Janss Mall Finalizing Plans to Include Mervyn’s in Expansion : Thousand Oaks: The owner says he expects to sign contracts for several stores and a nine-screen movie theater complex in the next few weeks.
The owner of Thousand Oaks’ Janss Mall said Friday he is finalizing negotiations to add a Mervyn’s department store and a nine-screen Mann movie theater complex as part of a planned $30-million expansion and renovation project aimed at attracting new customers.
Other additions would include a Barnes & Noble bookstore, The Good Guys electronics store and The Wherehouse record store, along with a food court, said Bill Janss, president of the Janss Corp., which owns the mall. The mall’s name will also be changed to the Janss Marketplace.
“With the new additions, it’s going to give the mall new life,” Janss said. “It’s going to turn it back into something exciting.”
Janss said he has letters of intent from each of the prospective retailers and expects to sign contracts with all of them within the next few weeks. If events go as planned, he said construction on the new stores could begin by April, with all expected to open by June, 1995.
The refurbishing project will add about 130,000 square feet of commercial space to the 33-year-old mall, boosting the total to 420,000 square feet. The number of stores, estimated at about 40, will increase to about 56.
A few stores may be displaced by the expansion and renovation project, Janss said. About 10 stores have already left either because of the recession or because they simply wished to move, he said.
The renovation will require demolition of about 100,000 feet of existing retail space beginning in April, so some stores will have to be relocated and possibly closed. Janss said he hopes that arrangements can be made to retain most of the stores.
“We’re not trying to displace anyone,” he said. “We’d like to keep as many tenants as we can.”
Thousand Oaks’ business leaders and city officials said the expansion and renovation plan would not only help draw more customers to the Janss Mall but also to The Oaks mall nearby as well.
“The whole thing will bring a synergy to this area,” said Steve Rubenstein, president of the Thousand Oaks Chamber of Commerce.
Rubenstein was especially pleased with the prospect of a Mervyn’s in Thousand Oaks. He said the city is already losing “a tremendous amount of tax dollars” to Mervyn’s stores in Oxnard, Simi Valley and the San Fernando Valley.
He also said he believed there was enough business to support both The Good Guys electronics store and Thousand Oaks’ existing Circuit City, noting that the city has a population of over 100,000 and has the added advantage of attracting additional customers off the busy Ventura Freeway.
Janss said it is not his intention for the mall to compete with The Oaks, but rather to complement it. “Where they have a fashion store, we’ll have a value tenant,” he said. “Where they have a Robinson’s-May, we’ll have a Mervyn’s.”
Councilman Frank Schillo said he also was confident that all of the retailers wishing to join the Janss Mall would do well in the city.
“Retailers do a very thorough survey before they decide” to come into a new market, Schillo said.
Joel Steinberg, owner of the mall’s Brown Bag Deli, is one of the stores that may have to relocate. He said he has not decided whether he will stay at the mall.
“We really don’t know what they’re offering,” he said. “I don’t think they know.”
Still, Steinberg said that whatever happens he believes the expansion will be good for business in general. “It’s a step in the right direction.”
The Janss Corp. is asking the city for a variance on the planned Mann multiplex theater, which will exceed the city’s 35-foot building height limit by 10 feet. The nine-screen theater will replace an existing two-screen theater.
Janss said the extra height will will help preserve the mall’s landscaping and open-space areas by eliminating the need to expand the mall’s perimeter.
Also on Tuesday, the Thousand Oaks City Council will consider the mall’s request to waive city rules limiting building heights.
Rubenstein said the city has allowed height variances before and should do so again in this case, noting that no residential neighborhoods would be affected by the planned theater complex.
“There are no residents around there, so it’s not going to block anybody’s view,” he said. Besides, Rubenstein said, “if we don’t cooperate, these businesses are going to go someplace else.”
FYI
The Janss Corp. is sponsoring a community workshop to explain its plans and collect ideas on the upcoming expansion and renovation of the Janss Mall. The workshop will begin at 4 p.m. Monday at the Thousand Oaks Public Library.
