Fall Additions in Store for Oaks Mall

As this city morphs from a sleepy, rustic suburb into a hip, small city, so goes the town’s largest mall.

By late fall, the mall will be getting a Pottery Barn home design store, a Banana Republic clothing store, a Skechers Shoes, Toys International and two eateries--the Cheesecake Factory and La Salsa.

The additions are part of a five-year push to update the mall, lure new tenants that would appeal to Thousand Oaks’ affluent residents and keep moderately priced favorites in place, mall manager Rebecca Bresson said.

If The Oaks were to embrace a mantra, it would be tony, but not snooty.

Soon, The Oaks will boast “a varied mix of stores to meet shopping needs from moderate prices to very exclusive, very high-line,” Bresson said.

The transformation has not been painless, but is paying dividends.

As leases expire at the 20-year-old mall, some of those held by old-time stores and restaurants have not been renewed. The popular Sweeney’s pub, for instance, was priced out of the mall until it relocated into a nook near the lingerie department in Macy’s.

Some residents have bemoaned the changes, but mall officials say more shoppers are flocking to the new, highbrow outlets, which have included a Williams-Sonoma gourmet store and clothing and shoe stores such as Bebe, Ann Taylor, Talbots and Aldo shoes.

The trend toward adding high-end stores is common among malls, which face competition from each other, catalogs and the Internet, said Malachy Kavanagh, a spokesman for the International Council of Shopping Centers in New York. That is particularly true in a city such as Thousand Oaks, where residents tend to have disposable income, good jobs and higher education levels.

“The stores can only serve the population,” Kavanagh said. “If the population is growing more sophisticated, the mall will too.”

Oaks officials will not divulge sales numbers, but Bresson said sales have been up three of the last four years. So far this year, overall mall sales are up 8% over last year.

And the new stores?

“With very few exceptions, they’re doing double-digit increases--I’d say 20% to 22% on average--in sales over the previous stores that weren’t the up-notch variety,” Bresson said. “I think sales prove our formula. If people weren’t in favor of what’s going on, I don’t think we’d see the sales revenues in these stores.”

Thus, the clatter on the mall’s second floor in recent weeks--where contractors are working on a 9,000-square-foot Pottery Barn design store. By mid-September, sales people should be selling knickknacks, picture frames, rugs and furniture.

Construction will soon begin at the Banana Republic, where racks will be stocked with crepe suits and silk scarves and ties for a late September to early October opening date.

Skechers, with its collection of hip, casual shoes, is expected to open its doors by mid-September. Toys International is due to open in October.

A buffet-style La Salsa should be serving Mexican food in October.

And the desserts and American cuisine of the Cheesecake Factory are expected to be available in December.

For the most part, The Oaks customers seem to appreciate the changes.

Oaks shopper Holly Klienbach her blond hair frosted with subtle peach streaks, said the new additions only improve the mall.

“It needed to be updated,” she said, leaving the Gap with a bag of purchases on a recent morning. “Lately, I’ve been going to [the two malls on] Topanga Canyon [Boulevard] because they have stores with clothes for young women. Actually, what The Oaks really needs is a Nordstrom.”

But another woman, shopping with her teenage daughter, believes The Oaks may just price itself out of the market.

“I personally think they’re upscaling to the level of the Promenade in Westlake,” said the irked shopper, who would not give her name. “Now there’s no place to shop for teenage kids. It’s too expensive. I don’t know if all these changes are warranted or not.”