Moreno Valley Mall could reopen as soon as Tuesday, city attorney says
Eight of 9 violations that have shuttered most of the mall since Feb. 19 have been fixed, Steven Quintanilla says.
Black News 
The Moreno Valley Mall, mostly shuttered since Thursday night, Feb. 19, because of what city officials called life-threatening fire code infractions, could reopen as soon as Tuesday, March 3, City Attorney Steven Quintanilla said.
Eight of the nine violations that led to the mall’s closure have been fixed, Quintanilla said Monday afternoon, March 2. The remaining violation has to do with the mall’s fire doors, according to a document provided by the attorney.
RELATED: Moreno Valley Mall resolves two more code violations, leaving three
A mall inspection has been scheduled for 1 p.m. Tuesday “or sooner if requested to have staff continue to inspect the remaining items,” Quintanilla said via email.
Reached via text, he said the mall might be allowed to reopen as soon as Tuesday “subject to the fire department’s final inspection of the fire doors, which the mall plans to complete tomorrow.”
Dave Oates, a mall spokesperson, said Monday afternoon via text: “We appreciate the collaboration with the city over the last several days.”
“We will continue to work tirelessly to demonstrate that the mall is safe and ready to serve our customers,” Oates said. “Our store owners and their employees are looking forward to getting back to work!”
A Tuesday reopening would be welcome news to mall employees and business owners idled by the city’s order to close the two-story shopping center with the exception of JCPenney, Macy’s and Harkins Theatres.
Many pleaded for the mall to reopen at a special Thursday, Feb. 26, Moreno Valley City Council meeting. The closure has left a number of workers struggling to get by and wondering how they’ll pay for rent, food and other necessities.
City officials maintain the closure wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment decision. Rather, they said it was a last resort after more than a year of inspections, warnings and meetings with mall management.
Managers, according to the city, ignored and failed to address a number of serious problems, from an inoperable emergency generator and ripped-out fire sprinklers to storage near exits that threatened to become a deadly roadblock should disaster strike.
In a January letter, Quintanilla and City Manager Brian Mohan wrote that the mall had racked up 88 code violations since 2019 for fire code issues and problems such as cracked pavement and dead landscaping.
According to the letter, the mall owes the city almost $700,000 for code violations and on-site law enforcement services.
While insisting they must follow the law, city leaders also said they were committed to reopening the mall as soon as possible.
To that end, the city offered to hire a contractor to fix the mall’s violations and recoup the costs of that work through a special tax assessment on the property.
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