Shopping Center

H&M is one of retailing's hottest clothing chains, but Tiffany & Co. doesn't want it for a neighbor. The storied jeweler sued its landlord at the Westfield Century City shopping center Wednesday, alleging the planned H&M store under construction nearby would tarnish its high-end image at the open-air mall, which caters to an affluent Westside clientele. Tiffany said its contract with Westfield forbids retailers "whose merchandise and/or price points are not considered to be luxury, upscale or better by conventional retail industry standards" to use or lease certain spaces within, fronting or adjacent to the Tiffany store.

Life Plaza Center in San Gabriel used to teem with diners heading to Green Village, a Chinese restaurant in the middle of the horseshoe-shaped mall on Valley Boulevard. But after the eatery closed five months ago, the 7,500- square-foot space remained vacant. With no tenants stepping forward and fewer customers clogging the parking lot, the plaza is quiet, with a curiously dark core.

A Superior Court judge tentatively ruled Monday that the Los Angeles City Council violated the state's open meeting law by approving a 76,000-square-foot shopping center in South Los Angeles without giving the public sufficient advance notice. The ruling will probably force the council to conduct a new vote on the project, which called for a supermarket and pharmacy at Slauson and Central avenues but drew strong opposition from the South Central Farmers Action Fund, a community group.

The new incarnation of Santa Monica Place, the Frank Gehry-designed shopping center that is getting a major makeover in downtown Santa Monica, will feature a broad plaza surrounded by curving walls that open both to the street and toward the beach. With flourishes of curved shining material unwinding from a third-story plaza, the $155-million renovation will allow patrons to see the nearby ocean from its rooftop dining level, according to architectural drawings released Wednesday.

An aerialist performing during a holiday show at the Beverly Center mall was injured and hospitalized after falling to the shopping center floor, authorities said Sunday. One witness said the performer appeared to fall about 40 feet -- from the third level of the shopping center to the first. The 26-year-old woman slipped while hanging upside down from a solid metal hoop suspended from the ceiling during the finale of the show "Hunky Santa and the Candy Cane Girls" Saturday evening, said Ray Pierce, owner of Hollywood Aerial Arts, the firm putting on the performance.

From her first day in Palmdale three years ago, American Savings Bank Vice President Sharon Siglar began telling her superiors that they needed to move her branch out of its downtown site several blocks from City Hall. Just across from the bank that day, Siglar recalled, she saw a drug user collapse from an overdose and die. And in the years since, she said, conditions in the area have continued to deteriorate: drug deals, assaults at the automated teller machine, transients and more.

How many new doughnut shops can a neighborhood support, anyhow? How many dry cleaners? Or fast food joints or convenience grocery stores or trendy eateries or clothing shops? Those are questions Donna Holick asks herself these days. "Redevelopment is fine if they get a little more creative," Holick said the other day as she stood inside her Harbor City store, the Kritter Korral Pet Shop. "It just seems like we're going to burn each other out."

A man has been charged with trying to sell the property of a once-popular Anaheim nightclub by pretending to be the property owner. Anaheim police arrested Danny Lee Kirkey, 39, at a shopping center Tuesday on suspicion of trying to sell the site of the Boogie Nightclub and Flakey Jake's restaurant in Anaheim for $11 million. He is expected to appear in court today on felony charges of attempted grand theft, forgery and recording false documents. The Orange County district attorney's office said Kirkey filed three false documents last year with the county claiming he owned the six-acre property on South Manchester Avenue, then met with real estate brokers and tried to list the property for $11 million by providing forged documents.

Beating a deadline by only hours, Los Angeles city officials on Monday announced revival of a $51-million financing package to save the fading Crenshaw shopping center, the only big regional shopping facility in the predominantly black Southwestern part of the city.

Name: Ben Reiling Age: 59 Home: Pasadena Profession: President, Zelman Development Co., Los Angeles. Latest accomplishment: Closing the deal for the development of the Burbank Empire Center, a 105-acre regional mall near Buena Vista Street and the Golden State Freeway. The property will become home to big-box retailers such as Target, Lowe's and Costco and will include restaurants, two hotels and office space.

A Superior Court judge tentatively ruled Monday that the Los Angeles City Council violated the state's open meeting law by approving a 76,000-square-foot shopping center in South Los Angeles without giving the public sufficient advance notice. The ruling will probably force the council to conduct a new vote on the project, which called for a supermarket and pharmacy at Slauson and Central avenues but drew strong opposition from the South Central Farmers Action Fund, a community group.

