THOUSAND OAKS, CA-Burlington Coat Factory plans to open a new 85,000-square-foot store in  September at Newmark Merrill Cos.' Janss Marketplace in a space formerly occupied by a Mervyns Department Store. The new location will be the first in Thousand Oaks for the Burlington, NJ-based retailer and the 49^th in California, employing approximately 75 sales and management workers.

Sandy Sigal, CEO and president of NewMark Merrill Cos., says that when Mervyn’s left the center, NewMark Merrill went looking for "an upgrade that would be an excellent complement to our existing retailers." Retailers at the center now include Old Navy, Mann Theaters, Toys R Us and many other local and national merchants.

Sigal cites the location of Janss Marketplace at Moorpark Road and Hillcrest Drive with its 47,952 daily traffic counts at the intersection and the Thousand Oaks population of 119,000 that make it appealing to retailers. Janss is part of a portfolio of more than 44 shopping centers that NewMark Merrill owns or manages.

The former Mervyns space is in a building at Janss Marketplace that is owned by Santa Monica-based Macerich, a shopping center REIT that bought 43 Mervyns department stores in 2008, before Mervyns went bankrupt. Some of those stores were in malls owned by Macerich and some were in malls owned by other companies, such as the store at Janss Marketplace.

The Burlington Coat Factory lease is for 11 years and expires in July 2021. Building owner Macerich was represented by senior vice president David Rush of the Camarillo office of CB Richard Ellis in the lease.