Shopping Center

At the Westfield Culver City mall, crowds of lunchtime diners fill scores of booths and tables while others line up to order meals at one of the many counters. You can still find the mall culinary standard Hot Dog on a Stick tucked discreetly off to one side. But more urbane fare such as sushi, Vietnamese noodles and Korean chicken is the norm in the area once known as the food court. Now, what Westfield calls a dining terrace exemplifies the recent transformation of the mall from a place many considered downscale and dangerous to a choice destination for more than 10 million visitors last year ?

EVENTS Float Decorating As impressive as the Rose Parade's floral floats are, the intricate details of fruits, seeds, bark and flowers are best seen up close. Get a sneak peek at the floats backstage at three Rose Parade locations. Rosemont Pavilion, 700 Seco St.; Brookside Pavilion, 1001 Rose Bowl Drive; Rose Palace, 835 Raymond Ave.; Pasadena. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. $10. (626) 449-4100. http://www.Tournamentofroses.com. Strand Ice Rink The Strand shopping center in Huntington Beach turns into an unlikely winter wonderland with views of the Pacific.

The Strand shopping center in Huntington Beach turns into an unlikely winter wonderland for two weeks this holiday. Next to Pacific Coast Highway and the ocean, it will nonetheless host a sparkling ice rink that can challenge Rockefeller Center on its views. The Strand, 155 5th St., Huntington Beach. Daily through Jan. 5. 10 a.m.-9 p.m. $7-$5. (714) 465-4528.

Union Station in Los Angeles is being sold to a Texas investment firm as part of a $505-million agreement announced Tuesday to purchase real estate assets from ProLogis, the world's largest warehouse company. The properties are being sold to TPG Capital, formerly known as Texas Pacific Group, a global private investment firm headquartered in Fort Worth, with more than $47 billion in assets under management. As part of the deal, TPG said it was acquiring four shopping centers, two office buildings, 11 mixed-use projects and two residential development joint ventures.

For the better part of a decade, the buzz in retailing has been focused on online sellers, free-standing stores and street-level boutiques. But there's still nothing like the mall. As retailers look forward to what is shaping up to be their best holiday season since before the recession, the power of the shopping center is evident in the jammed parking lots, crowds of jostling shoppers and a sea of shopping bags. "A few years ago, I looked at malls as a deteriorating retail concept because consumers were shopping them less and less," said Britt Beemer, chairman of consumer behavior firm America's Research Group.

It's name is No Fear, but it's getting another reputation in local malls: No Rent. The casual clothing company from Carlsbad has been sued by several Southern California shopping malls for falling months ? and tens of thousands of dollars ? behind in rent for its retail outlets. An attorney for No Fear Retail Stores Inc. blamed the late payments on the sour economy and said the company was working with shopping centers to renegotiate leases that were signed when the future looked brighter.

Los Angeles developer Rick Caruso wants to expand his Americana at Brand shopping center in Glendale by taking over two adjacent properties, including a hotel. In a letter to the city's redevelopment agency released Monday, Caruso declared his interest in taking over the Golden Key Hotel and a vacant retail building at the southern edge of the Americana. He hopes to buy the properties from their owners but might ask the city to acquire them by eminent domain and sell them to him. "My hope is that we can just sit down and figure out a right price on a private basis and not make it a public process," Caruso said in an interview.

Retail giant Target Corp. is heading to downtown Los Angeles, part of a growing trend of big-box retailers taking advantage of a beaten-down urban real estate market. The 7+Fig mall downtown ? which has been without an anchor tenant since Macy's left early last year ? will get the new Target, which will be smaller than most and carry a different merchandise mix, with a heavy emphasis on food and household basics. "It's really about trying to magnify the relationship that we have had with those urban central core guests," said John Griffith, executive vice president of property development at Target.

Designers Lisa Guajardo and Jessica Moss, cofounders of Los Angeles-based fashion label Leyendecker, initially bonded over their shared love of longhaired Chihuahuas. Guajardo was walking her tiny pooch one day when Moss ? a fellow owner of the breed ? pulled her car over to chat about canines. It turned out that an affinity for pocket-sized dogs wasn't all the pair had in common; both were trained in apparel construction ? Moss in costume design and Guajardo in fashion design.