SIMI VALLEY : Council Approves Agreement for Mall
The Simi Valley City Council on Monday night gave approval to a preliminary agreement to build a long-awaited regional mall on an undeveloped hillside just north of the Simi Valley Freeway.
The council approved a development agreement with Cleveland-based Forest City Developers, giving the firm the option to develop a 1 million-square-foot mall on the 85-acre site.
The agreement gives the company a chance to look into the economic feasibility of the massive project before it commits to its construction.
Forest City Developers plans to spend six months conducting a marketing survey, said Victor Grgas, project developer for the company.
In 1990, Melvin Simon & Associates, the developer of the nation’s largest mall, in Minneapolis, backed out of a plan to develop a regional mall at the same site because of the economic recession.
But city leaders and Forest City Developers said that economic conditions have improved.
“The market has changed,” Grgas said. “We are coming out of the slump. The timing might be right for this.”
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