Macerich Plans Cinemark Theater

VICTORVILLE, CA-The Macerich Co. of Santa Monica has signed Plano, TX-based Cinemark USA Inc. to build a 16-screen, all-stadium-seating theater at The Mall of Victor Valley, one of the biggest improvements the Santa Monica-based REIT has announced for the 508,000-sf regional mall since Macerich acquired it in the summer of 2004. Projected to open in spring 2006, the new 65,000-sf theater will be built on an expanded site of the mall's existing Cinemark theater.To make way for the new theater complex, the existing theater, a 28,000-sf venue called Cinemark Bear Valley 10, will be closed, but a second Cinemark theater nearby, Movies 10 on Mariposa Road, will remain open. New construction for Cinemark 16 is scheduled to start in July. Alan Stock, president of Cinemark USA Inc., says that Victorville "has been a strong market for us for some time" and that the theater company's investment in the new project reflects the mall's position as "the dominant retail center in this high growth area."The Mall of Victor Valley is at I-15 Freeway and Bear Valley Road. It is anchored by Gottschalks, J.C. Penney, Mervyn's and Sears. Macerich reports that the property generated average mall store sales of $403 per sf in 2004 and ended the year with a 97.5%-occupancy rate. When it bought the mall last year, Macerich reported that tenant sales per sf had increased almost 6% per year on a compounded annual basis from 1997 through 2003.Mary Paquin, Macerich senior manager for leasing, says the Cinemark expansion is expected to boost demand among merchants for space at the property. "We hope to continue to upgrade the merchandise mix" at the mall, she says, adding that mall management is talking to "a number of higher-end operators that our customers have been asking for."The Mall of Victor Valley is the only regional shopping center in the Inland Empire's High Desert area, which has been growing faster as development that pushed out into the Inland Empire from Southern California's coastal areas now pushes farther out into the more easterly portions of the Inland Empire. When Macerich bought the property, retail industry specialists and property brokers said that the REIT's acquisition illustrated the growing willingness of institutional investors and public companies to enter the Inland Empire, once almost entirely the domain of smaller, private investors.