New Face for an Old Place

$100 Million Renovation for Mall in San Jose

The reconfiguration of the Eastridge Mall includes a new two-story wing with a 16-screen movie theater, food court and exterior storefronts. Vratsinas Construction Co. is gutting two-thirds of the mall to the shell and rebuilding the interior from scratch. Completion is scheduled for summer 2005.

By Thomas York

	A reconfigured Eastridge Mall will have two levels of shops and restaurants. Two Rivers Demolition eliminated the third floor earlier in the year (photo courtesy of ELS).

General contractor Vratsinas Construction Co. of Arkansas is nine months into the modernization of the 30-year-old Eastridge Shopping Center in San Jose, one of the largest indoor malls west of the Mississippi.

Since last December, VCC has gutted half of the 1.2-million-sq.-ft. structure, a project designed to better position the aging mall against newer, trendier shopping centers in the region.

Eastridge's owner, General Growth Properties of Chicago, is adding a 16-screen movie theater, new food court and exterior storefronts as part of the $100-million renovation and expansion. Completion is expected in late-summer 2005.

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"It's more of a re-configuration than an expansion," said Adam Tritt, senior director of development at General Growth. "We're replacing a vacant [Emporium] department store with a new AMC theater and adding 100,000 sq. ft. of new retail."

He said challenges include working directly under the flight path of departing and arriving small airplanes from Reid-Hillview Airport, a general aviation facility near Eastridge.

"We're in the direct glide path, so we have to explore a number of site-planning alternatives to get everything to work," Tritt added. "It was a very unusual aspect to planning the renovation."

The project turned into a public controversy this summer when local building unions launched a boycott against the general contractor and owner, claiming the use of out-of-state workers at less-than-prevailing wages.

Neil Struthers, head of the Santa Clara and San Benito Counties Building Trades and Construction Trades Council, said in a recent phone interview, "There are 3,000 union members in that immediate area, and a lot of them are being denied jobs."

Both General Growth and VCC officials declined to comment on the charges or ongoing boycott.

But General Growth ran a full-page ad in the San Jose Mercury News that denied the charges that VCC was using mostly out-of-state workers. The ad was published in response to several ads appearing in the same newspaper paid for by trade unions.

Struthers claimed just 40 percent of the workers are local. But the mall's general manager John Peterson said in a recent phone interview that 74 percent of the workers come from the region. Only eight percent are from out of state, Peterson said.

Meanwhile, Ryan S. McClendon, a VCC vice president, said from his Dallas office that the project has required shutting down a portion of the mall and "keeping half of it open during construction."

The work includes "gutting two-thirds of the mall to the shell and rebuilding the interior starting from scratch," he said.

The project features steel-frame construction and cast-in-place concrete.

McClendon said subcontractor Two Rivers Demolition Inc. of Rancho Cordova performed the demolition of the old center. Other subcontractors on the project include American Ironworks of Acampo, which is erecting the steel frame; Redwood City-based Redwood City Electric; South San Francisco-based W.L. Hickey Sons (plumbing); and Fremont-based Newcon Concrete Construction.

	Major construction activity at the Eastridge Mall includes replacing a vacant Emporium department store with a new AMC theater and adding 100,000 sq. ft. of new retail (rendering courtesy of ELS).

ELS Architecture of Berkeley is the designer for the renovation.

ELS principal Jamie Rusin said the renovation would help Eastridge better compete against newer retail centers, such as the nearby 2-year-old Santana Row, which features an outdoor "shopping street" crammed with trendy stores and restaurants.

He said Eastridge has lagged behind the change needs of merchants and shoppers, and the renovation is "long overdue because the nature of retailing has changed over the past 30 years."

Rusin said malls are adding new attractions, such as movie complexes, to better compete against newer shopping destinations. "We're trying to combine the best of two worlds, the outdoor street experience with the interior shopping mall environment," he added.

Demolition of the malls' third story was an important aspect of the design for the project, Rusin said. The mall's three floors had 12-ft. ceiling heights, which "were woefully inadequate for modern retailing," he added. "There is more value in having two levels. There is less space but there is a clearer presentation of the tenants and better circulation."

Demolition included the razing of an old Emporium department store shell that sat empty for the past eight years. The site will serve as the new home of an AMC theater.

Rusin said patrons will have to enter the mall to see movies, which will lure more shoppers into the mall's interior.

"We're tearing down a dark, empty eyesore and turning the mall inside out," he added. "We've blended the inside with the outside so that all of the components work together."