3 Area Department Stores to Convert to Macy’s : Retailing: Changeovers will be completed within eight months for two Broadways and one Bullock’s. Mall managers welcome switches.

A national retailer confirmed Friday that three major department stores in Ventura County will be converted to Macy’s by next summer, drawing cheers from mall managers and mixed reviews from shoppers.

The Broadway stores at Buenaventura Mall in Ventura and The Oaks mall in Thousand Oaks will become Macy’s in a transformation that will take eight months to complete, said Betty Krogh, vice president of public relations for Macy’s West.

But the Bullock’s anchor at The Oaks will convert to a Macy’s as early as April, she said. Macy’s has been buying merchandise for Bullock’s over the past three years, and its clothing, jewelry and accessories will remain the same, she said.

“There may be more of a wide selection,” Krogh said. “But it’s really just a nameplate change.”

Some Broadway stores around the state are slated to become Bloomingdale’s, considered on the same upscale level as Nordstrom by retailers. Ventura County probably lost its chance to get a Bloomingdale’s when the Broadway store at Fashion Square in Sherman Oaks won that designation Thursday, said Linda Sonnonstine of the company that owns Buenaventura Mall.

“Sometimes they look at drawing to a regional geographic area instead of just the neighborhoods surrounding the store,” Sonnonstine said. “Their thought may be that [Fashion Square] would serve both areas.”

But Sonnonstine said she is confident Macy’s will be a big draw, strengthening plans already under way to add 350,000 square feet of new shops to Buenaventura Mall.

“Anything new and different will bring people into the mall who might not have been there before,” she said. “Macy’s has a national name and it has strong appeal.”

Carol Medina was among several shoppers at Buenaventura Mall on Friday who said they looked forward to browsing through Macy’s. Medina, a Ventura resident, said she has shopped at the Macy’s in San Francisco.

“The atmosphere is great,” Medina said. “It’s kind of like a Nordstrom. I’d much rather shop at Macy’s than Broadway.”

But Roger Muir, who sipped coffee and worked a crossword puzzle while his wife had her hair coiffed in a nearby salon, was indifferent to the announcement made Friday morning by Federated Department Stores.

“It doesn’t make a bit of difference to me,” the Ventura man said. “If we want something nice, we go to Santa Barbara.”

Federated announced it is converting 40 Broadway stores into Macy’s and will sell another nine outlets to Sears. The fate of 21 other Broadway stores purchased by Federated last month will be announced by year-end, a company spokesman said.

Some of the 21 will be converted to upscale Bloomingdale’s department stores, and the rest will be sold, officials said.

Sonnonstine said Buenaventura Mall officials were briefly concerned that the Ventura Broadway might be targeted for closure.

That might have put a hitch in plans to expand the mall, which will gain a second level of shops, a parking structure and two new anchor stores--Robinsons-May and Sears.

Mall officials, she said, were glad to learn that Federated had agreed Ventura County is a growing market. Mall officials also were pleased to learn that Federated planned to spend $525 million refurbishing the converted stores over the next three years.

“That’s a smart move,” Sonnonstine said, noting that the Broadway building is aging. “Assets have to be improved in order to keep up with the times.”

With two Macy’s outlets slated for The Oaks, one very likely will be designated as a satellite offering specialty wares, Krogh said. One of the two stores will probably focus on men’s clothing or housewares, she said.

“Men love it because they don’t have to go through cosmetics and jewelry and handbags to find their little place,” Krogh said. “They love being able to walk right into their ties.”

But Julie Carley said she doesn’t like the arrangement.

“I think it’s stupid,” said Carley, a saleswoman at Jay’s Luggage & Gifts in The Oaks. “We already have two Robinsons-May stores at opposite ends of the mall, one with women’s and children’s clothing and one a men’s and housewares shop. You can’t shop in one place and it’s ridiculous.”

Carley, however, said she will continue to shop at Bullock’s once it becomes a Macy’s.

“Whether it’s a Macy’s or Bullock’s, I’ll keep going because I like the quality of their merchandise.”