Firm Says Ventura Mall Project on Track, but Merchants Upset

Owners of the Buenaventura Mall say their plan to double the Ventura mall’s size and add two department stores by late 1995 is on track, despite the poor economy.

But disgruntled merchants say they are frustrated that construction of nearly 30 new stores on the second floor has been stalled for seven months and that 12 first-floor stores stand vacant.

Furthermore, several said they hadn’t heard an update on the expansion plans for more than a year.

“1995?” salesman Julian Martinez asked in disbelief Thursday when told of the new target date for completion. “By the time they do that, (Saddam) Hussein might have blown up the world. . . . There’s no reason it should take that long. They could put up the Empire State Building in less time than that.”

“I’ll believe it when I see it,” said Niccola Hight, manager of B. Dalton Bookseller.

Art Coppola, executive vice president of MaceRich Co. of Santa Monica, which owns the mall, said the company plans to file applications with the city of Ventura in two weeks to start the major expansion announced in April, 1991.

Business owners will be filled in when plans are firmer, he said. “We subscribe to the school that we make announcements when reality has already taken place, and we don’t try to announce a wish or a hope. We try to announce a fact.”

The plan calls for two parking structures and two new anchor stores, in addition to relocating Montgomery Ward & Co. from across the street and building a new store for J. C. Penney.

Coppola would not name or describe the two new stores. “We’re still in active negotiations with department stores, and we’re making a lot of progress with that,” he said.

Coppola said he is not worried about leasing the 12 vacant stores, although some merchants criticized the mall management for not being aggressive enough.

“The occupancy level in the mall is very high,” Coppola said, adding that the mall is about 91% leased. “The retail business in general in California has experienced more vacancy than what we’re accustomed to.”

Work on the second-floor spaces, created during the demolition of an F. W. Woolworth Co. store and renovations of the east and west entrances, stopped in December. The spaces cannot be leased until MaceRich obtains additional permits, a process that could take longer than a year, city officials said.

A look at the second floor shows that the walls of the spaces have yet to be plastered, and pipes and electrical cables still hang from the ceiling.

Mall Manager Cayse Osterlund said banisters must be added to keep people from falling over the edge; wood flooring must be installed, and the spaces must be partitioned off and finished according to tenants’ needs.

Merchants in the 830,000-square-foot mall, built in 1963, have put up with the noise of construction and loss of parking since mall renovations began in 1989. They want the job finished, saying new stores would help draw more business.

“Everybody is frustrated,” said Kay Blue, a photographic consultant at Jaffe’s Camera and Video.

Hight, 39, the B. Dalton manager, agreed. “If the businesses were filled upstairs, or just all through the mall, then I think there would be more business,” she said.

Business in her bookstore is fine, Hight said, but a boot shop next door closed last month after being in business only a year. She also said that a space across the way, formerly occupied by AT&T;, has been vacant for a year.

Martinez, a salesman at J. Burton Jewelers, has worked in the mall for three years. “When this was just nothing (but) noise--it was ridiculous,” he said, alluding to construction on the second floor.

Business in his store, he said, “could be better. . . . Traffic is down.”

Martinez said the longer the mall takes to expand, the further behind the times it will be and the harder it will be for merchants to compete with The Esplanade in Oxnard, The Oaks in Thousand Oaks and Santa Barbara’s two malls.

“There’s a lot of people in this county with money, and we’re not getting them to come to this mall and buy,” he said. “The problem is--if they ever finish, by the time it’s completed, it’s going to be nothing compared to other malls.”

What the center needs, he said, is a movie theater and a big department store such as a Robinson’s or Nordstrom.

Several shoppers agreed. Wendy Blommendale, 16, and Blythe Waller, 15, both of Simi Valley, said the mall will be greatly improved once the new shops open. “It needs more stores,” Blythe said. “It’s kind of empty.”

“I was wondering why they haven’t put anything in there yet,” said John Anderson, 18, of Fillmore, taking a break from job hunting.

Jim Barroca, executive vice president of the Greater Ventura Chamber of Commerce, said merchants should not blame MaceRich for failing to fill the empty spaces right away.

“I think MaceRich is facing the same problems as everyone else with the economy,” Barroca said. “You can’t blame the MaceRich Co. for not pursuing it. They do want to expand. . . . It’s just right now a very difficult time to lease these new stores.”