JC Penney's big plans for Coddingtown

The aging JC Penney department store in Coddingtown Mall is getting a face lift.

The Texas-based company is spending $4 million to renovate its three-level store in Santa Rosa, adding upscale brands and a Sephora cosmetic store for Sonoma County's fashion conscious.

"We're trying to attract the younger customer," said Mike Gobble, manager of the Santa Rosa store. "The store is being totally modernized."

The 8-month construction project started in January and will add all new fitting rooms, bathrooms, escalators, a new floor layout and several high-end brands such as MNG by Mango and Aldo hand bags and shoes. The store will remain open during construction.

The store will have to overcome the stigma that many still attach to Coddingtown Mall and its JC Penney store.

"Whenever I go there it's a really dead mall," said Lelani Talafili, 19, who was shopping at the Forever 21 store in Santa Rosa Plaza on Thursday. "Santa Rosa Plaza has more energy, so it attracts more young people."

Gobble is aware that many young women share that perception of his store and Coddingtown Mall. JC Penney is taking steps with the remodel to change their minds, he said.

Its Santa Rosa location will soon include the hip cosmetic store Sephora, which will occupy a 2,000-square-foot hub in the middle of JC Penney's first floor. It will be Sonoma County's first Sephora store when it opens - likely in August.

"People are already coming to apply for jobs at the Sephora store," Gobble said. "And we're not even hiring until June."

Young women hovered around the cosmetic counters at Macy's department store in the Santa Rosa Plaza on Thursday. What did they think of having a Sephora store in Santa Rosa?

"That would be awesome," said a young fashionista working behind the counter. "We always stop by Sephora when we go shopping in the City."

Coddingtown, which lost a major anchor when Gottschalks filed bankruptcy and closed in 2009, has been trying to pull new tenants and shoppers to the mall.

Whole Foods opened a new store at Coddingtown in September, bringing increased traffic to the northwest end of the mall.

JC Penney's relaunch is expected to happen in August with a grand re-opening event.

Codding Enterprises and Simon Property Group, which own the mall, have submitted plans to the city to revamp the northern and eastern entrances of Coddingtown. They are negotiating with BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse, a chain based in Huntington Beach, to open a restaurant on the mall's north side next year.

Gobble said his company, which recently rebranded itself as jcpenney without any capital letters, decided it was time to renovate the 126,000-square-foot Santa Rosa store as part of a larger companywide plan to spend $650 million revamping older locations. Whole Foods and Coddingtown management played no part in their decision, he said.

"It does come at a good time," he said. "But the renovation here was just needed."