Moreno Valley Mall management has no one to blame but themselves for the continuing closure that’s taking a toll on families, business owners and Moreno Valley’s tax revenue, city officials said during a special meeting Thursday night, Feb. 26. The meeting at Moreno Valley City Hall also served as a place to vent for upset and stressed-out mall business owners and employees, who are left without a livelihood while the mall is shuttered. RELATED: Update on Moreno Valley Mall’s closure planned at special meeting The city’s fire chief, top attorney and building official described a mall with serious, life-threatening safety concerns that went ignored by management — despite multiple warnings and inspections spanning more than two years. “The person responsible for the mall’s closure is the owner of the mall,” Fire Chief Jesse Park told council members, adding the nine violations that led to the closure are among hundreds. Local resident Louise Palomarez speaks Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026, during a special Moreno Valley City Council meeting about the temporary closure of the Moreno Valley Mall. (Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG) Tony Hernandez, vice president of the Moreno Valley Mall, speaks Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026, during a special Moreno Valley City Council special meeting about the mall’s temporary closure. (Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG) Moreno Valley Fire Chief Jesse Park, center, answers questions from the Moreno Valley City Council during a special meeting Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026, about the temporary closure of the Moreno Valley Mall. (Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG) Residents listen Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026, during a speical Moreno Valley City Council meeting about the Moreno Valley Mall, which closed Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026. (Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG) People watch the special Moreno Valley City Council meeting from the overflow seating outside the council chambers Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026. The council discussed the temporary closure of the Moreno Valley Mall. (Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG) The Moreno Valley Mall parking lot is empty just after 8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026, a week after the city closed most of the shopping center for alleged code violations. (Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG) Shaik Islam, a small business owner in the Moreno Valley Mall, speaks Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026, during a special Moreno Valley City Council meeting about needing to work to feed his family. (Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG) Show Caption1 of 7Local resident Louise Palomarez speaks Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026, during a special Moreno Valley City Council meeting about the temporary closure of the Moreno Valley Mall. (Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG) Expand Mall Vice President Tony Hernandez, who attended the meeting, disputed the city’s version of events. “We’re working really hard because this mall — there’s a lot of people that depend (on) this mall … to provide for their families,” he said. Hernandez added: “We’re just asking for an extension and let them all go back to work … We’re supposed to be a city where we’re supposed to be united, to work together. We understand the safety issues.” John Stephens, an attorney for the mall who also is Costa Mesa’s mayor, said the mall shouldn’t have been red-tagged and that the city’s documents “were procedurally deficient.” “But I’m not here to litigate that,” he said. “What I’m here to do is to be an agent to fix this problem.” More than 20 people spoke, including Sheena McGill, owner of Entycé Boutique Beauty Bar inside the mall. “I’ve worked my heart (and) my soul into this space, and I’ve sacrificed so much — over $100,000 in my 4,000 square feet,” McGill said, adding that she has 27 employees. Closing the mall “weakens small businesses,” she said. “It displaces the workers, it disrupts families … We have so many people that are not able to go back to work because of doors and some lighting.” Oliver Olivares, CEO of the mall’s Robert Garcia Boxing Academy, said his business has complied with all requirements and urged the city to let the academy open “tomorrow.” “I know you guys are smart enough to help us out and get this going,” Olivares said. “Everything that you guys are looking for, we have it,” he said. “We have hundreds of thousands of dollars invested in this. There are a lot of kids (who) see their future here.” Council members defended the closure. “Our hearts do go out to the tenants and employees of the mall,” Councilmember Ed Delgado said. “Obviously, you guys are part of our community.” However, “if we saved one life by following the law … all of this is worth it, in my opinion.” Councilmember Elena Baca-Santa Cruz, whose district includes the mall, recalled applying for jobs there as a teenager when it opened and taking her grandson there today. “The goal is to get (the mall) opened, but we can’t risk your lives,” she said. Because they are independent buildings with fire-suppression systems that don’t rely on the mall’s, JCPenney, Macy’s and Harkins Theatres remain open at the mall off the 60 