Discount Stores Star in Anaheim Hills : Retail: New Festival shopping center will feature Target, Mervyn’s, Marshalls and T.J. Maxx in an affluent area far from major malls.

Against the din of rattling earth-graders, a celebration was held Tuesday to mark progress in the construction of a new regional shopping center for Anaheim Hills and Yorba Linda.

Developers of the Anaheim Hills Festival center say their $100-million project may be the biggest of its kind underway in Southern California.

That loses a little luster, however, when measured against the weak state of the economy: County retail construction has screeched to a virtual halt from the robust 1980s. Many storefronts in older shopping centers stand empty.

Developers are picking their projects carefully, generally building only in affluent areas that are not convenient to major shopping areas. Anaheim Hills is among the upscale communities that have been overlooked, with residents in search of major shopping centers traveling either west to Orange or Brea or east to Riverside.

A decade ago, the Santa Ana Canyon Road site, surrounded by a fast-growing residential area, would have been considered a prime spot for a major indoor shopping mall. But the county now has an ample number of such malls, some of which have struggled during the slow economy. Now developers are concentrating on open-air venues filled with large discount stores.

The Anaheim Festival will have a Target department store; Mervyn’s, Marshalls and T.J. Maxx apparel stores; a Vons Pavilions supermarket, and an eight-screen Edwards cinema as a major night and weekend draw for the 60 specialty shops.

“How can we not be here?” asked Clothestime President Norman Abramson as he cast an eye across the dusty lot, where one of his young women’s apparel stores will open.

The center is about 85% leased, said Bart K. Brown, a senior vice president for CB Commercial Real Estate Group in Anaheim, leasing agents for the project. It is scheduled to open in October, though construction has already been delayed 40 days because of rain.

The healthy lease rate is “a tribute to the quality of the location,” said Bradley A. Geier, development director for the 600,000-square-foot development. The project’s estimated annual sales of $125 million to $150 million should generate about $1.5 million in annual tax income for Anaheim.