Buena Park Never Got Its Anchor Tenant. It Got a Downtown Instead.

On a Friday night at The Source OC, the line for the photo booth is longer than the line for the movie theater next door. Teenagers touch up their eyeliner in phone cameras while they wait. A woman in her sixties walks out of Seoul Stop with a bag of snacks and a tube of sunscreen. Somewhere on the third floor, someone is finishing a plate of tofu stew at dPot before ducking into karaoke. None of this was supposed to be the point of the place. The point was supposed to be a national retailer with its name on the building.

That retailer never came. What filled the space instead is worth understanding if you live anywhere near Beach Boulevard, because it explains why this stretch of Buena Park feels different from the plazas around it, and why the city eventually put a sign on it saying so.

The Deal Nobody Remembers Buena Park Made

The lot at Beach Boulevard and Orangethorpe Avenue used to hold the Movieland Wax Museum. When it closed, the redevelopment agency in 2007 paid $8.6 million for the 8.5-acre site previously occupied by Movieland Wax Museum, which closed two years earlier. For five years it sat as an empty field, one of the more visible gaps along a corridor the city had already spent tens of millions trying to clean up.

Then, in 2012, construction signs went up around what was described at the time as a retail and entertainment center called The Source, on a lot that nearly 500,000 drivers who pass through the intersection of Beach Boulevard and Orangethorpe Avenue on average each day could see from their cars. The first phase alone was more than 480,000 square feet and $100 million, developed by Lynwood-based M+D Properties, and the pitch to the city was national in scale. Buena Park didn't just approve the project. It bet on it, agreeing to pay the developer 55% of sales tax revenue made by the project for the next 30 years, a deal struck back in 2010 before a single wall went up. By the time it was finished, the full build had run to roughly $325 million, and the developer projected it would push annual visitors to the area from 6.4 million to nearly 11 million.

That is not small-business math. That is anchor-tenant math, the kind of bet a city makes when it expects a household name to sign the lease.

An Anchor That Never Showed Up

In 2014, two years into construction, Korean entertainment company YG Entertainment floated something even bigger: a performance venue, recording studio, and nightclub called YG Land. It would have been the kind of tenant that puts a mall on a map by itself. It isn't part of the property today.

The bigger problem showed up after opening day in 2016. Despite its high budget, this shopping mall was not able to acquire an anchor tenant. By 2018, many stores that previously anchored had lost popularity and M+D Properties gained $140 million in loans. The hotel component, part of the original vision, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2021, and that same year M+D Properties announced that the mall is for sale. On paper, this was the story of a $325 million project that missed.

What Grew In the Gap

Here is the part that doesn't show up in the financing documents. While the big draw never arrived, small ones kept moving in, mostly Korean-owned, mostly food and specialty retail, mostly the kind of business that doesn't need a 30-year sales tax deal to make rent. The site is home to many Korean-owned businesses, and today's tenant list reads less like a mall directory and more like a neighborhood you'd actually walk through:

• Ichie, a Japanese-fusion restaurant on the first floor known for its Yakitori Platter, Mentaiko Cream Udon, and Galbi Chop Steak Noodle
• Il Fiora, the Italian spot the property itself describes as the classy counterpoint to Myungrang Hot Dog's fried Korean corn dogs
• dPot, a small Korean stew restaurant on the upper floor that regulars point to as one of the better finds in the building
• illo, a home decor and kitchenware shop on the first floor
• Sora Gumi, a small merchandise shop that's become a spot for local sellers to place their own goods
• Monday to Sunday Cafe, a coffee and matcha stop on the third floor
• Seoul Stop, a Korean convenience store for snacks, skincare, and stationery
• A newer Filipino dessert spot that's started showing up in local food posts

Add in the food court the property calls Grub, a second food court on another floor, a karaoke room, and CGV Cinemas running standard releases alongside cafes, bubble tea, bakeries, clothing stores, restaurants, karaoke, and 4DX screenings, and you get a building that never found its Macy's but somehow found its rhythm anyway.

If the mall had landed its anchor tenant in 2016, it's worth asking whether any of these smaller businesses would have gotten a shot at the space at all.

The City Put a Sign On It

The clearest proof that this organic version won out over the planned one arrived in 2023, when some of the area surrounding The Source was designated as the Koreatown neighborhood of Buena Park. That's a formal recognition, not a marketing phrase, and it came seven years after the mall opened without the retailer it was built for. The following spring, the Los Angeles Times ran a feature under the headline "How one mall has become a culture-defining hub for Orange County's newest Koreatown." The city didn't just tolerate what grew in the gap left by the missing anchor. It named a district after it.

What's Actually Worth Your Evening Right Now

If you're deciding whether tonight is a Source night, the practical details still matter. The property sits at 6940 Beach Blvd, and hours run 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and until 9 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, though individual restaurants and shops keep their own schedules on top of that. Parking is still free in the structured garage, even on the nights when the lot fills up fast.

For a quick stop, Seoul Stop and Monday to Sunday Cafe cover the fifteen-minute version of a visit. For dinner, Ichie or dPot cover the sit-down version. If you're bringing out-of-town family who want the photo for the group chat, the Apgujeong Station replica and the Photogram booth deliver on that specifically, no dinner required.

Why the Address on the Sign Matters If You Already Live Here

The version of Buena Park that shows up in old development documents was going to be defined by a hotel, a nightclub, and a national retail name. The version that actually exists is defined by a food court called Grub, a photo booth line on Friday nights, and a cluster of small Korean-owned businesses that filled a space nobody expected them to fill. Both were real plans. Only one of them is the neighborhood you can walk into tonight.

That's worth knowing even if you have no plans to buy, sell, or rent anywhere near Beach Boulevard. Neighborhoods get their character from what actually survives, not from what gets approved on paper, and Buena Park's Koreatown is a case study in the gap between the two.

If you're the kind of person who likes knowing how a place got its shape, and you ever find yourself wondering what that means for the value or character of your own street, BAIKHOME keeps an eye on these shifts across Buena Park and the rest of Orange County. Get Your Free Home Valuation whenever you're curious what your corner of the story is worth.