NORTHRIDGE : New J.C. Penney Nearly Ready to Open Doors

Vintage department store Muzak blended with the screech of buzz saws as dozens of well-dressed people shuffled through rows of junior women’s tops draped with translucent tarps.

“Everything looks a little like a ghost department,” said store manager Howard Couch, “because we’ve got to have everything covered up to protect against the dust.”

It was not just another shopping day at J.C. Penney. Store officials on Tuesday hosted a walk-through of the department store, still under repair after being devastated by the Northridge earthquake.

Although the store won’t reopen until June 14, tour members gawked at racks of apparel and oohed and aahed at the redesigned beauty salon, which will feature a chair that allows a patron to receive a foot massage and pedicure simultaneously.

“This kind of thing really gets things moving in our area,” said Bill Clayton, president-elect of the Northridge Chamber of Commerce. “We know that the reopening will restimulate commerce in the area.”

Construction started on the new J.C. Penney store in October, after the original facility was razed following the crippling Jan. 17, 1994, temblor.

More than 500 workers have labored since to rebuild the structure, which will feature just as much floor space as the original store, Couch said. The repairs will cost $25 million, he said. About $20 million of merchandise will be on the shelves by the reopening.

The store will provide hundreds of jobs, Couch predicts. The original store employed 300 people, but there will be 350 workers in the new facility, Couch said. Half have already been hired, and interviews are under way for the second half.

While the outside of the building is still under construction, the interior looks like it could be ready for shoppers virtually any day. Much of the store’s stock was still in cardboard boxes Tuesday, but the walls were painted, the wood trim in place, the shelves in position.

Couch said the new store will have more wood trim than the original, and will also focus on women’s wear, including twice the original stock of lingerie.