Plan Would Expand Laguna Hills Mall : Retailing: The owner hopes to compete with ‘super-malls’ South Coast Plaza and MainPlace/Santa Ana. Two anchor stores, cinemas and parking garages would be added in 67% expansion.

The owner of Laguna Hills Mall is planning a major renovation and expansion that would add movie theaters, a new food court, parking garages, two new department stores and a second level of specialty stores.

Expansion plans quietly submitted to the county would boost the mall’s retail space by 67%, giving affluent South Orange County its first so-called “super-mall.”

But the mall’s owner said Friday that it has not yet lined up expansion financing or signed new anchor tenants and that the start of the project is at least two years away.

The plans show that the mall’s owner, the O’Connor Group of New York, is trying to get a leg up on the rival Mission Viejo Mall and the Irvine Co.’s longstanding plan for a new mall in the Irvine Spectrum development near the confluence of the San Diego and Santa Ana freeways in El Toro.

The mall was seventh among county malls in taxable sales last year, with sales up 6.6% over 1988, according to state figures.

The plans call for increasing leasable space to 1,449,589 million square feet, from the present 868,797 square feet. Malls with more than 1 million square feet are considered in the industry to be super-malls.

The two new department stores would be larger than the mall’s current anchor tenants: the Broadway, JC Penney, Sears Roebuck & Co. and Buffums. O’Connor will thus get a chance to add two upscale retailers, such as Nordstrom or Bullock’s, and draw shoppers who would otherwise go to South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa or MainPlace/Santa Ana.

Lining up such anchor tenants may be difficult during a recession. Department stores have been particularly hard hit by the economic downturn as uneasy consumers shop more often at discount specialty stores.

The plan calls for the relocation of a Circuit City store to make way for one of the new anchor department stores. A second level of stores would be built along the main promenade through the mall.

Three new parking garages are planned. O’Connor plans to ask the county--Laguna Hills is unincorporated--for permission to put in five parking spaces per 1,000 feet of development, instead of the required 5.2 spaces.

Some residents at the Leisure World retirement community are concerned about the impact the expansion will have on traffic and parking, said Kirk Watilo, a vice president of Leisure World’s management firm. The mall is off El Toro Road at Interstate 5, next to Saddleback Memorial Medical Center and across Paseo de Valencia from Leisure World.

Watilo said the plans were quietly submitted to the county in early October.

As for financing, Michael Pecar, vice president and regional director of development for O’Connor, said: “We’re not even thinking about it. . . . I can’t get financing until I know who my anchors are.”

The expansion would also include an overall cosmetic face-lift of the mall to make it more competitive with nearby centers.

“I think the area will support more retail space,” said Robert Dunham, president of the Newport Economics Group, a Newport Beach real estate consultant.

He noted that Laguna Hills lacks some of the more popular warehouse chains, such as Home Depot or Price Club, which could also be potential anchor tenants for the mall.

Pat Murphy, a retail analyst for the Ernst & Young accounting firm in Irvine, said an expanded mall could siphon shoppers off from elsewhere.

“They could probably take a tremendous draw from people going to South Coast Plaza or Newport Beach,” she said.

It might also attract shoppers from as far south as Oceanside or Carlsbad, Murphy added.

GROWING UP AND OUT

Laguna Hills Mall will add a second story and two new department stores, increasing its leaseable space by two-thirds. New parking garages are also included in plans filed with Orange County Environmental Management Agency. Among the improvements are new movie theaters, restaurants, a food court and two new department stores.