Revised plan for The Oaks coming soon

The delay of plans to renew The Oaks mall in Thousand Oaks is over.

One year after the $100-million proposed expansion of the 28-yearold shopping center came to a sudden halt due to the merger of two of the center’s department store chains, the mall’s owner is ready to unveil new plans to residents.

Three community meetings are scheduled this month for residents to review the new design.

“It’s the same concept as before, with a lot of the same elements, but a little different,” said Steve Spector, senior vice president of the Santa Monica-based Macerich Company, owner of The Oaks. “Some of the things about this plan are better than the first.”

The mall renovation had been scheduled to come before the Thousand Oaks Planning Commission last April. The postponement came after Federated Department Stores, longtime operator of Macy’s and other stores, announced plans to acquire its chief competitor, May Department Stores, owner of the Robinsons-May chain, in a landmark, $11-billion deal. The Oaks has two Macy’s buildings and two Robinsons-May stores.

Southern California is the largest market in the country to be affected by the merger. Federated is selling or closing 78 stores so far, including 28 in the region. Another 31 stores in Southern California will be rebranded to the Macy’s nameplate.

At The Oaks, the RobinsonsMay men’s clothing and home store and one of the Macy’s stores will be closed. Clearance sales in both stores began Jan. 29. The company is still reviewing its portfolio, according to spokesperson Puja Sabharwal, with changes to be completed by September.

As part of the renovation, Macerich had planned to construct a building to house a new tenant—Nordstrom. That could change if Nordstrom moves into one of the closed stores or one of the remaining two stores. The high-end retailer is still committed to The Oaks, according to Spector.

This is not the first time the renovation concept has been changed. The original design, the result of 14 meetings with a citizen advisory committee created by the Thousand Oaks City Council, was changed several times in response to concerns. Changes included significantly scaling back the project.

Spector is cautiously optimistic that the project will finally move forward. Although he couldn’t give specifics, Spector did say the new plan has combined elements of the original Phase 2 into Phase 1, meeting some requests the company had received from the city and from residents.

Phase 1 of the original plan called for the two Robinsons-May stores to be consolidated into one and the east store building demolished to make way for a mall extension to include new stores, restaurants and a 145,000-squarefoot Nordstrom.

Phase 2 involved building an “outdoor lifestyle center,” featuring a stadium-seating movie theater and restaurants to serve as an open-air gathering place. A third mall parking garage would also be built. Phase 3 would have added 100,000 square feet to the department stores.

The redesign still must complete an environment impact review and could change based on those results as well as public input.

The mall generates about $2.4 million in sales tax revenues, 10 percent of the city’s total tax revenue, according to Gary Wartik, the city’s economic development manager. As much as $700,000 per year in additional revenues could be realized with the expansion, much of it from Nordstrom, Wartik added.

“It’s fair to say that the redesigned project is somewhat smaller than what it otherwise would have been and different in layout,” Wartik said. “The plans are quite exciting and I think people will be quite pleased.”

Community meetings are scheduled for 7 p.m. Thurs., March 16, Palm Garden Hotel, Ventu Park Road; 7 p.m. Wed., March 22, Los Robles Greens, Moorpark Road; and 7 p.m. Thurs., March 23, Hyatt Westlake Plaza, Westlake Boulevard.

For more information, call (805) 495-4628.