Council OKs Plan for New Esplanade Mall

The City Council gave preliminary approval for a resurrected Esplanade mall but formed a committee to work out design details.

The city wants to ensure the brightly colored buildings envisioned by the project’s developer do not become hokey and outdated, the same criticism leveled against a struggling outlet center and failed used-car lot just south of the proposed mall.

The City Council voted 4 to 0 Tuesday night to approve the development permit for the multicolored project, which will include 392,575 square feet of floor space for retail shops and restaurants. Mayor Manuel Lopez was absent.

After seeing several architectural renderings of the proposed color scheme, resident Pat Brown said she was not happy.

“I don’t like all those dark colors,” Brown said. “It just all clashes with the golds.”

Brown told the council that she fears the design, which the developer calls a faux Main Street look, has limited appeal.

“Right now it’s a fad, but in five years it’s dead meat,” she said.

The mall, anchored by a Home Depot store, will include a Bed Bath & Beyond, Nordstrom Rack and T.J. Maxx. Each store will have its own distinctive color scheme and textures, said David Geiser, director of design and construction for M & H Realty Partners, the mall’s developer. Each store will be painted in vibrant colors--red, blue, orange, yellow and maroon, among others--to help shoppers identify favorite stores, Geiser said.

“It allowed us to infuse an energy into the project,” he said.

Each store will vary in design, height and facade but other elements will be consistent, such as entrance awnings, lighting and colors on each building’s base, Geiser said.

To allay residents’ fears, the council created a committee to monitor the development of the mall and make sure everything comes out looking nice.

“You want to stay away from something that is a fad,” Councilman Tom Holden said.

Members of the 1,200-home Rio Lindo Neighborhood Council, whose homes are southeast of the mall, will monitor the progress of their “community cornerstone,” Chairman Ray Komar said.

The new mall should reflect the ethnic diversity of the city but be upscale in appearance, Komar said.

“It should reflect the new Oxnard,” Komar said.

While opinions about good and bad taste may differ, it is in the developer’s interest to build a project that is pleasing to consumers, Holden said.

“Developers don’t like to spend millions and millions of dollars just to have to redo something,” he said.

No matter what the final design, there will always be those who are not happy, Councilman Dean Maulhardt said.

“Colors and plans always change,” Maulhardt said. “At one time everyone wanted fins on cars.”