Giant Mall Planned for Riverside County

A Canadian company that owns one of the world’s biggest malls is developing preliminary plans to build a giant shopping mall and amusement park in Riverside County south of Lake Elsinore, a county supervisor said Friday.

The proposed “Mall of the World,” with 2.7 million square feet of gross leaseable space, would be the largest in the state, surpassing Del Amo Fashion Plaza in Torrance and South Coast Plaza.

By the time the mall and surrounding developments are completed in 10 to 15 years, the total investment would approach $4 billion and employ around 15,000 people, said Supervisor Walter Abraham, whose district embraces the Rancho California area where the project would be built.

The Triple Five Corp. of Canada, which is owned by the four reclusive Ghermezian brothers, has taken an option to buy 165 acres next to Interstate 15. The owner of the land is Dr. Robin Oxman of Huntington Beach, who said he entered an agreement with Triple Five last month.

The project is in the preliminary stages. In addition to completing the purchase of the land, Triple Five must present a formal plan to Riverside County and win formal approval for their plans.

Mall in Minnesota

Triple Five is known for combining shopping malls and amusements parks on a grand scale. The West Edmonton Mall in Canada, said to be the world’s largest enclosed mall at 5.3 million square feet, has 800 stores, a roller coaster, a submarine ride, water slides, a porpoise show and even a replica of Columbus’ Santa Maria.

The company recently broke ground on the Mall of America in Minnesota, which will be the largest in the United States. Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park is building a Camp Snoopy theme park at the mall to complement its 800 shops.

John Tolman, a local representative of Triple Five, declined to discuss plans for the mall on Friday.

But David McElroy, managing director of the Riverside County Redevelopment Agency, said Tolman has told county officials that the company envisions an enclosed mall with hundreds of retail shops, restaurants, dozens of theaters and “some type of water-related amusement park.”

The goal is to make the mall one of Southern California’s leading tourist attractions, McElroy said.

“It’s a destination with both entertainment and shopping,” McElroy said. “Some people may go there instead of Disneyland or Knott’s because of the shopping that is available.”

Area Is Booming

It’s known that the Canadian developers are negotiating to buy still more land in the area, said W. Steven Johnson, a vice president of the Meyers Group consulting firm in Corona, which has studied the area.

The Rancho California area is booming. The area should have 200,000 residents by the turn of the century, leading to the sale of 68,000 more houses over the next 10 years, according to Meyers Group studies.

“Southern Riverside County is ripe for a theme mall,” Johnson said.

“It’s the sort of thing people will drive to; it becomes a destination even for people outside the area.”

Times Staff Writer Michael Flagg contributed to this story.