The re-opening of Santa Monica Place mall has been delayed nearly a year to ensure one of the mall’s anchor tenants will be open for business.

Macerich Co., the Santa Monica retail development company that owns the mall, made the announcement Thursday morning on the mall’s top-level open-air dining deck. The retail center had been slated to re-open this fall before the anchors, but will now re-open mid-2010 to coincide more closely with the opening of the anchors.

The two anchor tenants that have signed on at the mall are department stores Bloomingdale’s, which plans to open in mid-2010, and Nordstrom, which will open in fall 2010. Bloomingdale’s will replace Macy’s, which is closing.

Bob Aptaker, vice president of development for Macerich, said that having at least one of these department stores open when the mall completes its renovation will be critical to the success of the retail center.