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

Craig Realty founder Steve Craig told GlobeSt.com earlier thisyear that the company’s expansion of the Citadel Outlets and otheroutlet centers that it owns reflects a number of factors, rangingfrom shoppers focusing more on value in today’s economy to Craig’sown focus on promoting and maintaining its centers. He citedpositive results for the company’s properties despite thedownturn.

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