Big Stores Urge Ventura Mall Expansion

Representatives of four department stores this week urged a team of Ventura officials to move swiftly with plans to redevelop the aging Buenaventura Mall, despite a ballot initiative that could thwart a tax-sharing plan that is considered a key to the expansion proposal.

The support came just days before the city’s Planning Commission is scheduled to consider the $50-million expansion plan, which would add two new anchor stores and a second level to the mall.

“The anchor stores are resolved and determined to be in Ventura,” newly elected Mayor Jack Tingstrom said late Thursday night, having just returned from a two-day trip to meet with major retailers.

The mayor and a group of city officials left Tuesday for a whirlwind trip to Dallas and St. Louis, where they met with representatives of Sears, Roebuck & Co., J.C. Penney, Robinsons-May and Macy’s.

Robinsons-May and Sears plan to relocate to Ventura from The Esplanade shopping center in Oxnard. J.C. Penney, which has a store at the Ventura mall already, plans to construct a new building. The Buenaventura Mall’s other current anchor, The Broadway, will be converted to a Macy’s as a result of Macy’s parent company purchasing The Broadway chain.

Store representatives requested that city officials meet with them to discuss Ventura’s commitment to the mall expansion, Tingstrom said.

“They just wanted to make sure where the city was at,” he said. “They wanted some high-level assurances.”

Tingstrom said the anchor stores’ management told them that the ballot measure would not change their plans to locate in Ventura.

“They were undeterred by the initiative and the efforts of Oxnard to slow this thing down,” he said. “They feel that it can be overcome.”

Tingstrom said the stores are prepared to sign contracts among themselves in January to jointly commit to moving and redeveloping in Ventura. “I thought that was a pretty heavy commitment,” he said.