City Leaders Cheer Plans for Rebirth of Esplanade

The site of the former Esplanade mall will come back to life over the coming year as a brightly colored, upscale shopping center with several popular chain stores, its owners said Wednesday.

Nordstrom Rack, Borders Books & Music and Bed Bath & Beyond are among the 40 shops expected to flank anchor tenant Home Depot in what will be called the Esplanade Shopping Center.

Construction on the $35-million project could begin in November and shops could open by next August, said Sandra Dellibovi, regional property manager for San Francisco-based M&H; Realty Partners.

“What we wanted to create was a project that is unique to the area,” Dellibovi said. “We’re really looking for it to serve a regional area as opposed to just Oxnard. Where we’re situated, between Ventura and Camarillo, it could serve all three communities.”

City officials and economic development leaders embraced the shopping center concept, saying the mix of stores will pull shoppers back into the city’s fold and restore the $700,000 in tax revenue lost with last year’s pullout of Sears and Robinsons-May and the mall’s subsequent demolition.

“The fact that we can recover at least a part of that business is not only a direct fiscal benefit for the city government but also a quality-of-life boost for residents, and for companies looking at coming into Oxnard,” said Steve Kinney, president of the Greater Oxnard Economic Development Corp.

Architectural plans still must be approved by the city Planning Commission, but Councilman John Zaragoza said he did not anticipate any problems. “We want quality architecture and facades, and I think [the developers] will do that,” he said.

An estimate on projected annual tax revenue for the center was not available Wednesday. But the strong economy coupled with local economic development efforts have more than compensated for the loss of the mall during the last year, and money the mall brings in will be extra, officials said. City sales tax revenues last year were up from $11.5 million to $13.2 million.

“Oxnard is still the retail giant in the west county,” said Mark Schniepp, director of the California Economic Forecast Project. “This is just going to put Oxnard back into, relatively speaking, a hyper-growth mode it was in at the start of the economic expansion in 1995.”

That strong economy and the low unemployment it has brought may make it difficult for the developers to find enough local construction workers, Schniepp said. It also could put a strain on stores when they look for employees next year, he said.

Cost Plus, Old Navy, TJ Maxx, Staples and Party America are among other stores finalizing lease agreements at the new Esplanade, Dellibovi said. The developers also are negotiating with a department store chain based in the Midwest that they hope will occupy a large portion of the 490,000-square-foot space.

Dellibovi promised two upscale chain restaurants, which she declined to name, and said there also were plans for a food court with about six restaurant stations and indoor and outdoor seating.

Although none of the tenants named has quite the cache of some stores at the premium outlet stores in Camarillo, such as Coach or Barney’s, Schniepp said the Esplanade’s planners are on target for their demographic base. “Western Ventura County does not have the same affluent element as in the eastern part of the county or in Santa Barbara, so this really is the exact right kind of retail for the area.”