Mall Adds Features to Lure West Valley Shoppers : Reborn Fallbrook Center Back in Retail Fray
After 20 months and $40 million in remodeling, the Fallbrook Square shopping center in Canoga Park is about to reopen formally as Fallbrook Mall. The question now is whether it will have any more success in its newest life than it did previously.
Before most of it was closed for renovation in the fall of 1984, Fallbrook, with empty stores and poor sales, struggled in the competitive West San Fernando Valley market. Now it faces renewed competition from two nearby shopping centers--an expanded Topanga Plaza in Canoga Park and the upscale Promenade Mall in Woodland Hills--and the Northridge Fashion Center.
Those three malls easily bested Fallbrook in the past. In 1983, the last full year before Fallbrook closed for renovations, it generated $55.62 in sales per square foot of retail space. For that year, Topanga Plaza reported sales of $91.10 per square foot, the Promenade Mall, $154.63 per square foot, and Northridge Fashion Center, $149.86 per square foot.
New Features
To try to catch up, Fallbrook has been enclosed and expanded. It added 250,000 square feet for such new stores as a Target and a Mervyn’s, and a glass-enclosed food court is under construction to house restaurants and a common seating area.
All in all, the new Fallbrook will consist of 1.25 million square feet, making it nearly twice the size of Promenade and about as big as Topanga Plaza and the Northridge Fashion Center.
First opened in October, 1964, Fallbrook never was completely occupied and in the last few years, before renovations began, the vacancy rate was increasing. Sales, according to the state Board of Equalization, were $56.4 million in 1983.
“The mall failed to keep up with changing times,” said Tracey Hall, Fallbrook’s vice president for administration and marketing.
Fallbrook officially reopens July 15, but Mervyn’s and Target already are doing business, as are about 20 smaller stores. Fallbrook Square Partners, which owns the mall at Fallbrook Avenue and Vanowen Street, said the renovation involved stripping much of the structure to its steel skeleton and rebuilding from scratch.
The result is an enclosed facility roofed with a white metal frame from which colorful banners will hang. Also included is a stage and a community room. The renovation, says John Bucksbaum, general partner of Fallbrook Mall Partners, will make Fallbrook as attractive as any of the glossy malls in the area.
Competition ‘Intensified’
Fallbrook’s renovation “intensifies competition,” acknowledged Keith Anderson, general manager of the Promenade Mall.
Although the West Valley malls compete with one another, Anderson and others say each also appeals to a different market segment.
Both Topanga Plaza and Northridge Fashion Center have gone after more affluent consumers in recent years, but still are considered middle-range malls.
The 91-store, 600,000-square-foot Promenade Mall at Topanga Canyon Boulevard and Oxnard Street in the Warner Center area of Woodland Hills is considered the most upscale of all, with Robinson’s, Bullocks Wilshire and Saks Fifth Avenue.
Expanded 2 Years Ago
Topanga Plaza, just one block north of the Promenade Mall, on Topanga Canyon Boulevard between Victory Boulevard and Vanowen Street, has 140 stores anchored by The Broadway, May Co., Montgomery Ward, Nordstrom and Ohrbach’s. It was expanded in 1984 with the addition of Nordstrom’s, and also had a $16-million interior redesign.
The Northridge Fashion Center, on Nordhoff Street at Tampa Avenue, has 145 stores and is anchored by Bullock’s, The Broadway, Sears and J.C. Penney. A 400,000-square-foot expansion is proposed to begin later this year to add a Robinson’s and a May Co. to the mall’s west side, said mall manager Kenneth Oswald.
That expansion requires city approval, and Councilman Hal Bernson has opposed a westward expansion because he said it would congest Shirley Avenue. Mall representatives say the expansion won’t work on any other side.
The issue remains unresolved, but Ralph Crouch, Bernson’s planning deputy, said a compromise is near in which the westward expansion would be permitted and the mall would pay for traffic improvements. All that remains to be worked out, Crouch said, is what the mall will pay.
Fallbrook, due west of Topanga Plaza, is considered a low-priced mall, although Bucksbaum insists his 75-acre facility is really middle range. But it now features lower-prices stores like Target and Mervyn’s, along with a J.C. Penney Outlet Store and a renovated Sears.
The basic strategy at Fallbrook is to offer shoppers new stores and a more pleasant place to visit. Some of its details are the result of extensive market research. Hall said studies found a strong preference among women shoppers for a one-story facility, which makes it easier for those pushing strollers, and for single-level parking, which many people feel is safer.
Shoppers Eat There
Studies also showed that 60% of those visiting Fallbrook would eat something there, so the food court was made the main entry to the mall. It will seat 400 and be surrounded by fast-food restaurants.
Fallbrook officials said most of the smaller retailers at Fallbrook will be new when the mall officially reopens. Most of the former tenants relocated because of the lengthy renovations.
Hall said that, among 135 enclosed shops, 60 tenants, occupying 50% of the leaseable square footage, should be in place by July 15.
“If you can get 80%, that’s real good,” said Allen Young, a shopping-center specialist with Coldwell Banker. “I’d say 50% to 60% is average” for an opening, he added.
Hall said almost all 40 of the exterior shops at Fallbrook will be occupied by opening day, and Bucksbaum said he is satisfied with the pace of leasing.
The Bucksbaums, who Hall said have developed 50 regional shopping malls since 1955, acquired Fallbrook in January, 1984, from Harvey Capital Co. of Los Angeles for an undisclosed price.
SAN FERNANDO VALLEY MALLS
Sales volumes for January through September 1985, the most recent figures available from the State Board of Equalization, and the percentage change from the same period in 1984.
Mall Sales %Change Northridge Fashion Center $137,963,000 +7.3 Topanga Plaza $110,838,000 +50.0 Sherman Oaks Fashion Sq. $75,732,000 +11.6 Promenade Mall $66,550,000 +8.8 Sherman Oaks Galleria $51,514,000 +4.7 Panorama Mall $48,272,000 +19.8 Fallbrook Mall* $39,294,000 -0.9 Laurel Plaza $30,842,000 +9.9
Most of the mall was closed in 1985
