Retail Rivalry Generates Heated Political Battle : Growing Room
The Ventura City Council has approved a $50 million expansion project for the Buenaventura Mall that will add two new department stores and a second level of shops, making the 31-year-old shopping center the largest in Ventura County. The project will include the construction of a three-level parking garage and a dozen traffic improvements. Mall developers hope to begin the first phase of construction this year, although a March 26 ballot measureand a possible referendum could delay the project.
History of the Buenaventura Mall
- The Ventura Planning Commission first approves construction of an open air shopping center in 1962. Buenaventura Mall is developed by G.L. MacDonald between 1963 and 1965.
- The shopping center is enclosed and remodeled in 1983. Four year later, the mall is sold and under new management plans are developed for a multi-phased renovation.
- An application to add three anchor stores to the two-anchor mall is submitted to the city in 1992. An environmental impact report is certified in 1993 for the proposed project, which is later scaled back to four anchors.
- On Jan. 28, 1996, the City Council grants final approval to the mall expansion, a four-year project that will add 459,000 square feet of new retail space to the 826,000-square-foot shopping center.
The Impact on Ventura
The approved development agreement calls for the developer to pay $12.6 million in public improvements to be reimbursed by the city’s share of increased sales tax revenue over 20 years. Including interest, the payback will total $32.3 million by 2016.
The improvements include:
- Construction of an $8.2 million parking garage
- Relocation of a transit center to the mall’s north end, near Telegraph Road
- Creation of a cul-de-sac on Dunning Street and the closure of Ocean and Central avenues.
- Addition of a driveway into Anacapa Middle School off S. Mills Road.
- Widening of intersection at Main Street and Mills Road
- Creation of an eastbound lane on Main Street near Callens Road
- Widening of Ventura Freeway on and offramps at Main Street
