CONSIDER the Grove -- L.A.'s love-it or hate-it open-air mall that's more insular universe than shopping center. Now think of the Grove on steroids. The fountains are jazzier, the shops swankier, the rolling green lawn super-sized. And you can actually live there -- have breakfast at Tiffany every day.
Daydream or nightmare, it's reality at the Americana at Brand, the new shopping center and residential development in Glendale from Grove developer Rick Caruso. The project, which cost $400 million and was under construction for two years, opens Friday.
The sheer scale of the Americana -- 15.5 acres rambling over four city blocks -- would be significant for any metropolis but is especially major for Glendale, which boasts a sturdy mid-tier mall, Glendale Galleria, but not much else in terms of notable retail.
The Americana tenants include Barneys New York Co-Op, Kate Spade and Tiffany & Co. Not every store is in the Rodeo Drive club, but Caruso's proved that high-end retail flourishes at his centers. Barneys' store at the Grove is one of the top-selling Co-Op boutiques, said Michael Celestino, executive vice president of stores for Barneys New York. "The great success of the lifestyle center of the Grove encouraged us to do another Co-Op store in this format with Caruso," he said.
The developer has turned areas around before. When the Grove was built in 2002, the neighborhood was more a throughway than a place to stop and shop. "People said we were nuts to open the Grove in an old Hasidic Jewish neighborhood," said Caruso, while strolling through the Americana (still under construction just three weeks before opening, with 3,000 workers on site). "The Farmers Market looked like a stage set for 'Cocoon.' If you were under 80, you were there to do karaoke night."
Glendale, he added, is ripe for posh retailers. "The truth of the area is that there's lots of disposable income here and nowhere to shop."
But the center is making its debut at a dicey time for retail, with an economic recession in motion that's cinching wallets and purses. Dana Telsey, retail analyst and chief research officer of the Telsey Group, said high-end and luxury retail has been affected by the downward market conditions but added that malls "are built not for today or tomorrow, but for years from now. Environments and climates change. It will take a little time, but they will turn around."
