Since the reopening of the Moreno Valley Mall on March 5, business has resumed as usual for most shop owners and employees, though the closure left some apprehensive about the mall’s future.

The mall’s abrupt closure Feb. 19, due to over 100 unaddressed fire code violations and infractions — nine of which forced the city to shut down the shopping center — shuttered storefronts and left several business owners and employees in limbo.

The two-story, 87-acre shopping center has two department stores, a movie theater, 19 eateries and over 100 specialty stores.

Business has been good since the reopening, said Lizbeth Toribio, owner of Luna’s Sunday Cafe.

“The first week back was the busiest week we’ve ever had,” she said, adding that not even her grand opening received that much patron attention.

‘It’s been more than amazing,” Toribio said.

Hairstylist and makeup artist Cortney Richards of Blessed with the Hands, who leases a suite at Entycé Boutique and Beauty Bar on the mall’s second floor, is also back to work.

“It’s been really good. Clients are happy and excited that we’re back open,” Richards said.

As prom season approaches, the beauty artist said that her phone has been “going off nonstop” for appointment bookings. The recent business boom for Richards was touch-and- go during the closure. At some point, she was unsure if she would be able to pay rent.

She did. Though her financial situation remained tenuous after, “it was scarce,” Richards said.

Matt Ilbak, the mall’s owner, said in a Feb. 24 post on the mall’s Instagram account that he was “surprised by the city’s actions” to force its closure and that it had been in “regular communication with the city to schedule inspection, testing and certification” of safety systems.

That contradicts what city officials said during a special council meeting Feb. 26, where Fire Chief Jesse Park told council members, “The person responsible for the mall’s closure is the owner of the mall.”

Park said it’s the second time in three years the city has had to close at least part of the mall — the first time being Gottschalks in 2023.

Park said the mall’s representatives initially described inspection documents as “clean” for fire and exit systems, but they actually revealed multiple failures. He called these “dirty reports” — documents that still list failed items or necessary repairs — and stated they could not serve as proof of code compliance.

Moreno Valley City Attorney Steven Quintanilla offered Ilbak a deal on behalf of the city. The agreement included hiring the city’s own contractor to fix the mall’s fire code issues, in hopes of speeding up the reopening, then seeking reimbursement for the repair costs. However, according to mall spokesperson Dave Oates, everything was “taken care of by mall management.”

Ilbak also owed the city nearly $700,000 as of January for code infractions dating back to 2019.

Moreno Valley spokesperson Marc Lyncheski said in an email Wednesday that “The city attorney plans to meet with the mall’s legal counsel to discuss the status of the mall’s obligation to reimburse the city for any outstanding Law Enforcement Services costs.”

Quintanilla said March 4 that the mall would be allowed to reopen under certain conditions, such as installing two fire-rated doors that prevent the passage of smoke and hot gases, with a March 31 deadline, or the closure order would be reinstated. Other compliance issues to be resolved also included adding a permanent on-site emergency generator.

Oates said in an email Tuesday that mall management had addressed and resolved the city’s conditions for remaining open since March 17.

The possibility of another closure “sits in the back of the mind,” said Richards, but she says she is reassured by the mall’s newly appointed general manager, Sheena McGill, to make sure “everything is running accordingly.” McGill stepped into this role the day after the mall’s reopening, hired by Ilbak in a part-time capacity.

McGill, also the owner of Entycé Boutique and Beauty Bar at the mall, said part of her new role is to negotiate “various deals” with mall tenants affected by the closure.

“Everybody has been offered 50% off their rent for the amount of time that the mall has been closed,” McGill said.

The priority is to keep business in the Moreno Valley Mall, according to McGill. “If there are ones that have been hit even harder, we have been negotiating and talking with them about how much more we can assist,” she said.

To receive the rent relief agreement, tenants must waive any rights to pursue future legal claims or legal action against the mall, McGill also said.

“You have to think about it in this aspect: If you’re going to take, like, a concession, you can’t turn around and then say, ‘I want this, and then I’m also going to sue you for even more.’ It’s either a take-it type of thing, or if you’re planning to go to legal counsel, do that without taking the concession,” McGill said by phone March 20.

At some point during the mall’s closure, the city posted on its website that its economic development department “is providing support to businesses and employees impacted by this temporary partial closure.” Lyncheski said by email that the city did not provide any direct financial assistance.

“During the workshop, we held specifically for affected tenants, the Small Business Development Center offered information on available loans from trustworthy sources, and assistance for those who were interested in any of those options,” Lyncheski said.

A GoFundMe fundraiser was also started to help shop owners ease some of the pressure caused by the mall’s halted operations. A GoFundMe spokesperson said by email March 20 that “The organizer chose to deactivate the fundraiser and refund all donations.” The spokesperson would not identify the fundraiser’s creator or provide a reason for its deactivation.

Toribio said the mall’s management’s rent relief agreement is just “OK.”

“Last month was a big loss. I mean, I don’t know how it was for other businesses, but for us, we were on the negative side,” she said.

Perishables such as milk, pastries, puddings and heavy cream had to be thrown out and replaced, Toribio said.

“I feel like being compensated for everything we had to throw out, that would have been nice,” she said.

For Toribio, the mall’s closure changed her outlook on staying in the long term: “It made me open my eyes a little more,” she said.

Other code violations, while they were not “life-threatening,” as she puts it, also spurred her plan to move her cafe outside the confines of the Moreno Valley Mall.

As of March 19, all violations had been corrected.

Toribio said her lease contract ends in April 2027, but she doesn’t want to wait until then to move.

“Since we were closed, we’ve been looking into places,” she said, “We’re pretty hopeful that if we were able to do it in the mall, we can do it anywhere else in Moreno Valley.”

The cafe owner doesn’t know if there will be another closure in the immediate future but said she isn’t sticking around to find out.

“We weren’t looking for another location, and now we’re kind of like set on it,” Toribio said.

“Let’s look for a location where we know it won’t be somebody else shutting us down. I can say, if I want to close, then we’ll close,” she said.