Moreno Valley holds special meeting on recent mall closure

Emotions ran high at a special meeting in Moreno Valley as city leaders explained why it red-tagged and closed a local mall due to "unresolved, life-threatening" fire code violations.

Workers pleaded with the city to allow the Moreano Valley Mall to reopen before Fire Chief Jesse Park addressed the crowd. He said that the mall owner has repeatedly failed to make necessary repairs to fire safety equipment violations, despite many in-person inspections and notices to do so, dating back to April 2024.

"The mall staff also freely admitted, this is very important, that the exit doors were broken, the alarm panel didn't work, and the generators did not work," Park said. 

A city staff report found that mall owners had a pattern of removing fire protection systems, performing unpermitted construction, and storing inappropriate materials, such as flammable hand sanitizer. The city said the mall has since corrected four out of the nine most critical violations, but it's also outlined hundreds of other violations. 

"We want this mall open," said John Stevens, an attorney representing the mall. "Please. Please, by the weekend."

Stevens said the alleged violations did not warrant a red tag. The mall has filed an appeal.

"There wasn't a reasonable time limit for correction, based on the nature of the nuisance," Stevens said. 

Denyae Anthony is one of the many people who work at the mall who said the businesses inside it should have been told about ongoing safety violations before they moved in, including the newly opened Robert Garcia Boxing Academy, which runs a multimillion-dollar operation and trains more than 250 kids. 

"As far as the month to come, I would be worried," Anthony said.