Buenaventura Mall Celebrates JCPenney, Change
Although still more than eight months away from completing its $100-million renovation, Buenaventura Mall marked a major milestone Friday as JCPenney threw open the doors of its new, 125,000-square-foot mega-store.
With prize drawings, a special sale and a cadre of balloon-bending clowns, mall officials, store employees and shoppers celebrated the opening, which has been more than three years in the making.
“It’s kind of exciting,” said Miko Alberts of Ventura, who visited the store with her 2-year-old daughter, Ashlyn. “Ventura has been waiting awhile to see this. . . . It’s something the city really needs.”
Ground was broken to remodel the 30-year-old mall several years ago, but the renovation was delayed because of a pair of lawsuits filed by the city of Oxnard and a referendum attempt by a group of Ventura residents who opposed a tax-sharing deal to finance the project.
Those legal hurdles have been crossed, construction has resumed, and mall officials said they are on schedule for completion in November.
The city of Ventura also expects that major road work outside the mall will be complete in time for the grand opening.
The mall, which will be renamed Pacific View once construction is complete, will include two new big-name retailers, Sears and Robinsons-May, and will nearly double the amount of storefronts available to smaller retail tenants to about 150.
Mall officials said that with the opening of the JCPenney, they should have an easier time leasing stores to prospective tenants.
“Retailers are starting to see that things are really happening here,” said mall manager Cayse Osterlund. “Before, we were trying to sell a two-dimensional concept, but now we’ve got this, which should help us fill up the space.”
Osterlund declined to comment on which retail firms are interested in opening stores in the mall but said he didn’t expect a problem in securing tenants.
In addition to JCPenney, other stores are beginning to open in the newly remodeled north wing of the mall.
Lenscrafters and John T’s--a novelty and card store--opened earlier this week, and Miller’s Outpost is scheduled to open Monday.
Work crews are still piecing together the metal framework of the mall’s second story and have nearly finished a veranda where a food court will be located.
“You can already tell this place is going to look pretty sharp,” said JCPenney manager Barbara Campos. “That’s the next thing we have to look forward to.”
