Ventura Mall Expansion a Blow to Some Tenants

Laura Johnson has more to worry about these days than just managing the day-to-day operations of her retail clothing store.

In addition to helping shoppers, straightening shelves and coordinating the schedules of her nine employees, she is preparing to close the store--permanently.

“We’ve been pretty busy with all that’s going on,” said Johnson, manager of the now mostly empty Lerner New York outlet at the Buenaventura Mall. “We’re trying to sell everything we can and also packing everything [else] up, so there’s a lot of work.”

As the Buenaventura Mall begins the second phase of its $100-million expansion and renovation project, a number of longtime retail tenants, like Lerner, are closing their doors.

The closures, eight of which will happen within the next month, are coming in advance of construction crews who will soon cordon off the mall’s south wing to tack on another floor.

In many cases, the closures will result in layoffs.

Johnson said she will relocate to a Lerner outlet in Valencia, but the other employees will not.

“I’m the only one,” she said. “Everybody else has either found something else or is looking. . . . It’s kind of depressing.”

Athena Arcayan, a Rave clothing outlet employee, will also be transferring during the 10-month closure, but her seven co-workers will not.

“Like pretty much everybody else who works around here, they’re all out looking for another job,” she said during a brief respite from packing boxes with clothes hangers and ringing up customers. “It’s too bad.”

While some stores will close permanently, others will reopen late next year when construction is expected to finish. Still others, such as Macy’s, will be unaffected by the work.

Although many store managers and owners understand the mall’s need to expand to better compete with retail hubs, such as the Oxnard and Camarillo outlet centers, they are also frustrated and angry at mall owners and leasing agents for being forced out.

“In the long term, this will all be good for the mall, but right now, for me, this is a nightmare,” said one store owner who asked not to be identified. “I have to leave, I have to close my business for 10 months and I’m not going to be compensated for anything.”

Mall officials said they understand the frustration that many of their tenants are feeling, but believe that once construction is complete they will be able to draw more customers and again be one of the area’s prominent retail attractions.

“It’s definitely something we understand,” said mall manager Cayse Osterlund. “But most of the stores, corporate stores, have been taking the whole renovation well and understand that this is going to be better for them.”

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Once scheduled to be completed in time for the 1997 shopping season, the mall’s reopening now is tentatively planned for November 1999.

Construction had been delayed because of a pair of lawsuits filed by the city of Oxnard and a referendum attempt by Ventura residents who opposed a complex tax-sharing deal that financed the massive project.

When finished, the Buenaventura Mall--which will be renamed Pacific View--will have two new spaces that will house Sears and Robinsons-May department stores, a parking garage, a transit center and a second story with more space for retail shops.

The expansion project also will include 10 road-widening and freeway-interchange projects to remedy the area’s chronic congestion problems.

The Buenaventura Mall currently houses about 90 stores.

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The expansion will increase that number to about 170 and, mall officials hope, return the 30-year-old retail hub to regional prominence.

“It’s something we need to do,” Osterlund said. “It’s going to be like a new mall.”

Leasing agents are negotiating with a number of new retailers interested in setting up shop in the newly refurbished mall.

In the meantime, shoppers have spent their days taking advantage of the bargains they are finding at stores such as Lechters, Contempo Casuals and Rave, all of which have discounted items by as much as 50% in advance of closing.

“I don’t like seeing all the stores close, but these prices are pretty good,” said Megan Hutch, while thumbing through a rack of cotton tank tops at Contempo Casuals. “A lot of these bargains are better than the normal after-Christmas ones.”

* GUIDING LIGHT

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