Moreno Valley Mall resolves some code violations but remains closed
Newly obtained letters between the City of Moreno Valley and the Moreno Valley Mall suggest that the shopping center may have known about the fire code violations for months before being red-tagged last week.
In a letter sent to the shopping center owner last month, the Moreno Valley city manager stated that the fire marshal had someone monitoring the mall around the clock for potential fire hazards tied to unresolved violations on March 20, 2025. City officials also referenced an unsolicited offer from mall ownership to design, build and finance a new Moreno Valley City Hall.
"What it looks like, what the city is saying they received some kind of communication for the mall owner offering to cut some kind of deal," said Matt Silver, commercial real estate attorney. "And the city, I think rightfully so, is saying no deal. We need to stay focused on these life safety issues. We need to focus on getting these fire issues and other building problems, big stuff, to make the small safe for the residents of Moreno Valley."
The letter also claims the mall allegedly owes the city more than $665,000 in unpaid fines, fees and law enforcement services.
A spokesperson for the Moreno Valley Mall says it is actively discussing the letter's claims with the city and working to obtain an accounting of their figures to determine how they arrived at that number. Meanwhile, they say the mall continues to work to resolve the violations to get its businesses back open.
The city claims its Community and Neighborhood Division has issued the mall 88 code violation citations since 2019.
It's been six days since the city shut down the mall for "unresolved, life-threatening fire code violations."
The city said "the list of Fire Code violations is lengthy," but mainly focused on failure to provide documentation that the fire suppression system has been inspected, tested and maintained. This included the sprinklers, alarms, smoke control, emergency generators and emergency lighting.
Additionally, inspectors found more than 21 issues throughout the mall, including "piles of storage" blocking emergency exit routes, inadequate fire doors, improperly secured electrical panel doors, exposed electrical junction boxes and dirty smoke detectors that either needed to be cleaned or replaced.
City officials said the mall has fixed three of the nine major violations — the fire Sprinkler System, fire Standpipe System, and emergency generator — since the closure.
