Nordstrom addition highlights Oaks mall renovation.

MACERICH Co. will be renovating the Oaks Shopping Center in Thousand Oaks by adding 250,000 square feet of retail space, more than half to taken by Nordstrom Inc.

The Seattle-based department store chain has signed a letter of intent on a land lease with Santa Monica-based Macerich to take a 144,000 square foot or larger store on a pad at the mall's eastern edge. The department store will join J.C. Penney, Macy's and Robinsons-May as the mall's anchors.

Randy Brant, Macerich's senior vice president, estimated its construction costs, apart from the Nordstrom, would be about $1130 million. Macerich bought the 1.1 million-square-foot Oaks in June 2002 for $153 million.

"It's a big project for us," he said. "It's one we are very excited about and it's one the market is definitely ready for. It's an upscale affluent community and currently there is very little upscale shopping there."

Construction is scheduled to begin in January and it's expected to be complete by the 2006 holiday season, Brant said. The Thousand Oaks City Council voted on Sept. 16 to expedite approvals for the renovation and the Nordstrom store, which the city estimates will boost its sales tax revenues by $500,000 annually.

"We are going to try to merchandise the mall to a higher level," Brant said.

Long Beach Action

The owner of the Long Beach World Trade Center is pouring $5 million into a new executive meeting center in hopes of capturing one segment of business travel that's still active.

LB WTC Real Estate Partners LLC, formed by Ensemble Investments LLC and AEW Partners IV LP for its 2002 purchase of the center, will be adding as much as 12,000 square feet as part of the expansion.

"Development is moving forward," said Thomas Wingham, senior manager brand communications for Hilton Hotels Corp., which operates the 393-room hotel at the project. "Right now we're clearing space for the new center."

Wingham said the center had received conditional accreditation from the International Association of Conference Centers--a St. Louis-based group that sets meeting space standards. There are only four IACC-accredited centers in Los Angeles and Orange counties.

The development of the conference center is spurred in part by the uptick in travel through Long Beach Airport, according to Anna Chung, an associate at PKF Consulting, which tracks the hotel industry.

Passenger traffic at the airport, about 10 miles from the hotel, has shot up 70 percent, to 1.5 million, since JetBlue Airways designated the facility its West Coast hub in June 2002.

Holiday Grinch

Despite a recent uptick in consumer confidence and spending, Mattel Inc. Chief Executive Bob Eckert is wary of the coming holiday season.

Eckert told the Bane of America Securities Conference on Sept. 17 that the retail climate remains tough for the El Segundo-based toymaker.

"There has been something to tax refunds, having disposable cash, refinancing the house, 0 percent car loans," Eckert said. "But there's still a lot of unemployment, there's still a lot of anxiety. Consumer confidence got better but it's off a very low base."

Eckert's views are at odds with favorable forecasts about fourth quarter growth being offered many economists--still spurred in large part by consumer spending that has been propping up an otherwise lackluster economy.

Eckert said he views the most recent batch of retail sales data as good news, "but I don't get carried away with a few data points. I urge people to look at the things we have seen for the last year in retail and the focus on lean inventories. I don't take one month and change my mind that it's not going to be tough out there."

Analysts, while not surprised at Eckert's outlook, said it's too early to predict how the holiday season will fare for retailers. Moreover, they argue that August's improved sales and consumer confidence levels could be signs of better days to come for retailers.

"The economy hasn't turned," said Aubie Goldenberg, a partner at Ernst & Young's retail and consumer products division. "But I still think people can be cautiously optimistic."

Batting a thousand

The Four Points Los Angeles International Airport hotel pulled the equivalent of a perfect game in baseball by staying 100 percent booked during the entire month of August. "A general manager is very lucky to see one sell-out month in an entire career," said general manager Phil Baxter. "Most don't. This is extremely rare."

Staff reporter Andy Fixmer can be reached by phone at [phone], ext. 263, or by e-mail at [e-mail].