An aerialist performing during a holiday show at the Beverly Center mall was injured and hospitalized after falling to the shopping center floor, authorities said Sunday. One witness said the performer appeared to fall about 40 feet -- from the third level of the shopping center to the first. The 26-year-old woman slipped while hanging upside down from a solid metal hoop suspended from the ceiling during the finale of the show "Hunky Santa and the Candy Cane Girls" Saturday evening, said Ray Pierce, owner of Hollywood Aerial Arts, the firm putting on the performance.

Shoppers stormed Southland malls Friday in a quest for discounted merchandise, some getting into fights as they rushed to nab cheap electronics and video games. "This is overwhelming -- the amount of people, the rush -- I love it," said Anthony Howard, 25, who was pushing a shopping cart full of toys minutes after the doors opened at midnight at a Toys R Us store near Glendale. "It's all about getting that last toy right before somebody else grabs it." The usual day-after-Thanksgiving excitement turned chaotic at a Wal-Mart store in Rancho Cucamonga, where police were called after shoppers began fighting over a Rock Band video game package, company spokesman Dave Tovar said.

H&M is one of retailing's hottest clothing chains, but Tiffany & Co. doesn't want it for a neighbor. The storied jeweler sued its landlord at the Westfield Century City shopping center Wednesday, alleging the planned H&M store under construction nearby would tarnish its high-end image at the open-air mall, which caters to an affluent Westside clientele. Tiffany said its contract with Westfield forbids retailers "whose merchandise and/or price points are not considered to be luxury, upscale or better by conventional retail industry standards" to use or lease certain spaces within, fronting or adjacent to the Tiffany store.

A teenage boy shot in a shopping center died Friday, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. The 17-year-old and his two brothers, who were being followed by two men, pulled into a shopping center near Cerritos College on Thursday in the 12500 block of Alondra Boulevard, Deputy Aura Sierra said. The two men climbed out of their vehicle and one began firing, hitting the teenager, Sierra said. The two men then got back in their car and fled. Anyone with information is asked to call the Homicide Bureau at (323)

The Debbie Allen Dance Academy, a Culver City fixture for almost nine years, relocated Friday to the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza shopping center. The academy will celebrate the new space with three days of open house events and performances June 25-27. As part of the June 26 festivities, one of the studio spaces will be dubbed the Berry Gordy Room after the Motown mogul. The dance performances will take place on the roof of the mall in a series of concerts appropriately titled "Up on the Roof"; a final concert in that series will take place July 3. -- Diane Haithman

For several months in 2008, the Bird's Nest in Beijing was the symbol of China's emergence on the world stage. You couldn't turn on a TV without being bombarded by fawning aerial shots of its lattice steelworks exterior. How quickly fortunes turn. Since the Summer Games ended in August, the stadium has suffered a fate all too common among former Olympic venues worldwide: neglect. A lack of bookings means the building (designed by Herzog & de Meuron) remains empty most of the time. The stadium has lowered ticket prices to lure more tourists.

Valley Plaza: A May 5 article in Section A incorrectly reported that the Los Angeles City Council and Community Redevelopment Agency were expected to grant final approval that day for redevelopment of the Laurel Canyon Commercial Corridor project, which would include restoration of the Valley Plaza shopping center in North Hollywood. The City Council and redevelopment agency will vote on the Valley Plaza project and an adjoining residential development at Laurel Plaza at a later date.

Regarding Rosemary McClure's story "Sedona's Spirit" [April 5]: I have been to Sedona about six times, usually over Thanksgiving. I love it there. Arizona 179 road improvements are great. They really help move traffic along, and the road is aesthetically pleasing. I know you can't list many places under "Where to Stay" and "Where to Eat," but I am surprised you mentioned the Matterhorn Inn. Maybe you needed to list a budget hotel? Go online and check out the Hilton Sedona Resort & Spa. I believe the hotel and its amenities are worth mentioning.

A man has been charged with trying to sell the property of a once-popular Anaheim nightclub by pretending to be the property owner. Anaheim police arrested Danny Lee Kirkey, 39, at a shopping center Tuesday on suspicion of trying to sell the site of the Boogie Nightclub and Flakey Jake's restaurant in Anaheim for $11 million. He is expected to appear in court today on felony charges of attempted grand theft, forgery and recording false documents. The Orange County district attorney's office said Kirkey filed three false documents last year with the county claiming he owned the six-acre property on South Manchester Avenue, then met with real estate brokers and tried to list the property for $11 million by providing forged documents.