By Melonie Magruder
Special to The Lookout

July 19, 2010 -- When Santa Monica Place reopens its doors August 6 after an ambitious 28-month makeover, a new era will dawn for Downtown with music and dance and much fanfare.

The mall, originally designed by Frank Gehry three decades ago, will have been literally turned inside out, with an open air courtyard connecting to Third Street Promenade and a rooftop dining deck offering sweeping ocean views.

A roster of upscale retailers and restaurants -- anchored by Bloomingdale's and Nordstrom -- will fill a state-of the art 550,000-square-foot environmentally friendly structure built on the steel skeleton of the former indoor mall.

In an era when shopping malls are shuttering across the country and retail outlets report only tentative steps toward recovery from a deep recession, the new Santa Monica Place represents a bold leap for both its owner, Macerich Company, and the entire Downtown.

"The Downtown is going to be a stronger destination," said Kathleen Rawson, CEO of the Bayside District Corporation. "Santa Monica Place needed a shot in the arm, and the improvements are a very welcome addition to the District. Now everyone who uses the District will have a wide range of options."

A New Equation

In the past, transformative projects like the scheduled reopening of Santa Monica Place brought dire, unintended consequences to its neighboring venue.

After it opened in 1980, the three-floor air-conditioned cornucopia of shops siphoned traffic from Third Street, turning the century-old strip into a nightly ghost town. The pattern was reversed and the mall slowly declined after the Promenade was launched a decade later.

Bayside officials are confident that this time the cycle will be broken with the opening of the remodeled mall, which will not only officially be a part of an expanded Bayside District, it will physically embrace the thriving Promenade.

"The Downtown area is already strong," Rawson said. "In the past, one or the other was on the verge of not doing well. Santa Monica Place is very much a part of the District now. The actual architecture is an extension of the Promenade."

Macerich officials agree the new mall's wealth of retail options will both feed into and off of the lively activity on the thriving three-block strip.

“We’ve been part of the Bayside District for a long time and have had lots of conversations with our partners along the way," said Anne Singleton, vice president of leasing for Macerich. “From design to approval to operations, we wanted to work in a complementary fashion with our sister stores on the Promenade.”

In a rising-tide-lifts-all-boats approach, Macerich has wooed retailers they hope will enhance the Promenade’s merchandising mix, rather than cut into a stretched customer base. Department store behemoths Nordstrom and Bloomingdale’s are set to anchor the remodeled mall, with plenty of couture and upscale chains not found on the Westside, like Tiffany & Co, Tory Burch and Hugo Boss.

As of last month, 48 retail and 21 dining establishments had signed leases at the new mall, Macerich officials said, and 70 percent of them are scheduled to be active at the Grand Opening on August 6, including Bloomingdale’s. The rest of Santa Monica Place should be in full operation by the first quarter of 2011.

“We wanted some of the big retailers that you don’t see now west of the 405,” Singleton said. “And we wanted to open up the food court to take advantage of the ocean views. Having a food court be the first thing you see when you walk into a mall is not always the best thing.”

When Santa Monica Place opened in 1980, it was designed to open onto Colorado Avenue, across from the old Sears building, with the central plaza encased in steel and glass and the food court relegated to the back entrance on Broadway.

The “fortress” aspect, as Singleton characterized it, has been replaced by a design that takes advantage of open spaces, beach views and welcomes pedestrians strolling in from the Promenade across the street.

Dining options at the new center are centered on the third-floor, open-air plaza and will feature an eclectic mix of international food court victuals and sit down haute cuisine/wine bars. The new eateries, Bayside officials said, will expand the Downtown menu.

"We have really strong restaurants," Rawson said, "so what they bring will be a complement."

Debbie Lee, the Bayside's marketing director, believes the new Santa Monica Place will enhance the entire Downtown merchandising scene.

“This has been a long time coming,” Lee said. “The recession and the lack of any anchoring department store have created a feeling of uncertainty for awhile. Macerich has been careful to seek tenants that will be a good fit with our merchants in the District.

"I think everyone is hoping to see increased pedestrian traffic to the area with the opening of the new mall,” she said.

Miriam Mack, economic development manager for the city, echoed Lee’s assessment.

“Having Bloomingdale’s anchor the shopping district will give the Promenade something it lacks right now,” said Mack. "The prospect of the new mall has enticed all our Bayside community members to enliven and freshen up the Promenade. It’s a complementary relationship.”

