A Different Approach To The Regional Center
In Simi Valley, California, Forest City and The Corti Gilchrist Partnership launch one of the few regional centers to open this year.
Randall Shearin

Opening night at Simi Valley Town Center in late October 2005.

The site that now holds Simi Valley Town Center was a parcel of land that was passed over for years by developers. Zoned as a regional mall in the 1970s, it would have been impossible to build a four-anchor regional mall on the site, which slopes up a steep hillside along the 118 Freeway in Ventura County, California. For years, first Forest City, then Corti Gilchrist, struggled with how the company would build a mall. As they were planning, the industry changed so that centers had more open-air environments and three or four department stores were no longer necessary to build malls. Corti Gilchrist took a hard look at the property, considering convenience retail, residential, hospitality and other uses for the property. In 2002, the company partnered with Forest City's west coast division to tackle the project. The partners looked at what the community really needed: a regional specialty retail center with two department stores and a power center. It revised its plans for Simi Valley Town Center into two centers: a regional lifestyle center and an adjacent power center that is known as Town & Country. In addition to the retail components, a multifamily project is being built into the hillside above the center. When completely built out in 2006, Simi Valley Town Center will be 1.5 million square feet, including the lifestyle component (600,000 square feet), power center (300,000 square feet) and 500-unit apartment complex (600,000 square feet).

Simi Valley Town Center's amenities include play areas for children, like this water feature.

“The terrain of the site really allowed us to separate the uses of the center and build a center that the community needs,” says Wayne Finley. “The terrain helped us create these shelves for the lifestyle center, the power center and the multifamily component.”

The multifamily project will sit 35 feet higher than the mall, above the center along the hillside. The views from the apartment site go for miles over the San Fernando Valley.

Simi Valley Town Center's common area is open, but trellises provide shade from exposure to the elements.

“Crafting the site to accommodate these special uses and the needs for the balance of the site for the amount of buildable area to meet our clients' needs was an incredible challenge,” says Andy Feola, principal of Pasadena, California-based F+A Architects, who designed the center and who brought the site to the developers. “We especially wanted the power center to be a part — but not a part of — the Town Center. We also wanted to take advantage of the views from the hillside and place the residences on a higher knoll and the shopping center on a more convenient knoll to really take the best advantage of the site.”

The architectural theme for the center was an Italian hill town, again dictated by the site. Along those lines, F+A Architects added in elements like cupolas, clay tile, stucco, Italian-style lighting and a Mediterranean paint scheme that leads to that ambiance. The common area of the center, which is open-air, is lined with trellises that provide shade and ambiance.

Combining lifestyle center with regional mall elements and a mall was key to the success of Simi Valley Town Center.

The malls' developers placed string lights between each lamppost to add to the Italian feel. With the restaurants on the front of the center coupled with the festive feel of the lights, the first thing you see when you drive up to the center is activity.

The center's open-air environment also creates an inviting atmosphere that shoppers in the area are not used to. The developers purchased an olive tree grove about a year before the center's opening and transplanted more than 100 of the trees to the center. While they add to the center's landscaping, the trees also add to the Italian village feel of the project.

“The open-air design of the center is a huge draw to the marketplace,” says Corti. “It gives us a competitive edge, as well as an inviting atmosphere.”

While the three developers all had development and leasing responsibilities during the center's creation, Forest City took over management at opening.

The center's six sit-down restaurants also add something to the community. The nearest full-service restaurants are currently in communities like Thousand Oaks and Agoura Hills. Creating a restaurant environment at Simi Valley Town Center almost acts like another anchor for the project, since they will be a huge attraction for locals and visitors to the market.

“Restaurants are much more important today than they were 20 years ago,” says Gilchrist. “We have lined the entire front of the projects with restaurants so visitors can see them as they approach the center.”

Restaurants planned for the center include California Pizza Kitchen, Corner Bakery, Dakota's Steak and Fish House, Red Robin, Fuji Sushi and Exotic Thai.   Islands Fine Burgers and Drinks, Johnny Carino's Italian and Dave's are located in the Town & Country area. Smaller food tenants, such as Quiznos Sub, Panda Express, Great Wraps, Hot Dog on a Stick, Qdoba Mexican Grill, Haagen Dazs, Jamba Juice, San's Pizzeria and Wetzel's Pretzels surround the outdoor “food court,” a non-traditional eating area under a trellised patio that resembles an Italian outdoor dining room.   Gloria Jean's Coffees, Starbucks Coffee and Sweet Factory complete the list of eateries throughout the center.

With the opening in late October, Simi Valley Town Center is off to a good start. Traffic has been positive leading into the holiday season and most retailers will have their doors open by Thanksgiving to meet the crowds for shoppers. Specialty retailers at the lifestyle center component of the project include Gymboree, Hollister, Forever 21, Charlotte Russe, Eddie Bauer, Chico's, Hot Topic, Abercrombie & Fitch, J.Jill, EB Games, Lucky Brand Jeans, PacSun, Lane Bryant, Express, Jos. A. Bank Clothiers, Urban Outfitters, Vans, Anchor Blue, Zumiez, Anthropologie, New York & Co., American Eagle Outfitters, Coach, Express and Ann Taylor Loft.

Since large-scale open-air projects with multiple department store anchors are rare, the developers are reluctant to term the project with a new label. As time moves along, so too will Simi Valley Town Center, says Gilchrist, who, as the former CEO of The Hahn Company, has seen many centers he originally developed transform over his career.

“Opening a shopping center is just the beginning of a process, just the beginning of the center's life,” he says. “Shopping centers really evolve over their lifetimes.”

Simi Valley already has one change ahead of it: during the final stages of development the developers learned that Federated would close the Robinsons-May store at the center at some point toward 2007. The fate of the store is in control of Federated Department Stores for now, but Forest City and Corti Gilchrist were confident at opening that a new and better tenant would come along.

“We didn't look at Federated's decision as a negative,” says Corti. “We look at it as an opportunity for Simi Valley Town Center to add more to the community and to the center.”


©2005 France Publications, Inc. Duplication or reproduction of this article not permitted without authorization from France Publications, Inc. For information on reprints of this article contact Barbara Sherer at (630) 554-6054.