Westfield MainPlace in Santa Ana is undergoing a $50 million renovation, its biggest yet, to bring in new retail and dining players while updating its look, said Jonathan Maher, the shopping center’s general manager.

Australia-based Westfield joins a recent wave of mall remodels and ownership changes in Southern California – attempts to spruce up aging real estate in the face of relentless online competition.

Westfield recently announced a $700 million upgrade of its Century City mall, which promises a flurry of new, high-end retailers and eateries. The project, set to open in 2017, will feature more than 420,000 square feet of new retail space and twice as much parking, according to the mall website.

Brea Mall, owned by Simon Property Group, unveiled in April its first significant facelift in more than two decades.

Simon, however, passed on making over Laguna Hills Mall and instead sold it last year for $110 million. The new owner, who took over the lease held by now-shuttered Sears, is planning a complete redo.

“Some of the larger shopping center owners … are shedding underperforming properties and have been investing significant amounts of capital into making their most productive centers even better,” said James Crocenzi, a senior vice president of retail services at CBRE at the firm’s Newport Beach office.

The increase in renovations largely comes down to the numbers. Many of the region’s biggest shopping centers are past their 30- and 40-year marks, which translates to outdated looks, Crocenzi said.

Shopping-mall owners also are trying to stay relevant with today’s customers who are increasingly buying goods online. Businesses such as Amazon and Google have responded by ramping up their same-day delivery services.

U.S. retail e-commerce spending reached $75 billion in the second quarter, a 16 percent increase from the same quarter a year ago, according to estimates from the Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce. Online spending makes up only 6 percent of all retail sales, but that share has continued to climb in recent years.

Faced with increasing competition from online shops, brick-and-mortar centers want to offer more experiences that hinge entertainment and dining, Crocenzi said.

That type of strategy is clear in Westfield’s project in Santa Ana, which will mainly involve redeveloping the 142,500-square-foot space previously occupied by Macy’s Men’s Home Furniture store. That space has sat vacant since late 2012, Maher said.

Future tenants include 24 Hour Fitness and Round 1 Entertainment, a Japan-based company that offers activities including bowling, arcade games and private karaoke rooms. Both are scheduled to open in the first half of next year, Westfield said.

Four casual restaurants will join that space. Only one tenant, Panini Cafe, has so far been announced and is slated to open later this year.

The project also will bring Ashley Furniture into the former Macy’s space. Additional restrooms and a second family lounge are also in the works.

MainPlace went through several incarnations before Westfield purchased the property in 2002 as part of a $5.3 billion transaction involving two other buyers and 35 purchased properties.

The price tag for just the Westfield property remains unclear.

As Westfield MainPlace, it last underwent a change in 2008, when mall officials updated its “1980s, bold teal color, industrial look” and replaced it with a white color scheme and glass handrails, Maher said.

For landlords, renovations may not always be the answer, as was the case for Simon, which jettisoned Laguna Hills Mall.

The decision to redo a mall or drop it depends on factors such as the performance of the landlord’s surrounding properties, nearby competition and whether the upgrade will be too big or too small, said Crocenzi, who has 30-plus years in commercial real estate.

Also crucial to the process are anchor stores.

“They could get in the way by influencing what they can and cannot do with the entire project,” Crocenzi added.

With Sears’ departure from Laguna Hills and the absence of Macy’s Men’s from MainPlace, the malls were able to roll out their respective renovation plans.

Workers broke ground on the MainPlace facelift in March; all work is expected to be done by next summer.

Contact the writer: lleung@ocregister.com