Imperial Valley Mall features four department stores including JCPenney and Sears, plus two making their debut in the market, Dillard's and Robinsons-May. Other tenants include approximately 100 national retailers, a 14-screen Ultrastar Theater and a 10-unit food court. specialty retailers joining Imperial Valley Mall in El Centro, California. Among the specialty retailers are Motherhood Maternity, Gamestop, Gromitz and KB Toys. The mall is located on 157 acres at State Route 31 and Chick Road, just south of I-8 in El Centro, approximately 10 miles north of Mexicali, Mexico, and 120 miles east of San Diego. In addition to the enclosed mall, peripheral property has been earmarked for freestanding businesses including restaurants, hotels and other mall-related operations.

Stephen D. Lebovitz, CBL's president, said the company chose the location because the Imperial Valley "continues to see tremendous growth" that supports retail development. Buddy Herring, president of the MGHerring Group, notes that the development is Imperial Valley's largest retail complex.

The new mall underscores the growth in the Imperial Valley, which is one of the regions that Newport Beach-based developer CT Realty Corp. cited recently when it opened a San Diego office to identify projects both in San Diego and in surrounding areas. CT has already acquired the 25-acre Valley Plaza Town Center at the southwest corner of Imperial Avenue and Main Street in El Centro and plans a $4 million renovation of the center, which currently comprises 315,034 sf of office and retail space. CT plans to redevelop the site into a "town center" that will include entertainment, restaurants, a health club and smaller retail shops combined with an office campus. The company sees potential in retail projects because of rapid growth in the Imperial Valley, where the population is increasing much faster than that of California as a whole. The most recent statistics show that population grew by 36% between 1990 and 2000 while California's population grew by 13.6% during the same time. The housing growth has attracted national and regional retailers that formerly did not have locations in the Imperial Valley, including Wal Mart, Costco, Albertsons, Staples, Sears and Home Depot.