When shoppers want to spruce up their homes, they head to the mall for a pick-me-up: a lamp for the living room, towels for the bathroom, a new set of dishes.
Sometimes, it's the mall itself that needs a little sprucing -- to keep the shoppers shopping. That's the logic behind Westfield Group's plan to spend as much as $6 billion in the next five years upgrading many of the 124 shopping centers in its portfolio.
Having gone on a buying binge of its own -- it has more than doubled its U.S. collection since 1994 by acquiring 40 malls -- the Sydney, Australia-based company will devote more than $1 billion to renovating seven of the 26 malls it owns in California.
Westfield is hoping to win over shoppers being lured by outdoor "lifestyle" malls that aim to resemble small-town downtowns, such as the Grove in the Fairfax District of Los Angeles.
"The lifestyle guys are killing us," said Richard Green, Westfield's vice chairman of operations.
Westfield's response is what it calls Hy-Style (the "Hy" is for hybrid), a part mall, part lifestyle center that incorporates many elements of the latter, such as entertainment businesses, fine dining and concierges.
All of those are part of the just-completed $113-million expansion of Westfield Shoppingtown Santa Anita in Arcadia, to which the company added an AMC movie theater complex, 30 new stores and five restaurants. New tenants include the first California restaurant of Portland, Ore.-based McGrath's Fish House and Borders Books & Music Cafe, along with Sport Chalet, Bacchus Wine & Champagne Bistro and Dave & Busters, a game emporium and restaurant.
The expansion also brought an outdoor restaurant plaza, a food court in a two-story atrium, a new retail wing and a $500,000 double-decker Victorian-style merry-go-round with hand-painted circus animals. In addition, there's valet parking, reserved parking for expectant mothers and a spacious family restroom with pint-size potties, couches, a large television and private nursing areas with diaper changing facilities and bottle warmers.
"They really have outdone themselves, especially in the nursery bathrooms," said Cindy Bowen of Monrovia, who says she visits the mall about four times a week with her grandchildren. "What an improvement for the community."
The concierge, a popular feature at the Grove, offers free services that include making dinner reservations and carrying bags for overloaded shoppers. In keeping with Westfield's emphasis on courting families, concierges also hand out emergency diapers, baby wipes and lip balm.
