Plush Shopping Center to Replace Restaurant

Herbert M. Piken, president of a Studio City-based shopping center development firm bearing his name, has scheduled a press conference Monday to announce his plans for a $15-million to $16-million shopping center to replace the San Fernando Valley’s well-known restaurant, Tail O’ the Cock.

News of the 39-year-old landmark’s future closing caused neighborhood concern, Piken said, “but Shelton McHenry (its longtime owner) is just retiring and wouldn’t have continued the restaurant anyway.

“He wants this to be developed and not just sitting empty like his Tail O’ the Cock on La Cienega.” Piken said that McHenry’s attorney will read a letter expressing this at the press conference.

Until now, Piken has said little about the specifics of his project, which is expected to be built, starting in February or March after the restaurant--for years a show business favorite--is demolished, on the southwest corner of Ventura Boulevard and Coldwater Canyon Avenue. “We hope to have it completed by Christmas, 1987,” he said.

Piken describes his project as “the first Rodeo Drive-type shopping center in the Valley.”

Olivier Vidal, with Maxwell Starkman Associates of Beverly Hills, is project designer. Hector Hinojosa Zozaya, an architect from Mexico City, will be a consultant.

The three-level center will be constructed of gray stone with a glass and silver frame pattern. It will have 70,000 square feet of stores--described as “nationally and internationally known boutiques and specialty shops,” a couple of restaurants, offices and subterranean valet and self parking for more than 340 cars.

The center will have an open court fronting Ventura Boulevard.