If you've driven past Grossmont Center this year, you've probably noticed two different kinds of change happening at once: quiet ones you had to squint to catch, and one that hit like a gut punch on June 1 when Reading Cinemas went dark with no warning beyond a farewell post on social media. It's easy to lump all of it into one story: "the mall is getting redone." But Grossmont Center isn't running one renovation. It's running four, on four different clocks, funded at four very different dollar amounts, and the part everyone misses most (the theater) is coming back well before the part that will actually cost the most to fix (the old Macy's wing).
Understanding which clock is which is the difference between waiting patiently for the right thing and being annoyed at the wrong timeline.
Four Projects Wearing One Name
Federal Realty Investment Trust, which bought a controlling interest in the 64-acre, 925,000-square-foot center from the Cushman family in 2021, broke ground on Phase 1 on January 5, 2026. That's the construction fencing and staging you've been driving past all year between Target and Walmart on the property's north side. According to Federal Realty's own project materials and confirmed by the City of La Mesa, Phase 1 covers new storefront facades, a reworked central plaza with a fountain and shade structures, roughly 30 new trees, upgraded lighting, new security bollards, and ADA access improvements. Federal Realty's Senior Vice President Jeff Kreshek put the Phase 1 price tag at $13 million to $15 million in comments to the San Diego Business Journal. Target completion: October 2026.
Phase 2 is the theater, budgeted separately at $6 million to $8 million. Phase 3 and 4 together, which cover everything from the vacated Macy's box to the Walmart wing, carry the biggest number by far: about $30 million. Add it up and the whole multi-phase project lands near $50 million, per Kreshek.
That budget split matters more than it looks. The piece of the mall shoppers are most upset about losing right now (the theater) is the cheapest phase on the books. The piece that hasn't visibly started yet (the anchor replacement) is where most of the money is actually going.
Where Your Movie Went, and When It's Coming Back
Reading Cinemas had operated its 10-screen complex at Grossmont Center since 2008. Its lease wasn't renewed, and rather than wind down gradually, the company closed the doors on June 1, 2026, telling patrons on social media to visit its remaining San Diego County location, the Angelika Film Center in Carmel Mountain Ranch, for now.
One week later, on June 9, AMC Theatres announced it had struck a deal with Federal Realty to take over the space entirely. AMC's plan includes gutting all 10 auditoriums and installing the chain's signature power-reclining seats throughout, a genuine upgrade from what Reading offered. Federal Realty's Jon Stoeckly framed the deal as a milestone for the property, saying the theater has "long been part of the Grossmont Center experience" and that the company knows how important it is to the community.
The catch is timing. AMC says the renovated theater won't reopen until the first half of 2027, meaning La Mesa goes roughly eight to ten months without a movie theater in the mall that's had one since 1961. If you want a screen closer than Carmel Mountain Ranch in the meantime, that's simply the gap, and it's worth planning around rather than expecting to close.
The Anchor That Isn't Coming Back, and What's Filling It
Macy's closure at Grossmont Center was part of a roughly 14-store national closure round the company announced on January 8, 2026. Federal Realty didn't renew the lease, and for months the company stayed quiet about what would replace it, saying only that the future tenant lineup would be "all over the board."
On July 1, 2026, the answer arrived: Bass Pro Shops. The outdoor retailer is planning a 148,000-square-foot custom-designed store on the former Macy's site, extending into nearby vacant buildings and areas near the center's parking structure. It'll be the company's sixth location in California and its first in San Diego County, the nearest existing Bass Pro currently sitting across county lines in Rancho Cucamonga. Mayor Mark Arapostathis called it a milestone in the center's ongoing transformation, and Bass Pro founder Johnny Morris pointed to the region's mix of saltwater and freshwater fishing access as part of the draw.
Here's the part that's easy to miss if you're only tracking headlines: Bass Pro Shops isn't opening this year, or next year. The company's own materials point to 2028, and the broader grand reopening of the fully revitalized center is targeted for summer 2028. That's two full years after Phase 1 wraps, and roughly a year and a half after the AMC theater reopens. If you've been picturing one finish line for "the new Grossmont Center," there isn't one. There are three, spaced across three years.
What Actually Looks Different This Fall
With Phase 1 targeting an October 2026 completion, the most visible near-term change is the stretch between Target and Walmart. That's new facades, the reworked plaza with seating and a fountain, and the added trees and lighting the city has been describing since the design was approved. The rest of the center, Barnes & Noble, Bath & Body Works, BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse, Chuck E. Cheese's, Chuze Fitness, Cold Stone Creamery, CVS Pharmacy, Famous Footwear, Jamba Juice, and See's Candies, an original tenant dating back to the mall's 1961 opening, has stayed open through construction and isn't part of this fall's changes.
There's a smaller, separate change nearby that's easy to conflate with the mall project but isn't officially part of it: the former Red Lobster site adjacent to Grossmont Center has already been demolished, and the site is under review for a future Soapy Joe's Car Wash. It's not tied to Federal Realty's phasing, but if you're mapping what's different along that stretch of Grossmont Center Drive, it's one more piece of the puzzle.
Grossmont Center sits at the interchange of Interstate 8 and State Route 125, a junction the city's own materials put at roughly 228,000 vehicles a day, which is part of why a facade refresh here reads as more than cosmetic. It's the built environment most East County residents pass whether or not they ever set foot inside.
The Short Version
Phase 1 finishes first, this October, and it's the cheapest and least dramatic of the four. The theater everyone actually misses comes back next, in the first half of 2027, on a mid-size budget. The anchor replacement everyone's most curious about, the Bass Pro Shops flagship, is the most expensive piece and the last to arrive, not landing until 2028. None of those dates move up just because the construction fencing makes it feel like everything is happening at once.
If you've lived in La Mesa long enough to remember Grossmont Center before any of this started, you already know the place changes on its own schedule, not on the schedule you'd pick. That's true of the mall, and it's true of the neighborhoods around it. If you're ever curious what a shift like this means for your own street, your own block, or your own home's place in the East County market, the team at Lyle & Grace has been watching this corner of the county for a long time and is always happy to talk through what's actually changing versus what's just noise.
