Developer Shopping for New Stores for Mall

Shoppers might want to begin making room on their credit cards now.

The Newhall Land and Farming Co. is shopping around for department stores, the first step toward doubling the size of its 21-month-old Valencia Town Center.

The regional shopping mall, now featuring 110 stores and 750,000 square feet of retail space, is expected to grow to about 200 stores and 1.4 million square feet within two or three years.

To expand the mall, the developer must first reach agreements with large stores--such as the existing J. C. Penney, Robinsons-May and Sears--that will anchor additional corridors of stores for the center.

“It’s really dependent upon a firm commitment from the department stores,” said Marlee Lauffer, spokeswoman for Newhall Land.

Preliminary talks are ongoing with about a dozen candidates, including Nordstrom--in which residents declared their interest four years ago in a community survey--and Gottschalk Inc.

“We definitely want to have some upscale stores like Nordstrom,” Lauffer said. “We need to have more of what they call ‘fashion-forward’ stores. We want to make sure we have the full range of the shopping experience.”

Figuring into discussions are the changes many department store chains are undergoing.

May Co., which had established an outlet in the Valencia Town Center, merged with Robinsons soon after the shopping center opened in September, 1992. Bullock’s has closed stores in recent years.

Last week, the New York-based Bloomingdale’s announced plans to open four stores in Los Angeles and Orange counties, a decision Southern California leaders fervently hope signifies an economic turnaround for the area.

Joe Levy, chief executive officer for Gottschalk, said the company is in the “sort of kicking the tires” stage of discussions with Newhall Land, but no agreement has been reached.

“Certainly (Santa Clarita) has the demographics we like,” Levy said. “It does not have, in my mind, much department store competition, not unlike Palmdale, where we are doing very well.

“One of these days we’d sure like to be there,” Levy added.

But if Newhall’s talk of expansion sounds strange in uncertain economic times, it just continues a trend.

The Valencia Town Center was one of only two malls to open in California in 1992 and was built during a 70% drop in shopping center construction nationwide.

While 1,510 new shopping centers opened across the country in 1989, only 552 opened in 1991, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers. The Valencia outlet was one of only 460, from strip malls to regional “power centers,” that opened nationwide in 1992.

The council attributed the drop to a scarcity of construction loans following problems in the savings and loan industry, making funds available only for projects considered a sure thing.

The Valencia Town Center has so far generated $1 million per year in sales tax revenue, as predicted.

Most recently, it is thought to have benefited from the Jan. 17 earthquake that damaged and shut down the Northridge Fashion Center. Although difficult to document, the Northridge center’s closure is believed to have meant more shoppers for the Santa Clarita mall.

“Anecdotally, from what the merchants say, there seem to be more people shopping from the San Fernando Valley,” Lauffer said.