Welcoming Neighbors

If most Downtown retailers are looking forward to the mall's reopening, all of them, including those apprehensive about the new competition, welcome the end of major construction that closed down the mall's two parking structures, one after the other.

“Some of our customers have complained about that,” Ryan Halpin, manager at Rip Curl, said of the closing of Parking Structure 7. “But, mostly, we’re hoping that Santa Monica Place just brings a lot more people passing by.

"Right now, the big stores on the north side of the Promenade take a lot of the traffic," said Halpin, who recently remodeled the surfing chain outlet. "I think having more food options at the mall will help.”

Broadway Deli, which sits just cattycorner to the Broadway entrance of Santa Monica Place, has been serving up latkes and mile-high pastrami sandwiches for 20 years. Manager Alex Reyes expects the mall will bring a whole lot of new business.

“There’s going to be a lot of new activity for the whole Downtown shopping district,” Reyes said. “It would have been better (for the mall) to open early in the summer, but we’re ready. We won’t be doing anything different – just a lot more of the same.”

Manager Ashley Toyne of Pacsun, which sells summer wear, pointed out the construction going on above her shop. “It’s a facelift,” she said. “Hopefully, we’re getting ready for the big crowds.”

Originally located at the old Santa Monica Place, Pacsun opted to relocate to the Promenade several years ago, Toyne said

“We wanted more of an authentic, outdoor feel to the store, rather than just a mall vibe,” she added. “Now, I guess we’ll get the best of both.”

At Mudra, a small independent boutique on the Promenade, longtime owner Jill Miller expects to benefit from the remodeled mall, which in turn will benefit from her shop just a short stroll away.

"My clientele is a mix of tourists and locals and I think we’ll just feed into each other," said Miller, who has owned the store for 20 years. "There’s always change and you never can forecast what will happen. Look at Venice! But, generally, I think the beach and our street scene draw a lot of people. The more, the merrier.”

There have been models of cross retailing in Los Angeles’ past. When Rick Caruso’s The Grove, with its mix of Disneyland-style Main Street ambiance and upscale corporate stores, was slated to take over 32 acres in the Fairfax district next to the Original Farmers Market, longtime market regulars howled.

“Some of our old regulars didn’t want anything to change,” said Mark Panatier, vice president of the A.F. Gilmore Company, which owns the Farmers Market. “Our vendors were originally a little nervous, but generally supportive.

"We spent a lot of time holding hands," Panatier said. "Healthy competition is a good thing. We were pretty sure that The Grove would simply draw more customers down our way, and that has proven to be true.”

Indeed, since The Grove opened in 2002, many visitors stop to dine at one of the many international food vendors at the Farmers Market before heading to the outdoor mall for shopping and movie going.

The quirky combination of old mom-and-pop vendors, outdoor seating and artisanal shops has even allowed corporate titans like Starbucks to open their doors, although, Panatier admitted, he thought he might need to wear a Kevlar vest when it was first proposed.

Bill Thee, who has run Thee’s Continental Pastries at the Farmers Market for 30 years, said pedestrian traffic has picked up substantially with the advent of the “younger sister” to the east.

“We get a lot more foot traffic, but, interestingly, fewer of our regular shoppers,” Thee said, during a break from whipping up meringues. “Maybe the problem is with parking. I still sell lots of smaller items, like cookies. It’s a different clientele.”

Changing times provokes changing practices, and retailers must be ready to cash in, Panatier advised.

“The bottom line is that, with the opening of Santa Monica Place, Third Street merchants will have to be on their toes,” he said. “They’ll be looking beyond their counters.”

Meanwhile, Macerich is planning plenty of weekend entertainment in the Santa Monica Place plaza to keep new customers happy.

“Part of Third Street’s charm is the street theatre there,” Singleton said. “We’ll have our own personality, but we want to offer fun stuff that is complementary – there’s that word again! – to the Promenade. This is a cooperative downtown district.”

“The Downtown is going to be a stronger destination, Santa Monica Place needed a shot in the arm, and the improvements are a very welcome addition to the District. Now everyone who uses the District will have a wide range of options.”
    Kathleen Rawson

“We’ve been part of the Bayside District for a long time and have had lots of conversations with our partners along the way, from design to approval to operations, we wanted to work in a complementary fashion with our sister stores on the Promenade.”
   Anne Singleton

“Having Bloomingdale’s anchor the shopping district will give the Promenade something it lacks right now. The prospect of the new mall has enticed all our Bayside community members to enliven and freshen up the Promenade. It’s a complementary relationship.”
    Miriam Mack