Westfield Celebrates Grand Opening of New Outdoor Promenade
By admin
Published: Saturday, May 9th, 2009
Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony, Music, Food and Drinks Make a Fun-Filled Weekend
The Promenade at Westfield Santa Anita was officially opened for business at a ribbon-cutting ceremony held Thursday. A refined open-air shopping and dining experience which boasts 30 new stores and restaurants, The Promenade adds new elements and energy to the already successful prominent regional shopping destination. To celebrate this occasion, Westfield is hosting a fun-filled Grand Opening weekend May 7th – 10th featuring live performances by The California Philharmonic, appearances by the Radio Disney Street Team with Special Artist Savannah, live fashion shows and tastings from several of the Westfield Santa Anita restaurants. Grand Opening weekend will also offer several prize giveaways, including a $5,000 cash prize and special gifts for moms on Mother’s Day.
“This is an important day not only for Westfield Santa Anita but also for the City of Arcadia,” said the newly elected Mayor of Arcadia, John Wuo, who attended the ceremony. “In Westfield we have a true partner with the confidence in our community to continue to reinvest even when things are tough. I am excited for the future, look forward to shopping here and congratulate Westfield on this accomplishment.”
The $120 million private reinvestment in Westfield Santa Anita includes a 115,000 square foot expansion featuring outdoor walkways through an oasis of shady trees, gardens, fountains, canopies and majestic palms. The lushly landscaped Promenade, set against the backdrop of the San Gabriel Mountains features new two-level subterranean parking, easy access to 30 new stores and restaurants including: abercrombie, Advance Cutlery, Banana Republic, Bare Escentuals, Blu Salon and Aveda Stor, Boarders, Bose, Clarks, Chico’s, Coach, Coldwater Creek, Foreign Exchange, Gap, J. Jill, Jos. A Bank, Manna BBQ, Red Dragonfly, Ruby Tuesday, Soma by Chico’s, Talbots, Teavana, Tous, Tonalita, V Generation and Williams-Sonoma. The majority of these retailers (77%) are opening their first store in Arcadia, which will enhance the experience and selection for customers shopping at Westfield Santa Anita.
“It is our philosophy to continually invest — and reinvest — in our shopping centers,” says Larry Green, Senior Vice President of Development for Westfield. “The Promenade is a model of that commitment, and we are thrilled to offer this new outdoor garden oasis to our shoppers and our community.”
Thursday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony also included two check presentations. Green and Westfield Santa Anita General Manager, Michael Lattanzio presented the Arcadia Unified School District and California Philharmonic each with $10,000 donations. Arcadia Unified School district will allocate their donation to scholarships for Arcadia High School students going onto college.
Along with the newly elected Mayor of Arcadia John Wuo, State Assemblymember Anthony Portantino, Arcadia City Council Members Roger Chandler and Gary Kovacic, and Arcadia City Manager Don Penman all attended the Grand Opening. The ceremony concluded with a live performance by The California Philharmonic and featured a variety of tasting stations throughout The Promenade hosted by several Westfield Santa Anita restaurants including California Pizza Kitchen, Dave & Busters, Nordstrom Café, Tokyo Table, and Woodranch BBQ & Grill.
On Saturday May 9th the first one thousand customers to visit The Promenade will receive a fortune cookie giveaway which includes a retailer gift valued at $20.00 or more. All shoppers are eligible to enter the $5,000 cash prize giveaway, which will be selected from a random drawing on Monday, May 11th. On both Friday and Saturday all shoppers will be treated to a total of six fashion shows, each previewing the latest fashions from participating retailers, including: Banana Republic, Bebe Sport, Blu Salon and Aveda Stor, Cache, Chico’s, Charlotte Russe, Clarks, Express, Guess, Guess by Marciano, Gap, JCPenney, Macy’s, No Fear, Picture People, Sephora, Sport Chalet, Vans, Windsor, Zumiez.
Live musical entertainment will continue throughout the weekend. Saturday, the Radio Disney Street Team will take the stage at 2:00pm, followed at 6:30pm by a performance from Radio Disney Special Artist Savannah.
Sunday, May 10th, mothers will be treated to a Mother’s Day free herb garden gift, while supplies last.
Sponsors for the Grand Opening weekend at Westfield include: Starbucks; GizmoLive; Rusnak Audi, Coke/Vitamin Water, Lincoln and National History Museum.
For more event details visit www.westfield.com/santaanita
2 Responses for “Westfield Celebrates Grand Opening of New Outdoor Promenade”
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I’ve been reading for a while that Rick Caruso, the developer of various outdoor malls like the Grove, was going to build and 830,000 square foot outdoor mall, or something similar. There was a fierce debate between Westfield and Caruso, about the project, but now this new Promenade is both smaller and it’s owned by Westfield. This makes me think that Caruso is no longer attached to the project. What gives? I thought Westfield was opposed to the idea of an outdoor mall. When did this happen? I can’t find any other articles about it on the site.
Oh, and Foreign Exchange was giving out free T-shirts that day. The Philharmonic did “The Addams Family” themesong, and Pachabell’s canon (plus more). I got a shirt.
It turns out, Westfield’s Promenade and Caruso’s project are two separate things. Caruso is still planning to do his project (didn’t he get clearance about a year ago?), and it’s going to be right by the Promenade. Neat, huh? Caruso’s development will be called, “The Shops at Santa Anita.” I hear it’s going to have a small lake. Just what we need – a lake. I feed on irony.
Oh, and I forgot to say before:
First comment!!!!