Demolition has begun on the Hawthorne Plaza mall, an abandoned shopping center in the South Bay city of Hawthorne that was deemed a nuisance property. Heavy machinery, construction equipment and workers were visible on the site earlier this week, local news channel KTLA 5 reported.

A court order last month directed the mall's owners to begin demolition this month, according to a press release from the city. The owners, M&A Gabaee, hired contractors to do the teardown work and outlined a phased plan to raze the property.

The property was once planned as a mixed-use redevelopment site. Those plans were complicated by legal troubles at the parent company of the mall's owner, The Charles Co.

Arman Gabaee, co-founder of The Charles Co., pleaded guilty in December 2022 to bribery for making cash payments to a Los Angeles County official. Gabaee's payments were made with the goal of securing a $45 million lease for county offices at the Hawthorne site.

Last year the city of Hawthorne put pressure on The Charles Co. and M&A Gabaee to move forward with the site. A court injunction issued at the time required the owners of the plaza to redevelop or demolish the property by the end of August 2026.

The mall closed in 1999. The owners purchased the mall in 2001, according to the Daily Breeze.

The property was a popular filming location for years. It appeared in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift and Gone Girl.