Shopping Centers

Silvia Spross took a baby step into small-business ownership when she opened a jewelry kiosk on Santa Monica's Third Street Promenade. It took just $11,000 to set up Lapzos Beads, including $3,500 for the first month's rent. So far the Swiss immigrant has hit her goal to average at least $200 a day in sales of the necklaces, rings and bracelets she makes from rough-cut semiprecious stones, polished rocks and beads from around the world. "I would love to own a little store but figured this would be a great start, just to see if it works," said Spross, whose lease runs just through January.

Word that Wal-Mart is opening a Neighborhood Market in Panorama City is getting a markedly different reception than the criticism heaped on a similar grocery-only store that the retailing giant plans to open in downtown Los Angeles. Residents of the northeast San Fernando Valley have watched as the recession turned once-thriving commercial hubs into vacant storefronts. The Vannord Center, a 90,000-square-foot-center at the corner of busy Van Nuys Boulevard and Nordhoff Street, has been hit particularly hard with more than half of its 30 tenants closing their doors.

For years a chain-link fence surrounded the contaminated 25-acre lot near the junction of Interstate 5 and California 118 in Pacoima, a daily reminder of the thousands of well-paying manufacturing jobs lost to Mexico in the last decade.

In a sign of confidence in the region's recovering economy, developers have resumed construction of a $150-million shopping center in Oxnard. Work on the Collection at RiverPark, a large outdoor mall intended to look like a small-town shopping district, was halted in 2009 when the nation was in a recession. Consumers closed their wallets and retailers canceled expansion plans. "There was a lot of fear in the markets in 2008 and 2009, and that has gone away," said Colm Macken, chief executive of Aliso Viejo developer Shea Properties.

In a sign of confidence in the region's recovering economy, developers have resumed construction of a $150-million shopping center in Oxnard. Work on the Collection at RiverPark, a large outdoor mall intended to look like a small-town shopping district, was halted in 2009 when the nation was in a recession. Consumers closed their wallets and retailers canceled expansion plans. "There was a lot of fear in the markets in 2008 and 2009, and that has gone away," said Colm Macken, chief executive of Aliso Viejo developer Shea Properties.

After a decade of failing fortunes, the former Oxnard Factory Outlet has been sold to a Thousand Oaks developer who plans to spend at least $2.5 million refurbishing the mostly vacant shopping venue. Silagi Development and Management Inc.

The controversial plan to raze the landmark racetrack at Hollywood Park is coming into clearer focus this week as developers plan to unveil a model of the proposed 620,000-square-foot retail district that would partially replace it. The Hollywood Park Tomorrow project would mark one of the region's largest redevelopment projects, covering 238 acres in Inglewood -- though it faces hurdles. The plan has yet to be finalized, and Inglewood officials still must approve it. The developers say that once they get the go-ahead, they're ready to tear down the track and break ground on the roughly $2-billion project.

Surges of large-scale retail bankruptcies such as Circuit City electronics and Mervyns department stores altered the shopping landscape in 2009 -- and experts say 2010 is likely to bring even more changes. Amid a still-tepid economic recovery, big retail chains are expected to continue closing their less productive stores and retrenching on expansion plans. But at the same time, others will be hurtling into the breach to take advantage of falling rents and vacancies in neighborhoods they couldn't get into a few years ago. "The prediction for next year is more re-sizing and relocating of retailers," said real estate broker Richard Rizika of CB Richard Ellis.

First, Jollibee and Goldilocks -- both popular restaurants in the Philippines -- opened their doors in 2005. The next year came Seafood City, a supermarket that features an almost endless supply of seafood and other Filipino specialties. Today there are seven shops and restaurants clustered together at Eagle Rock Plaza, a mall that caters to thousands of local Filipinos.

T. J. Maxx, the national discount retail chain, has begun construction at the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza, and plaza officials are hoping the store will be a major boost for a mall marred for years by empty shops. "We expect it to be a big draw," plaza manager Joe Rouzan said of the 30,000-square-foot store, scheduled to open in November. "They're (T. J. Maxx) moving real fast. Just over the past weekend, the construction workers made a lot of progress."

