Sooner or later, the former Montclair Plaza will be renovated

The mall, which changed its name to Montclair Place last fall, is ready for a major overhaul that Montclair officials hoped would start last summer. Something could happen by the end of the year, but the mall’s owner is being tight-lipped about a timeline.

Last year at this time, Montclair officials believed a major renovation of the former Montclair Plaza was about to begin.

Los Angeles-based CIM Group, the property’s owner, had plans to upgrade the mall, which officially changed its name to Montclair Place in November.

Those plans included bringing more high-end retail to the 48-year-old mall, creating an outdoor shopping component that would double as a community gathering place and putting a 16-18 screen multiplex on the property.

Ownership also planned to bring in several sit-down restaurants to the property’s south side, facing Interstate 10. The former Robinsons-May building, vacant for roughy 10 years on the mall’s east end, was set to be demolished.

Officials with CIM Group, which has a history of reviving underperforming shopping malls, vowed to make the mall a popular destination location again, much like it was in its heyday during the 1970s and 1980s.

They did not, however, reveal any details regarding their renovation plans, nor would they discuss a construction schedule. Mall management was equally mum, referring all inquiries to CIM Group.

Montclair officials were predicting the overhaul could begin as early as last summer, well in advance of the holiday shopping season.

When that didn’t happen, they were hoping work might start after the Christmas rush, but a visit to the mall today shows only one sign of renovation: parts of the food court are being moved from the mall’s west end so it can be reestablished in the middle of the property, making it more accessible.

That project is expected to be completed by the end of this year.

CIM Group, which bought the property in 2014 from CWCapital Asset Management for a reported $170 million, said in a statement this week that it’s “working to formulate a phased redevelopment plan for Montclair Plaza” and that those changes “will be announced when they are finalized and approved for implementation.”

Right now, it’s impossible to say when the renovation begin or what form they will take, said one Montclair official who is involved Montclair Place’s makeover.

“We really don’t know when this is going to start,” said Steve Lustro, Montclair’s community development director. “We thought they were ready to move forward, but the word we’re getting now is that [CIM Group] is  still working out a lot of the details. We don’t know anything more than that. On a project of this magnitude, I guess we’re not surprised.”

When it opened as Montclair Plaza in 1968, the mall was a one-level facility whose main competition was Eastland Shopping Center in West Covina, an outdoor mall west of Kellogg Hill, and the Pomona Mall, also an outdoor establishment.

The second level was added in 1985, and the plaza underwent a major indoor renovation eight years ago.

Despite those improvements, Montclair Place has slipped, mostly because of increased competition: besides online shopping, Ontario Mills, Victoria Garden in Rancho Cucamonga, The Shoppes at Chino Hills and the Chino Spectrum Marketplace & Towne Center have all put a dent into the mall next to Interstate 10 between Central and Monte Vista avenues.

Although it’s nowhere near in as bad a condition as the Carousel Mall in San Bernardino – which is probably beyond saving in its present configuration – Montclair Place does feel old.

While it has few vacancies, and its Barnes & Noble bookstore adds some life to the property’s east end, it still lacks high-end specialty retail and its tenant mix is less than spectacular.

Even having Nordstrom as an anchor tenant – along with Macy’s, Sears and JCPenney – isn’t enough to generate an air of excitement in the 48-year-old shopping mall, said Hratch Cherchian, owner and manager of Fast-Fix Jewelry & Watch Repair.

“Nordstrom is good but it’s not enough,” said Cherchian, who has owned and operated the store on mall’s upper level for nearly 20 years. “We need more. Why not a Bloomingdale’s, or an Apple store? That would get people shopping here again.”

Montclair Place has several design flaws that keep people from shopping there, chief among them its main entrance on Moreno Street and how the property appears to people driving by the property, Cherchian said.

Both levels are fronted by parking structures, and the lower level sits so far below ground that its entrance can’t be seen from the street.

“It doesn’t look like a mall, and people get confused when they come here,” Cherchian said. “We get calls from people all the time asking where our store is, how do they find it, and they still get confused. It should not be that difficult. We need some high-end retail, but fixing the outside is the biggest thing that needs to get done.”

Nicki Porter is more direct in her assessment of Montclair Plaza’s present condition.

“It’s boring,” said Porter, who for the past year has sold cell phone accessories at a kiosk one plaza’s west end. “They really need some new stores. It’s pretty plain compared to Ontario Mills and places like that.”

Any mall must have something unique to offer shoppers if it’s going to survive in today’s hyper-competitive retail environment, and Montclair Place has grown too plain over the years, said Brad Umansky, president of Progressive Real Estate Partners in Ontario.

“They’re getting competition from all sides now, so they have to something, but there’s no question that it can be fixed,” said Umansky, a longtime retail specialist in the Inland Empire. “It’s still a great location. How many retail sites have that kind of freeway access and are surrounded by residential? Not too many.”

Even during lean times Montclair Place generates much of the city’s overall sales tax revenue, so getting the mall competitive again is vital, Lustro said.

“From the city’s perspective, I don’t think you can [overstate] how important this project is,” Lustro said. “It has to get done.”