Flurry of activity puts focus on area near Northridge Mall.

A stretch of land that surrounds the Northridge Fashion Center has suddenly become the center of attention of developers and retailers.

Two national retailers are planning moves into the area. A developer is set to construct an 800-unit condominium community, and smaller strip centers are getting new owners and facelifts.

More than 10 years after the Northridge Earthquake tore through the area, the rebuilding is complete. Porter Ranch continues its expansion with more affluent, single-family homes underway and even Northridge Fashion Center has begun working on revising its tenant mix as leases, many signed in the wake of the earthquake, run out.

"A lot of the shopping centers on Tampa (Avenue) went through a renovation, the growth in all the upper end housing in Porter Ranch really added a nice, new demographic boost ... the rapid expansion of the Washington Mutual campus and the construction of the courthouse ... so there's a lot of things happening all at once that are having a global influence on that section of Northridge," said Eric Smyth, a principal with CIP Real Estate in Irvine.

CIP is currently finishing up the renovation of Northridge Promenade at Nordhoff Street and Shirley Avenue, which will soon get a new Guitar Center store.

Across the way, at Nordhoff Street and Corbin Avenue, Lowe's is building a new home improvement store, which Smyth and others figure will draw shoppers from across the region.

Wal-Mart has a new store planned directly across from the Southern end of the Northridge Fashion Center in a shopping mall that once housed a Levitz and a Best store and has been vacant for years.

And next door, another developer has acquired Tampa Plaza, an adjoining center that is anchored by a Bed Bath & Beyond, with plans to spruce up that project as leases expire.

"There are so few locations in the San Fernando Valley where boxes of any size can go that they'd want to open as soon as they could almost anywhere they could go as long as they don't directly conflict with another store," said David S. Goldman, manager of Tampa Plaza Partners LLC, the new owners of the center. "These are opportunities waiting to happen for a long time,"

Mall is hub

Goldman believes that the mall is the biggest draw for retail tenants.

"That's the hub of the wheel and all the people want to locate around it," he said.

But for many years, that southwestern end of Northridge Fashion Center was considered among the least attractive locations. For one thing, the overpass built along Nordhoff was detouring shoppers away from the Nordhoff entrance to Northridge Fashion Center.

And because the former Litton manufacturing facility, bordered by Nordhoff Street, Shirley Avenue and Prairie Street, had been vacant for so long, foot traffic was discouraged from crossing over to the other side of the street.

Now plans are underway to redevelop the 16.2 acre site into a condominium community with about 800 living units and somewhere between 30,000 and 60,000 square feet of ground floor retail space.

"Its connectivity to the shopping, movies, restaurants as well as offices make it a perfect location for an urban-oriented project with lots of pedestrian activity," said Tom Zanic, vice president at New Urban West Inc., the developers of the project.

The project is currently in the design phase, and New Urban West, which has also developed a number of single-family homes in the San Fernando Valley, expects the first occupants will move in early in 2007.

The transformation of that parcel is expected to do more than bring new residents to the area.

Active again

For years since the Litton plant closed, there was no activity along one side of Nordhoff Street.

"There was not a lot going on, one-half of the street was fallow dirt, and now you're going to put in this great new home improvement center along with 800 dwelling units, that's going to have a major impact on the image of the street," said Smyth. "And anytime you have that kind of improvement in image, it has an impact on retailers."

Smyth and others expect that the renaissance of the north side of Nordhoff will encourage even more restaurants and retailers to come into the area.

"People calling on my center know that there is a lot going on there, and we have a lot of upscale homes being built in the area, and it's a good place to be," said Sylvia MacAller, senior vice president at TOLD Partners, who is marketing the Northridge Promenade.

Northridge Fashion Center too has begun an improvement campaign.

"In 2005 and 2006 we've got about 100,000 square feet that we're going to be making changes and improvements on," said Rick Forster, senior general manager for the Northridge mall and Fallbrook Center, both General Growth properties.

The mall has already signed new leases with Build-a-Bear Workshop, Red Robin Gourmet Burgers Inc., retailer Up Against the Wall and Melt Gelato.

"We're coming up at 10 years from the earthquake and a lot of 10-year leases are expiring," said Forster. "We're trying to fine tune and upgrade some of our tenancy. That's a great opportunity for us to bring in some folks doing some unique things and primarily national tenants."

While the developments have generally been welcomed by the business community, there are several issues that have yet to be tackled.

For one thing, some say that the spurt of new development, all at once, provides an opportunity for planning and coordination that would serve the area well. And community groups would like to play a more active role in such things as how the developments are designed and what kinds of retailers are included in the mix.

"After the neighborhood councils have their elections we will contact them to work with the chamber in developing a vision in terms of aesthetics, business mix, etc," said Wayne Adelstein, president and CEO of the North Valley Regional Chamber of Commerce.

The area falls under the Northridge West district, where a neighborhood council has been certified, but elections have yet to be held.

Also in flux is the planned Wal-Mart store, which so far, has drawn significant opposition from the community owing to the plans for parking and the entrance and egress to the center.

New Faces and Facelifts Some of the changes in store for Northridge

* Wal Mart proposed at Nordhoff and Tampa.

* Lowe's underway at Nordhoff and Corbin.

* 800 condominium units at Nordhoff and Shirley in design phase.

* Nordhoff Promenade under renovation at Nordhoff and Shirley.

* Tampa Plaza at Tampa and Nordhoff acquired.