CITY OF COMMERCE, CA-J.A. Stowell Construction Inc. of Newport Beach has completed construction on a 157,000-square-foot expansion of the iconic 276,210-square-foot Citadel Outlets shopping center along the Interstate 5 Freeway on behalf of owner Craig Realty Group, also based in Newport Beach. The brand-new retail space, a rarity at a time when little new construction is under way, includes the addition of 36 new stores and a new two-level parking structure (69,616 square-feet). The expansion brings the Citadel Outlets to 433,210 total square feet of buildings.

Craig Realty founder Steve Craig told GlobeSt.com earlier this year that the company’s expansion of the Citadel Outlets and other outlet centers that it owns reflects a number of factors, ranging from shoppers focusing more on value in today’s economy to Craig’s own focus on promoting and maintaining its centers. He cited positive results for the company’s properties despite the downturn.

Stowell, in addition to completing the new construction at the Citadel Outlets, built out the new interiors of the 20,000 square-foot, two-story, Nike Outlet; the 3,500 square-foot Anchor Blue Outlet; the 2,500 square-foot O’Neil Outlet; and the 1,500 square-foot Spritz Outlet. Jim Stowell, president of J.A. Stowell , notes that the Nike Outlet was not scheduled to open until the spring of 2011, but Stowell incorporated its tenant improvement into our shell work in order to open the store before the Black Friday kickoff to the holiday shopping season on the day after Thanksgiving. He adds that one challenge in constructing the new buildings and parking structure was that his firm was working “in a completely active shopping environment along with expansion of one of the existing stores into the new phase.”

Citadel Outlets is known throughout Southern California for its Assyrian-style castle walls, visible along Interstate 5 at the Atlantic Boulevard exit in Commerce. The phase three construction continued the Assyrian theme through a variety of traditional stone and plaster details evocative of the decorative style of the original 1929 builder of the Citadel, Adolph Schleicher and L.A. architectural firm Morgan, Walls and Clements.