A restaurant that has sat mostly vacant for three years at a prime corner of Pacific View mall in Ventura is set to reopen in March as Wood Ranch BBQ & Grill.

The popular family-owned chain is known to draw big crowds at its two other Ventura County locations in Camarillo and Moorpark. The new restaurant would be the Agoura Hills company's 13th location.

The former Fresh Choice restaurant, which closed in May 2005, has been limited to seasonal use as a Halloween Express and The Toy Outlet.

"I'm ecstatic," said Sid White, Ventura's economic development manager.

He described Wood Ranch as a "high performing venue" that would benefit the city and boost the mall's traffic.

"I think it's fantastic," he said. "I have to compliment Macerich — they were very particular with their selection. I gotta give them credit."

Macerich Co. is a Santa Monica-based commercial real estate developer that owns two of the three regional malls in Ventura County, Pacific View and The Oaks shopping center in Thousand Oaks.

There were several restaurants interested in the site, said Alice Love, senior marketing manager for Pacific View.

The choice was based on the fact that Wood Ranch is a "top performer" in Ventura County, and partly because it's a local company, Love said.

"I definitely think it will be a great addition and that they'll do extremely well," Love said.

Founders Eric Anders and Ofer Shemtov have been in negotiations with Macerich for a couple of years — longer than usual because they've grown more cautious because of the slowing economy.

Restaurants that were marginal during strong economic times are now closing their doors. Anders thinks it will present some attractive opportunities for Wood Ranch expansion and other strong restaurant players.

He is confident the Ventura location will do well because it's close to the freeway and has abundant parking. The location is also at the corner of one of the city's busiest intersections.

Wood Ranch touts its barbecue items that are prepared using a two-step process. According to the company's Web site: "First, we slow-roast overnight the ribs, tri-tip roasts, chickens and prime rib. Then we grill and sauce them to order over a live mesquite wood fire."

"We don't feel that there's anyone in Ventura today that does something similar to what we do," Anders said.

Able to seat about 260 patrons in its 8,000-square-foot space, the restaurant will be around the same size as its Camarillo location, and larger than the original Wood Ranch in Moorpark.

The Camarillo restaurant is at capacity, with patrons often having to wait to be seated, sometimes for as long as an hour on weekends, Anders said. Providing a location farther north will help mitigate the wait for customers, many of whom come from Santa Barbara and Ventura.

The founders plan to gut the building and restore it to "like new" condition. Anders said they will shrink the restaurant space a little, purposefully overbuilding the kitchen and underbuilding the dining room, so as not to overwhelm staff. The kitchen will comprise about 40 percent of the space.

"Our priority is to do a great job first, not squeeze in as many seats as possible," he said.

Construction is slated to start in September.

The chain serves about 40,000 to 45,000 customers weekly, and has about 1,200 employees. An estimated 110 employees will staff the Ventura restaurant.

A year ago, the founders said they planned to double the company's size over the next three to four years, adding 14 stores. Now the family-owned business is approaching its expansion more conservatively.