New Bullock’s for Women Store to Create 130 Jobs : Retailing: The opening in Fashion Island in June is expected to reinvigorate the mall. The building had been an I. Magnin.

For Fashion Island, a new Bullock’s department store entirely devoted to women’s fashions and cosmetics will add 130 jobs and reinvigorate a mall that has been forced to change direction during recession, officials said Thursday.

A former I. Magnin store will be reopened as a Bullock’s for Women in June, breathing new life into a section of the mall that has had to depend on an array of restaurants rather than a strong department store to draw customers to nearby boutiques.

Over the past five years, Fashion Island has seen two of its major department stores close--Buffums and in late January, I. Magnin--and has tried to broaden its appeal beyond the very affluent to more middle-class customers.

“I would call it re-merchandising and a transition,” said Fashion Island General Manager Janice Fuchs at a brief ceremony to announce the Bullock’s store. “There were certain things missing in the tenant mix.”

It added a Circuit City electronics center, a Barnes & Noble bookstore and now, a Bullock’s catering entirely to women that Macy officials say will carry more merchandise with broad appeal than posh I. Magnin.

Fashion Island is also under consideration as the Orange County home of Bloomingdale’s, the famous New York department store, which plans to open its first Southland store in Beverly Hills. A Bloomingdale’s spokesman said Thursday that there was no word yet on where an Orange County store will be situated.

The new Bullock’s for Women store will be the company’s fourth location in Orange County, and will serve as a feminine counterpart to the Bullock’s for Men store at South Coast Plaza.

The new women’s specialty emporium will carry designer labels like DKNY, Anne Klein II and Ellen Tracy. It will also have a full-line shoe department and major cosmetic counters.

Extensive renovations will be made inside the old I. Magnin building, and top priority will be given to rehiring former I. Magnin workers who are were displaced, said John Gorham, a Bullock’s senior vice president who announced the new store.

It will be managed by Gretchen Stuart, the former merchandise manager of Bullock’s South Coast Plaza.