MISSION VIEJO : DeBartolo Weighs Mall Renovation

Facing stiff competition from new retailers in surrounding South County cities, the owner of Mission Viejo Mall is considering a major renovation and expansion of the 16-year-old property.

Representatives of DeBartolo Properties Management Inc., the Youngstown, Ohio, company that manages the mall, are weighing the idea of adding to the 999,390-square-foot shopping center, city officials said, but have yet to submit plans.

Company officials said Friday that they are negotiating with three department store companies, including Nordstrom, as potential tenants of the space that would be added. The expansion depends in large part on the outcome of those talks, said Rodney Haynes, a vice president of development for DeBartolo.

The mall is now anchored by a Montgomery Ward, Bullock’s and two Robinsons-May department stores.

Haynes said that parent company DeBartolo Realty Corp., which owns the mall and 50 other regional shopping centers nationwide, could decide against moving ahead, but “I do put low odds on us doing nothing.”

“The center is tired,” Haynes said. The mall, which sits on 66.5 acres of land just east of Interstate 5 along Marguerite Parkway, “is in need of renovating, and we understand that,” he said.

Karen Verlaan, a senior planner with the city, said Friday that DeBartolo officials have indicated that they may submit a site plan for approval later this year and that an expansion could add as much as 350,000 square feet of space.

“There has been preliminary discussion,” Verlaan said. “What we do know is that they are proceeding.”

Haynes said a final decision is unlikely to be made until August. If plans were submitted then, he said, construction would not begin this year.

Since the mall was built in 1979, it has not had any major structural changes, manager Connie Wilson said.

Though the mall is 80% occupied, its sales for 1994 were down 7.3% from the previous year, said Marie Izzo Cartwright, a spokeswoman for DeBartolo Properties Management.

Retail analysts say that, with the increasing number of shopping options being offered by warehouse stores and discount retailers, older malls face a challenge.

“What you’re seeing is that regional malls are losing some of their dominance,” said Jeff Moore, vice president of retail property at CB Commercial, a real estate brokerage in Newport Beach. “There’s a lot of retail being built in the county. And it’s surrounding the malls.”