Freeway. In an Instagram post Wednesday night, Feb. 25, Mayor Ulises Cabrera said the city called the special meeting because: “We felt it was important to convene promptly so the council can provide the community with an update on the status of the situation … and discuss solutions toward safely and responsibly reopening the mall as soon as possible.” Council members also were scheduled to go into closed session Thursday to discuss “significant exposure to litigation,” according to the session agenda. It’s not clear whether the closed-door meeting is related to the mall. City officials on Thursday, Feb. 19, took the unprecedented step of closing the two-story, 87-acre mall, citing what they described as “numerous health and safety code violations (that) have been identified as posing significant risks to tenants and customers alike.” The city identified nine violations that had to be addressed before the mall could reopen. Three of the nine had been fixed as of Wednesday, Feb. 25, according to Quintanilla. On Thursday evening, Quintanilla said the mall was down to five outstanding violations related to its fire alarms, smoke control system, fire doors, emergency lighting and exit lighting. Violations regarding fire sprinklers, fire standpipe systems, fire/smoke dampers and emergency generators had been fixed, the attorney said. On Instagram, mall owner Matt Ilbak wrote that the mall “was surprised by the city’s actions.” The city raised concerns about the mall “just over a month ago” and the mall “was in regular communication with the city” about scheduling inspections and testing, Ilbak wrote. That contradicts what officials said Thursday. Park said it’s the second time in three years the city’s had to close at least part of the mall — the first time being Gottschalks in 2023. At one point, inspectors found pallets of highly flammable hand sanitizer being illegally stored in a vacant portion of the mall, Park said. Other issues include storage blocking fire exits and removed electrical lighting, the chief added. In March 2025, during a check of “tenant improvement plans” for four new businesses, inspectors “found the sprinkler pipes and alarms had been ripped out,” Park said. “If a fire occurred in that situation, there would be nothing to stop it from growing and the results could be catastrophic.” That area of the mall remains on fire watch almost a year later and “effectively, this makes it impossible for those four businesses to open,” Park said. On Thursday, Feb. 19, the fire marshal went to the mall to collect records “they didn’t have” despite being told they were needed, Park said. He said mall staff “freely admitted that the exit doors were broken, the alarm panel didn’t work and the generators didn’t work.” “We had given them the benefit of the doubt in the past,” Park said. “But now, we knew the mall was unsafe.” Park said the mall’s representatives initially characterized the inspection documents as “clean” for the fire and exit systems, but they actually showed multiple failures. He referred to these as “dirty reports” — documents that still list failed items or needed repairs — and said they cannot serve as proof of code compliance. “It also makes it very hard for us to trust who we’re talking to now today,” Park said. Quintanilla said everyone wants the mall to reopen as soon as possible. “We are losing tax revenue every day from the sales that take place at the mall,” he said. Our retail businesses are losing income. Their employees have lost their jobs.” At the same time, the city and fire department have an obligation to protect the public, Quintanilla said, noting the 2016 Ghost Ship fire in Oakland that killed 36 people and the January bar fire in Switzerland that killed 41 involved a lack of follow-up from fire officials. “That is not happening here and with our fire department,” Quintanilla said. “I can assure you it will never happen here.” Related links Update on Moreno Valley Mall’s closure planned at special meeting Moreno Valley Mall fixes 3 of 9 violations blocking its reopening Moreno Valley Mall owed city almost $700,000 as of January, letter states Moreno Valley Mall management calls closure ‘a temporary situation’ Most of Moreno Valley Mall closing; city says conditions are unsafe The city does not have legal authority to reopen the mall until the nine violations are resolved, Quintanilla said, adding that the fire department is showing up every day at 1 p.m. to inspect the mall and answer questions. Fire code issues aren’t the only problems the city has with the mall, which opened in 1992. According to a Jan. 16 letter to the mall from Quintanilla and City Manager Brian Mohan, the mall has racked up 88 code violations since 2019 and owes almost $700,000 to the city for code infractions and on-site law enforcement services. The letter also describes a pattern of problems, from unauthorized construction and events to cracked pavement, dead landscaping and faulty escalators. But in a report Thursday, Quintanilla wrote that the fire code violations are the reason for the closure. A Feb. 19 letter to the mall from Quintanilla warned that the city would pursue a range of legal actions, including asking a judge to put the mall in receivership, to address the mall’s violations. He said Thursday the city had not sued the mall to that point because he believed litigation should be a last resort. Staff Writer Israel J. Carreón Jr. contributed to this report. ...read more read less