Main Place Santa Ana

The owner of Laguna Hills Mall is planning a major renovation and expansion that would add movie theaters, a new food court, parking garages, two new department stores and a second level of specialty stores. Expansion plans quietly submitted to the county would boost the mall's retail space by 67%, giving affluent South Orange County its first so-called "super-mall."

In keeping with its low profile, MainPlace/Santa Ana plans to open a $10-million wing today without the ribbon-cutting, speeches and brass bands that often accompany such events. That's because, mall officials say, there won't be too much to see for the next few days, aside from a splashy 20-foot-high neon light sculpture, an upscale stationery and gift shop, a shoe store and a men's clothier. The new wing will eventually have 20 new stores, boosting the mall's total number of stores to 195.

The $7-million renovation of the MainPlace/Santa Ana shopping mall is now more than half complete, an expansion that will add a new wing with 32,500 square feet of leaseable space. The construction will add 20 new stores by the time it is completed in November. In addition, a 150,000-square-foot May Co. department store is planned to open next spring. The May Co. will be the mall's fourth anchor store, joining Nordstrom, Bullocks and Robinson's.

As national manufacturers scramble to portray their products as environmentally safe, county retailers and clothing producers are cashing in on Earth Day as well. While a little late for Sunday's Earth Day, the MainPlace/Santa Ana mall plans a raft of activities next month under the tongue-twisting banner, "Earth Day Is Every Day in May." For starters, the mall plans to open a recycling center in its west parking lot for glass bottles, aluminum cans and newspapers.

In some ways, the numbers are a tale of two malls. Two years ago, MainPlace/Santa Ana and Anaheim Plaza had nearly identical annual sales of just above $80 million. But a year later, business at MainPlace was booming while Anaheim Plaza was among the very worst performers of Orange County's 13 mega-malls. The difference? In 1988, MainPlace completed its first full year after a complete, multimillion-dollar renovation.

MainPlace/Santa Ana is planning a major expansion--including the likely addition of a May Co. department store--only 20 months after a complete renovation that transformed the mall into one of Orange County's most successful shopping centers. The expansion plans, confirmed Friday by executives with JMB/Urban Development Co., call for the addition of a fourth anchor store encompassing about 150,000 square feet and about 20 smaller retail shops on two levels, totaling about 35,000 square feet.

Japan's largest consumer credit company has purchased an 18-acre parcel of undeveloped land across from MainPlace/Santa Ana for $23.5 million, a representative of the Japanese firm said Friday. Orient Finance Co., which has more than $29 billion in total assets, paid slightly more than $1.3 million an acre to acquire the site from the Hurwitz family. According to area real estate observers, the price appears to have set a local record for land sold without approvals for development.