 76 affordable units, 15 acres of new public parks, 7 miles of trails, and a significant expansion of Brea Sports Park. Hillside parcels with ocean and canyon views are planned for the lower-density phases.
Read the full story on Brea 265 and the oil field conversion »
Brea Plaza Living and Village at Greenbriar: 300 More Homes Near the 57
In April 2025, the Brea City Council approved two additional housing developments near the 57 Freeway and Imperial Highway. Brea Plaza Living proposes 120 units in a four-story apartment building atop a two-story parking garage, with six affordable units for extremely low-income households. Village at Greenbriar is a Lennar Homes project bringing approximately 180 single-family homes near the existing Glenbrook neighborhood, approved 4-0 by the City Council. Together they add roughly 300 units to Brea's housing pipeline and represent two distinct product types: rental apartments near the freeway and for-sale single-family homes in an established residential area.
Read the full story on Brea Plaza Living » | Read the full story on Village at Greenbriar »
What All of This Means for Brea Homeowners and Buyers
Brea has long commanded a premium in North Orange County. Its school district, walkable downtown, proximity to the 57 Freeway, and the Brea Mall as a regional anchor have made it a consistently desirable address. The current development cycle adds infrastructure to that foundation rather than diluting it.
The mall transformation is the most relevant near-term factor for existing homeowners. When Simon finishes the redevelopment and the full tenant roster is operating, Brea Mall becomes a materially better version of what it already was. Din Tai Fung and Life Time do not open in markets they are skeptical of. Their commitment to Brea reflects confidence in the customer base, and that confidence in turn gives buyers considering Brea additional reason to act rather than wait.
Brea 265 adds a new product type to a market that currently skews heavily toward existing single-family inventory from the 1970s through 1990s. New construction on hillside parcels with modern floor plans, energy efficiency requirements, and views will absorb move-up buyers who have equity from a prior Brea or North OC home and want new construction. That segment of demand currently has to look to Yorba Linda or La Habra Heights for comparable product. The apartment pipeline at Brea Mall and Brea Plaza Living adds rental options that Brea has historically lacked, and more renters in the city means more future buyers.
How Simon Is Thriving While the Rest of the Mall Industry Keeps Shrinking
A note on why I went down this rabbit hole: I attended Indiana University, where the Simon family has been a prominent presence for decades. Herb Simon, who co-founded what became Simon Property Group with his brother Melvin, was a major donor and civic figure across the state. Growing up around that name made me curious when it showed up on a Brea Mall redevelopment plan. I decided to look into how the company is actually doing before writing about what they are building here.
If you followed retail real estate news in the early 2020s, you may have seen headlines about Simon Property Group losing malls to foreclosure. Those headlines were accurate. What they missed is why it happened and what it means for a project like Brea.
Between 2020 and 2022, Simon stopped making loan payments on a series of underperforming properties and let creditors foreclose. Montgomery Mall in Pennsylvania, Town Center at Cobb in Georgia, Crystal Mall in Connecticut, and several more. What looks like financial distress from the outside was a deliberate portfolio exit. REITs like Simon structure most property-level debt as non-recourse loans, meaning the collateral is the building itself, not Simon's corporate assets. When a property's value falls below its loan balance with no realistic path to recovery, the rational move is to stop funding it and let the lender take it back. This is not a sign of weakness. It is how sophisticated real estate companies manage a portfolio through a correction.
The properties Simon surrendered were second- and third-tier malls in declining demographic markets with occupancy problems that predated COVID. Brea Mall was never in that category. It is a performing asset in a high-income North OC trade area that Simon chose to invest in rather than exit. After the triage, Simon's financial profile is strong: approximately $10.1 billion in liquidity, 96.5 percent portfolio occupancy, and an S&P rating of A-minus with a positive outlook. They are not a company stretching to fund Brea. They are selectively deploying capital into properties they believe in, and Brea is one of them.
Simon ran the Life Time Fitness plus premium dining plus apartments formula at Phipps Plaza in Atlanta before bringing it to Brea. By the time construction started here, they had operating performance data from Atlanta and enough confidence to commit $1.5 billion nationally to the same template. Brea is not where they are figuring this out. It is where they are scaling what already worked.
Key Dates and Numbers
| Project / Milestone | Date / Figure |
|---|---|
| Brea RHNA allocation (2021-2029) | 2,365 units |
| Brea 265: City Council approval | July 19, 2022 |
| Brea 265: total units / affordable | 1,100 units / 76 affordable |
| Brea 265: site area / developer | 265 acres / Aera Energy |
| Brea Mall: redevelopment area / developer | 15.5 acres / Simon Property Group |
| Brea Mall: apartments | 380 units (23 affordable at 65% AMI) |
| Brea Mall: new retail, dining, fitness | 119,000 SF (incl. 90,000 SF Life Time) |
| Brea Mall: first residents expected | 2025-2026 |
| Simon's national mixed-use investment program | $1.5 billion |
| Brea Plaza Living: City Council approval | April 2025 (120 units) |
| Village at Greenbriar (Lennar): City Council approval | April 2025 (~180 units) |
| Total units in active pipeline across 4 projects | ~1,780 units |
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