It's official!

West Park Mall is out, Westfield Shoppingtown West Park is in.

A new sign, identifying Cape Girardeau's under-cover shopping center at Route K and Mount Auburn Road as The Westfield Shoppingtown West Park, was unveiled Thursday.

The new sign outside the center's main entrance reflects a change of ownership that took place about five years ago.

"We've called ourselves a Westfield Shoppingtown for some time now," said Jim Govro, general manager of the facility. "But it is still confusing to some people because the old signed referred to our center as West Park Mall."

Employees at the center have fielded questions about "Shoppingtown" for a long time.

Some people have called the office, wanting to know where the Westfield Shoppingtown store was, said Govro.

"By installing this giant sign, we hope it's easy for everyone to identify us as Westfield Shoppingtown West Park," said Govro.

The new sign, manufactured by Cape Girardeau-based General Sign, features a combination of fluorescent and neon illumination. The sign is mounted on a 10-foot base, bringing the total height to 22 feet.

Westfield America is one of the first developers to introduce "branding" to the shopping center industry, said Govro.

The Los Angeles-based company owns 38 Shoppingtowns across the country, including five in the St. Louis area Crestwood, Red Rivers, Northwest Plaza, South County and West County and the mall here.

Westfield Shoppingtown West Park is home to three large anchor stores Famous-Barr, JCPenney and ShopKo and more than 85 specialty stores, food shops and restaurants.

The center is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., and Sunday from noon to 6.

The Westfield Shoppingtown West Park attracts customers from an 11-county area, with more than 300,000 people in the market area.

Westfield American Inc., a real estate investment trust and owner of Westfield Shoppingtowns, reported increased sales in 1999.

Total sales for the company during the year were $3.2 billion, up 6 percent from 1998. Space in the 38 centers were 94 percent leased at the end of the year, representing 1,557,959 square feet.