Fashion Island Bringing In a Pair of Discounters : Retail: Leases have been signed for a Circuit City electronics store and a Bookstar bookstore. In addition, Cheesecake Factory will open its first Orange County restaurant at the Newport Beach mall.

Fashion Island Newport Beach, a hilltop shopping mecca best known for catering to the rich and powerful, announced Wednesday that it has signed leases to bring in a pair of discount retailers--Circuit City and Bookstar--and Orange County’s first Cheesecake Factory restaurant.

Circuit City, usually associated more with shopping centers than upscale malls, will fill the bottom floor of the two-story building left vacant by the closure of Buffum’s in March, 1991. The upstairs will be divided into space for two or three specialty stores, said mall manager Janice Fuchs.

Bookstar, a fast-growing chain known for its huge bookstores, will fill a space near the Edwards Theaters. And added to the mall’s array of fine-dining restaurants will be a Cheesecake Factory.

“It’s broadening our appeal,” Fuchs explained. “We’re on target for offering a unique array of merchandise at a variety of price points.”

It marks a departure, though, for a mall that has long catered to the wealthy.

As recently as 1989, the Irvine Co.-owned Fashion Island was sticking by its formula of appealing to rich people when it undertook a $100-million renovation attempting to give itself the ambience of a European village.

But by adding a Circuit City, the mall hopes to stop the erosion of business caused by power centers like Tustin Market Place.

“From a total space standpoint, it’s probably pretty smart,” said Al Gobar, a Brea-based mall consultant. But, he added, a high-volume electronics retailer like Circuit City is hardly the kind of store expected in a mall called Fashion Island.

Fuchs said that after several possibilities were studied, it was decided that Circuit City provided the best opportunity for the vacant Buffum’s building because it filled a void in the center’s retailing mix: electronics.

The Cheesecake Factory, which will be added near the acclaimed Five Feet Too and California Pizza Kitchen restaurants, will give Fashion Island yet another “destination” restaurant.

“It is a beautiful destination, offering the ocean view which we want for the Cheesecake Factory,” said David Overton, president of the restaurant chain. “We feel very comfortable about opening a new restaurant here.”

In addition, a Hard Rock Cafe is under construction in the parking lot, though no one at the mall is supposed to talk about it because it has not yet been officially announced by its owners.

The Bookstar store, offering 35,000 titles, is part of a chain that has seen huge success in centers such as the Tustin Market Place. In addition, Bookstar is opening a new store nearby at the Triangle Square Center in Newport Beach. Fuchs said that despite their proximity, the two Bookstars will cater to different groups of readers.

As is typical in retailing, terms of the leases were not released. All of the new stores will open in time for the Christmas shopping season, she said.