VALENCIA MALL HAS BIG PLAN WESTFIELD LOOKING TO EXPAND FACILITY.

Byline: JUDY O'ROURKE

Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA -- While smaller by a third than originally conceived, the owners of Westfield Valencia Town Center plan to expand the mall to 1.3 million square feet and build more parking for shoppers.

The company is mum about new retail and restaurant tenants, but Macy's girth would increase by one-third.

"For us it is beyond exciting," said Carrie Rogers, the city's economic development manager. "Some of the retailers Westfield is pursing have been on the city's list of highly desirable stores for the last couple of years."

Roughly 30 new shops and five restaurants are designed to cater to an upwardly mobile population whose annual median household income is $94,300. Teen and young-adult shops and higher-end stores are among the offerings.

The mall is nearly 100 percent leased now.

"It isn't rocket science ... our residents make a lot of money and they like to spend it shopping, dining and through entertainment," Rogers said.

Sears and J.C. Penney would remain as is, as would the food court, but two multilevel parking garages would be built on the periphery, said Aimee Schwimmer, an associate planner for the city.

Talk of improvements during the past two years generally called for adding 600,000 square feet of floor space, but the number was later trimmed to 400,000.

A food court expansion in 2001 marked the mall's last growth spurt and hungry shoppers need more places to spend money, the Australian-based company says.

"(We are) expanding to meet the needs of our Santa Clarita Valley customers and community," Catharine Dickey, a Westfield spokeswoman, said in an e-mail Tuesday. "(We) need new space to accommodate new retailers and restaurants who wish to enter the Santa Clarita Valley market."

Dickey said the cost of the project will not be disclosed until the plan is finalized.

In the fall, Westfield completed a 600,000-square-foot enlargement of its Topanga mall -- for a total of 1.6 million square feet -- making it the largest mall in the San Fernando Valley. The company invested $330 million into that project, its most ambitious yet. The shopping mecca, which boasts a three-story Nordstrom, Cole-Haan, Burberry, Michael Kors, lures high-end Santa Clarita shoppers.

Valencia's add-on would rise from the existing parking lot. Some surface slots would remain -- spaces overall would grow from 2,893 to 5,407 -- and the garages would spiral up to five levels.

Macy's plans to add 50,000 square feet of floor space to today's 145,000 feet. Other shops would be free-standing, giving the mall an open-air flavor.

The mall is a significant tax engine for the city. Of the $83.4 million general fund budgeted over the next 12 months beginning last July, $32.3 million is expected from sales tax, said Gina Schuchard, the city's finance manager.

The proposal could come before the Santa Clarita Planning Commission in May, Schwimmer said.

Westfield owns the mall in partnership with LNR Property, of which The Newhall Land and Farming Company is a subsidiary. No new anchor stores are contemplated, and once the plan is approved it could take 18 months to two years to construct. In part, shake-ups in the retail world scuttled earlier plans for a larger project.

judy.orourke(at)dailynews.com

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