Out With the Old

OXNARD —  As the last shoppers streamed out of The Esplanade mall’s Robinsons-May store on Wednesday, shopkeeper Janet Lee wondered whether she might soon be packing up and moving, too.

“We’ll see if business stays the same,” Lee, who manages the Epoch Impact clothing store, said as shoppers snapped up the last items at Robinsons-May before the department store moves to Ventura. “But if it starts to drop, we’ll have to leave.”

Longtime Esplanade anchors Robinsons-May and Sears are moving to Buenaventura Mall, soon to be rechristened Pacific View. Sears has not yet announced its Oxnard closing date, but both plan to reopen in Ventura in November.

Lee and the rest of the 30-year-old Esplanade’s storekeepers wonder whether Pacific View Mall will make their shopping center obsolete. Will those vast spaces left by the bolting department stores be filled? Will a possible sale of the Esplanade go through? And, if so, what happens then?

The mall’s owners are negotiating with a buyer, according to Richard Maggio, Oxnard’s community development director, and have several potential backup buyers. It’s up to the new buyer to decide what happens to the shopping center.

The new owner could close the mall and start a new commercial project, Maggio said.

“It may not be worth saving the buildings,” he said. “They may want to modify them or add new ones.”

The Esplanade’s San Francisco-based co-owners declined to comment on the possible sale.

The mall will keep the rest of its tenants at least through the holidays, according to Sandy Dellibovi, Esplanade general manager, but beyond that, she would only say that the owners are “evaluating several opportunities.”

To lose the mall’s $700,000 a year in sales taxes would hurt. But two auto dealers expected to move to the city could help lessen the pain, Maggio said.

In the meantime, shoppers helped give the city a last-minute sales tax boost at the Robinsons-May closing sale, which began a week ago.

On Wednesday, a buzz of shoppers flowed through--sifting through the remaining evening dresses and Christmas ornaments. There was no more men’s department, no mannequins and no real checkout counter.

Nearly all that remained was the store’s skeleton: its walls, fixtures and an empty makeup counter.

But hard-core shoppers were willing to search for bargains. Few of them, however, trickled into the main mall area, and many said they were making their last trip to the Esplanade.

“It’s down to nothing in there, but if you have the patience, it’s worth it,” said Sunnie Newman of Oxnard, who loaded herself down with Christmas ornaments at the sale. As far as the Esplanade was concerned, “it wouldn’t bother me if it did [shut down],” she said.

Robinsons-May was the only thing bringing Kay Madden of Ventura to the Esplanade, she said.

“I’ll never come back to this mall,” said Madden, who walked out of Robinsons-May with a purse for $2.13. “It’s had its heyday.”

If retailers at the Esplanade are prepared for a slide, those at Buenaventura Mall, which has scheduled its post-renovation reopening for Nov. 15, see only blue skies after a tough two years of construction.

“It’s going to be good,” said Nathan Minkle, a consultant at Great Earth Vitamins. “A lot of customers were doing phone orders, but now they’re actually starting to come in.”

And Janet Lee’s loss is Charlotte Auer’s gain. Her gift store, John T’s, sits at the mouth of the soon-to-open Robinsons-May.

“We’re so close, we’re going to get a lot of the overflow,” Auer said. “We’re anxiously awaiting the grand opening.”