Nordstrom to start work on new Stoneridge store in January Nordstrom to start work on new Stoneridge store in January (November 11, 2005)

3,000-seat movie complex, new restaurants to follow
by Jeb Bing

Nordstrom and the Mills Group, the controlling owner of Stoneridge Shopping Center, expect to have Planning Commission and City Council approvals before year's end to start a multi-million-dollar expansion project in early January that will include new stores, parking and restaurants.

The proposal will add 186,000 square feet to Stoneridge Shopping Center, its first major change since the construction of the Sears retail store in 1997.

Marion Pavan, an associate Pleasanton city planner, said Nordstrom plans to build a new two-story department store totaling 144,000 square feet in front of its current facility, and that Mills plans to build a multi-story, 900-car parking garage on Stoneridge Mall Road next to the new Nordstrom with enclosed connecting ramps between the two structures.

Once the new Nordstrom building is completed in 2007, the old structure will be retrofitted to two levels of new mall stores, with a 66,137 square foot movie theater complex on what is now Nordstrom's third level, with 3,000 seats.

New restaurants also are planned for various parts of the mall, including a 15,600 square foot Cheesecake Factory on the west side of the Macy's Women's store. P.F. Chang's, a national upscale Chinese restaurant chain, has also expressed an interest in adding a facility in the mall, although that deal has not been completed.

David Douglas, a spokesman for the Mills Group, a Virginia-based developer of regional malls, said the agreement with Nordstrom to build a new store with a two-story design that meets its new retail standards, also opens considerable space for Mills to add more upscale retail stores and restaurants.

The overall proposal will increase the size of the mall from 1,223,000 square feet to 1,449,000 square feet, and will provide a total of 6,638 parking spaces.

Construction of Stoneridge Shopping Center began in 1979 with the central mall building and the J.C. Penney, Emporium Capwell and Macy's retail anchor stores. Nordstrom was added in 1989, and Sears and its parking deck were added in 1997.

The mall is governed by an amended development agreement, which grants to the owners vested rights to future development. That agreement allows expansion of the total shopping center to more than what is planned, not including the Nordstrom and Sears stores. The agreement expires in 2012.

Even though the rights to expand are already vested, Nordstrom and the Mills Group must gain design approvals from both the Planning Commission and the City Council. Planners already reviewed the plans at a workshop meeting last month, and the full commission was to take another look last Wednesday night before giving its final approval. The council is expected to sign off on the expansion plans in December.

Because of the amended development agreement, no traffic analyses or approvals will be required since the expansion is within the maximum floor area already allowed in the agreement.

Once the new Nordstrom store is opened in time for the Christmas shopping season in 2007, work will begin on retrofitting and expanding the old store and that section of the mall. The Mill Group expects the full project to be completed in 2008 or 2009.

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