Trolley Plaza Goes Shopping for Tenants

Developers of Oxnard’s 36,000-square-foot Trolley Plaza Shopping Center, scheduled to open in early September near the Oxnard Airport, are in the process of selecting businesses and negotiating leases for the center’s approximately 30 store spaces.

Getting the right mix of shops for the location is a process that takes some strategic planning, said Aaron Raznick, president of Raznick & Sons Inc., the Woodland Hills-based developer of the center.

Much of the tenant makeup, he said, is based on the demographics of the neighborhood surrounding the complex.

“We see a high number of Hispanic citizens and a good mix of single-family homes and apartment dwellers,” said Raznick, who has developed six shopping centers in Ventura County since 1980, including Harbor Landing at Channel Islands Harbor and Paseo Camarillo in Camarillo. “This helps us make decisions on what types of stores should come in.”

For one thing, said Raznick, people living in apartments tend to eat out more often than others. In line with that, he is negotiating a lease with a Mexican seafood restaurant, and a McDonald’s establishment that Raznick opened about a year ago, as the first phase of the development.

“We’re trying to have a balance, and bring in tenants who will assist other tenants by creating high traffic,” he said. “We are working on leases with a jeweler, a family billiards operation, a mini-mart, a dry cleaner. We like the type of store where somebody will come over to buy a specific product and linger around the shopping center because they see other buying opportunities.”

The Trolley Plaza Shopping Center is the third phase of a development that includes a recently completed 25,000-square-foot office building and a 45,000-square-foot storage facility, which is still under construction.