There will be no wrecking ball - much less dynamite - as the Golden Key Hotel checks out of Glendale to make way for a new Nordstrom department store at the Americana at Brand shopping center. Workers started cautiously taking apart the three-story, 55-room hotel on Colorado Street on Thursday, said Paul Kurzawa, chief operating officer of mall owner Caruso Affiliated. Workers are using an excavator and hand tools on the hotel; a vacant brick building next door will be dismantled entirely by hand.

A mug shot of a wide-eyed man with a full-grown beard flashed on the evening news. The television reporter said he had been stabbed to death in Placentia. Rebecca McGillivray said she knew the image was her father, but it was not the man she remembered. Instead, she provided a description of a different man than the one on the broadcast. Her father, James Patrick McGillivray, 53, was the first homeless man to be murdered in a string of stabbings that began Dec. 20 in northern Orange County.

Location: 10250 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles, at the intersection of Avenue of the Stars and Santa Monica Boulevard. From the 405 Freeway, take the Santa Monica Boulevard exit and go east. Hours: 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mon.-Sat.; noon to 7 p.m. Sun. Known for: The AMC/Imax Century City 15 Movie Theater is a big draw for anyone who wants to see the latest action flick or sci-fi film in 3-D Imax. Located next to the theater is the mall's impressive dining area and food court in a modern, somewhat stark gray-and-white motif.

Going to the Westside Pavilion mall is a Friday afternoon ritual for Jenny Ouchi and her 8-year-old son, Will. But shopping isn't usually on the agenda. Ouchi drops Will off at Music Stars & Masters on the second floor, where he takes private piano lessons. During the half-hour session, Ouchi, 38, runs errands in the Los Angeles shopping center, such as getting her nails done or mailing a letter at the in-mall post office. "It's definitely a timesaver," said Ouchi, a part-time pediatrician who lives on the Westside.

Mace Siegel, a prominent owner of thoroughbred racehorses who was considered a godfather of Southern California horse racing for his role as an advocate for the sport, has died. He was 86. Siegel, who was also a leading developer of regional shopping centers, died Wednesday at his Beverly Hills home of complications related to old age, said his daughter, Samantha. "Mace was a pillar in our industry," George Haines, president of Santa Anita Park said in a statement. "His compassion for the horses, horseman and fans was second to none.

As retailers head into the all-important holiday season, they have reason to be optimistic: Months of solid sales are widely expected to carry through to the end of the year, when shoppers are most likely to open their wallets. Positive holiday performance could have a far-reaching effect. With consumer spending accounting for about 70% of the nation's economic activity, robust sales could breathe life into what has been a sluggish year so far for the broader economy. Many industry analysts are predicting a good — but not great — holiday season.

The nation's shopping center industry grew only slightly last year, reaching nearly 105,000 centers in operation, but appears poised to pick up the pace, the International Council of Shopping Centers said Monday. There was little growth in the number of shopping centers between 2008 and May 2010, the most significant slowdown in expansion since at least 1971, according to a study by real estate data provider CoStar Group Inc., which was commissioned by the International Council of Shopping Centers.

Are shoppers moving from malls back to community shopping centers? Schurgin Development Cos., Los Angeles, thinks so and, with $60 million, is out shopping for existing, underperforming centers. Mark Alan Fluent, manager/retail property acquisitions, says that many shoppers feel that it is getting more difficult to shop at large malls and this is driving them back to community shopping centers.

Some years ago, I attended the funeral of a friend's mother at a Los Angeles cemetery so singular that it once was the target of a famous literary satire. Since the family was indifferent to religion, they availed themselves of the facility's nondenominational chapel, where a vague sort of nondenominational service was conducted by a nondenominational clergyman provided by the cemetery. All I recall from his homily that day is that he repeatedly referred to God as "the developer of the universe.

Gap Inc. is bringing Athleta, its fledgling women's fitness apparel chain, to Southern California. The San Francisco apparel giant, which struggled with weak first-quarter sales at its Gap, Banana Republic and Old Navy brands, said it will open two Athleta stores in the Southland this fall, at the Grove shopping center in L.A.'s Fairfax district and at Fashion Island in Newport Beach. Two New York stores are slated to open in the summer. Athleta, acquired by Gap for $150 million in 2008, sells yoga clothing, running gear, swimwear, shoes and other fitness merchandise.