Developer wants 5-story hotel at Janss mall




NEW USE— A developer has proposed building a hotel in the space formerly occupied by Marshalls at Janss Marketplace. The Thousand Oaks City Council has voted to allow the developer’s application to continue. RICHARD GILLARD Acorn Newspapers

NEW USE— A developer has proposed building a hotel in the space formerly occupied by Marshalls at Janss Marketplace. The Thousand Oaks City Council has voted to allow the developer’s application to continue. RICHARD GILLARD Acorn Newspapers

Efforts to revitalize Janss Marketplace are headed in a new direction.

Plans recently revealed call for a five-story extended-stay hotel in the middle of the Moorpark Road shopping center in Thousand Oaks.

Sandy Sigal, president of NewMark Merrill Companies, which owns the mall, said new homes are also in the mix.

“Our understanding of the (Thousand Oaks) general plan is that it will give us a fair allotment of residential units, and we definitely plan to pursue those,” Sigal said.

The CEO has been working with Irvine-based Greens Group, a real estate investment firm, to bring the hotel project to life. Greens wants to build a 216- room Homewood Suites/Home2 Suites by Hilton in the former Marshalls space between the parking structure and Old Navy. It would be the first hotel ever built at the 60-year-old mall.

City Councilmembers Ed Jones and Claudia Bill-de la Peña said they didn’t want the hotel to get in the way of proposed workforce housing at the mall.

“We did designate this as a good place for affordable housing,” Jones said. “I’m really torn. I’d like to help the Janss mall . . . but I just don’t know why they have to put the hotel first.”

Councilmember Bob Engler, joined Jones and Bill-de la Peña in expressing concern over the height of the hotel—current plans have it extending 72 feet when metal features on the rooftop are added in. The applicant is expected to address the matter ahead of any final vote.

The tallest feature currently at the Janss mall is the 48-foottall parking structure.

Speaking on behalf of Greens Group, Atman Kadakia said his company has done extensive research into the area and has determined the hotel concept would do very well at Janss.

He said an extended-stay location just over the county line was doing brisk business.

“As far as the tax revenues, we’re losing to Westlake Village. The Residence Inn in Westlake Village is beyond on fire, the numbers are off the charts,” he said. “People are commuting from Thousand Oaks, Amgen, all of these areas to go stay in Westlake Village. They’re dining there. They’re shopping there. They’re staying there.”

As proposed, the dual-brand hotel would be 131,000 square feet with 13,300 square feet of retail space on the ground floor.

There is no mention of additional parking, which will be addressed during the formal application process, city staff said.

Homewood Suites is Hilton’s traditional extended-stay model while Home2 Suites is its new luxury concept, offering customizable rooms with long-term accommodations. According to design drawings, the building would be split between the two brands, with 124 rooms in the Homewood Suites side and 92 in the Home2 Suites portion.

The 28,000- square- foot space where the hotel would go was home to Marshalls until 2017. In recent years, it has been used for Reign of Terror, an annual haunted house that has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the Conejo Rec and Park District.

Otherwise, it has sat empty.

The last hotel opened in Thousand Oaks was the Hampton Inn on Ventu Park Road, which Sigal also developed.