J. C. Penney to Open in Locations Rival Vacated at Brea, Westminster Malls

J. C. Penney will open full-service department stores at Brea and Westminster malls later this year, occupying space made available by the merger of May Co. and Robinson’s.

The Brea store will open in the fall in a 142,000-square-foot space formerly occupied by a Robinson’s department store. Robinsons-May will operate out of a 178,500-square-foot store that formerly housed a May Co. store.

The J. C. Penney store at Westminster Mall will open in November in the 153,000-square-foot site that was previously a Robinson’s. Penney is closing its store at the Huntington Beach Mall.

Penney’s Brea Mall location, which will replace the J. C. Penney Catalog Sales Center in the nearby Imperial Center East Shopping Center, will offer catalogue sales as well as men’s and women’s fashions and home-decorating services, Penney spokesman Barry Sparks said.

Most J. C. Penney employees working at the Imperial Center and Huntington Beach locations will be offered jobs at the new stores, Sparks said.

New York-based Corporate Properties Investors, which owns the Brea and Westminster malls, is “very enthusiastic” about J. C. Penney’s decision to move to the two shopping centers, said Martin Fell, a senior vice president with the investment corporation.