Malls expect registers to jingle despite new competition

Susan McCormack and Noaki Schwartz

Despite this fall’s $200-million renovation of the former Mission Viejo

Mall, now called the Shops at Mission Viejo, Newport-Mesa retailers say

they are more optimistic than ever about generating high revenues in the

weeks leading up to Christmas.

The battle for Orange County’s spending cash begins today, when the

holiday shopping season officially begins. Sales the day after

Thanksgiving are traditionally the best of any day during the year.

Although there is always competition between Costa Mesa’s South Coast

Plaza and Newport Beach’s Fashion Island, the new South County mall is an

added factor.

But officials say they are not worried.

“We’re very bullish about the holiday season,” said Debra Gunn Downing,

marketing director for South Coast Plaza. “As of October, business was 7%

ahead of last year, and I think we’ll see further improvement.”

At Fashion Island, sales are up by about 6%, marketing director Nina

Robinson said.

“By no means is [the Shops] causing any problems,” Robinson said.

Under the ownership of the nation’s largest mall operator, Simon Property

Group, the Shops at Mission Viejo held a grand reopening in September to

show off its updated look and increased size. A large fountain

coordinated with music was added, and almost 30,000 trees were planted in

and around the center.The mall grew by 47%, from 816,000 square feet to

1.2 million square feet, making it about the same size as Fashion Island

but still less than half the size of South Coast Plaza.

Darren Thomas, a marketing director with Simon Property Group, said sales

at the Shops are projected to top the $105 million the mall generated

last year because it added about 100 stores, including the upscale

department stores Nordstrom and Saks Fifth Avenue.

Fashion Island and South Coast Plaza officials said they expected an

economic boost to come in South County.

“The South County market needed the Shops at Mission Viejo to be

renovated,” Robinson said.

But the officials also said new stores in their malls would keep

attracting shoppers. South Coast Plaza recently opened the West Coast’s

largest Crate & Barrel, at 42,000 square-feet, this month.

Fashion Island’s retailers were also confident.

Bloomingdale’s manager Robert Essman said that his store has been “doing

fine,” and Benetton saleswoman Alisa Castellano said that although sales

slumped during the Shops’ opening weekend, they are back on track.

At South Coast Plaza, Mossimo management has scheduled most of the sales

staff to work the day after Thanksgiving.

“I think it’s going to be out of control,” salesman George Salas said.

Leslie Harris, a Nordstrom spokeswoman, said she doesn’t expect the new

Nordstrom at the Shops to negatively affect sales at the South Coast

Plaza store.

“We feel having a store [in Mission Viejo] is just another way to service

our customers there in South County,” Harris said.

“There’s enough business for everyone,” Gunn Downing said.

BY THE NUMBERS

South Coast Plaza

* 2.7 million square feet

* 275 stores

* Almost $1 billion projected in annual sales

Fashion Island

* 1.25 million square feet

* 240 stores

* $440 million projected in annual sales

The Shops at Mission Viejo

* 1.2 million square feet

* 135 stores

* More than $105 million projected in annual sales