Retail Rivalry Generates Heated Political Battle : Growing Room

The Ventura City Council has approved a $50 million expansion project for the Buenaventura Mall that will add two new department stores and a second level of shops, making the 31-year-old shopping center the largest in Ventura County. The project will include the construction of a three-level parking garage and a dozen traffic improvements. Mall developers hope to begin the first phase of construction this year, although a March 26 ballot measureand a possible referendum could delay the project.

History of the Buenaventura Mall

- The Ventura Planning Commission first approves construction of an open air shopping center in 1962. Buenaventura Mall is developed by G.L. MacDonald between 1963 and 1965.

- The shopping center is enclosed and remodeled in 1983. Four year later, the mall is sold and under new management plans are developed for a multi-phased renovation.

- An application to add three anchor stores to the two-anchor mall is submitted to the city in 1992. An environmental impact report is certified in 1993 for the proposed project, which is later scaled back to four anchors.

- On Jan. 28, 1996, the City Council grants final approval to the mall expansion, a four-year project that will add 459,000 square feet of new retail space to the 826,000-square-foot shopping center.

The Impact on Ventura

The approved development agreement calls for the developer to pay $12.6 million in public improvements to be reimbursed by the city’s share of increased sales tax revenue over 20 years. Including interest, the payback will total $32.3 million by 2016.

The improvements include:

- Construction of an $8.2 million parking garage

- Relocation of a transit center to the mall’s north end, near Telegraph Road

- Creation of a cul-de-sac on Dunning Street and the closure of Ocean and Central avenues.

- Addition of a driveway into Anacapa Middle School off S. Mills Road.

- Widening of intersection at Main Street and Mills Road

- Creation of an eastbound lane on Main Street near Callens Road

- Widening of Ventura Freeway on and offramps at Main Street