Tenants May Delay Janss Mall Work : Thousand Oaks: Building of new anchor store could be put off up to two years. Six merchants have not yet agreed to move during renovation.
Stalled negotiations between Janss Mall management and several long-term tenants may delay construction of a new anchor retail store for up to two years during the mall’s $50-million renovation, according to mall owner Bill Janss.
The first phase of construction on a new Mervyn’s--envisioned by Janss as a key component to revitalization of the mall--was due to begin in June and be finished by the fall of 1995. Now Janss said it is unlikely that any construction will begin before August.
Even then, he said, problems with tenants may force management to temporarily put aside the Mervyn’s project and focus instead on building a nine-screen movie theater and entertainment center.
Because Janss hoped to keep most of the mall open throughout the renovation, management planned to temporarily relocate 18 businesses within the 65-store mall. But six have not yet agreed to move.
“There are a few unhappy tenants with short-term leases,” Janss said. “We have not been able to reach a reasonable agreement with them. A couple of them have two years left on their (leases).”
He said two tenants have asked for $1.2 million to buy out their leases. “We can’t pay that,” he said. “It’s not reasonable. They’re asking for about as much as 30 years profit on their stores.”
Waiting for leases to run out on the stores--Brown Bag Deli and Thousand Oaks Sewing & Vacuum--could mean postponing the grand opening of Mervyn’s until the summer of 1997, Janss said.
Steve Rubenstein, director of the Conejo Valley Chamber of Commerce, said he hoped that cooperation on both sides would ease the stalemate. Ultimately, the renovation will benefit both management and tenants, he said.
But Rubenstein said he believed that Mervyn’s is already concerned with one potential pitfall to building in Thousand Oaks: the city’s strict sign ordinance, which could prevent the Hayward-based company from erecting the type of markers it wants.
“It’s presumptuous of other tenants to throw another monkey wrench into the works,” Rubenstein said. “Mervyn’s is without a doubt going to be the draw to the center.”
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A Mervyn’s spokeswoman said the company’s first concern is with persuading the City Council to approve five-foot-high lettering on the store and a separate sign at the mall entrance. Both would violate city rules.
“We are aware of the negotiations” over relocation, Kathy Blackburn said. “But we’re not involved, and our real priority is the signage.”
To build the 75,000-square-foot Mervyn’s, the Brown Bag Deli--a 13-year fixture on one corner of the mall--would have to be demolished. But owner Joel Steinberg is refusing to give up his lease and move.
He has been offered a chance to move to the mall’s new food court, next to the entertainment center, which will include a movie theater, a Barnes & Noble bookstore and Blockbuster Video. But Steinberg doesn’t want that.
He has a grander plan of expansion in mind, one for his present location, where he said he has built a loyal customer base by offering hefty sandwiches, magazines and up-scale beers. Several years ago, he began selling beer-making equipment and offering classes in brewing.
“We want to do an upscale restaurant and brew pub,” he said, taking out an artist’s rendering. “We don’t want to be in the food court, next to some taco place. That would be the wrong image.”
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Steinberg had plans for the restaurant drawn up two years ago, shortly before Janss management announced plans to renovate the mall, which was built in 1960 and still evokes that style. He said management approved the plans without telling him what lay in store for the mall.
Relocating could cost him valuable business, he said. Already, faithful customers are quizzing him on how long he will hold out as stores around him disappear. He handed over a catering request as proof.
“I would like to place an order for a 3-foot sandwich for Saturday, May 7, 1994. However, are you still going to be in business on that day?” it reads.
Customers at Yogurt Plus, situated between where the new movie theater and the food court will be, are asking owner Bruce Markowitz the same type of questions.
“You heard anything yet?” Stacie Stocks asked anxiously as Markowitz handed a yogurt-filled cone to her. She drives to Yogurt Plus three times a week from Newbury Park and has been buying Markowitz’s yogurt for about five years.
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Markowitz has not reached an agreement with Janss management either. His tidy little shop has been in the mall for eight years, and he said it took him six months just to build the counters and kitchen area, and install all the equipment. Relocating twice, once for construction and again when the food court is complete, could cost him a year’s worth of business, he argued.
He has six years left on his lease and while he is not asking $1.2 million for it, Markowitz alone could hold up the entertainment complex.
“They can’t throw me out,” Markowitz said. “They can’t condemn me. Maybe I’ll just stay. Then I’ll end up in the main lobby of the movie theater selling popcorn.”
Janss said he hoped to come to an agreement with the tenants before that happens.
“I’m a pragmatist,” he said. “I’m assuming that these tenants are going to reach some sort of reasonable accord. It doesn’t do them any good not to.”
