San Fernando Valley : Northridge Mall Gets Ready for Reopening

Like jittery actors preparing for the adrenaline rush of opening night, the staff of the quake-battered Northridge Fashion Center spent Friday unpacking merchandise and putting other finishing touches on the mall scheduled to open next week.

Between 70 to 80 of approximately 180 stores are expected to be ready when the doors open at 10 a.m. Monday, but marketing director Annette Bethers said that should not discourage shoppers from taking a look at the refurbished shopping center.

“We don’t want to disappoint anyone” because there are still shuttered stores, but enough work has been completed that “we want them to see the mall in all of its beauty,” she said.

She added that a grand reopening celebration is scheduled for Aug. 2, when about 110 stores are expected to be open.

On Friday, the mall’s marbled corridors reverberated to a cacophony of saws, hammers, drills--and the ubiquitous Muzak channel--as workers toiled over a myriad of cosmetic construction jobs. Inside many stores, retailers were busy stocking shelves with everything from lingerie and T-shirts to books and software.

Bethers said that shoppers should expect to see a brand-new Northridge Fashion Center come Monday, a retail center filled with numerous additions such as a 25,000-square-foot food court and a ceiling made almost entirely of skylights.

And there will be plenty of parking. Although the center’s three parking structures were demolished after the quake, only two were rebuilt.

Bethers said that one was made larger to maintain the same number of spaces that existed before the temblor.