From Fairway to Indoor Mall: Westfield Plaza Bonita
Before it became a mall, the land at 3030 Plaza Bonita Road was an 18-hole golf course in National City.
In the late 1970s, May Centers bought the land from the city and turned the golf course into a shopping center, thinking that people in the South Bay would rather shop indoors under bright lights than spend time outside in the sun.
By the fall of 1981, Plaza Bonita opened as the area’s first fully indoor mall, sitting between Interstate 805 and State Route 54, about ten minutes north of the border and just far enough from downtown San Diego to feel like its own place…