California Mart to Expand for Brisk Menswear Market
Los Angeles’ California Mart has enhanced its image as the world’s largest fashion merchandising marketplace with the announcement of a new expansion phase focusing on a thriving California menswear market.
Plans for the D Building were disclosed last week at a breakfast reception hosted by partners of California Mart, a family-owned business founded by Harvey and Barney Morse in the early 1960s.
Ground breaking has been scheduled for next May, coinciding with the Mart’s 25th anniversary year. Completion of the new facility is expected by May of 1991, at an estimated cost of $70 million, according to industry sources.
General partner Sidney L. Morse, back from a business trip to New York, said the interest there in Cal Mart expansion was high on the part of leading menswear designers, and he is confident that at ground breaking, 75% of the new space will be leased.
10,000 Merchandise Lines
Responding to reports that the vacancy rate at the Mart is currently higher than its usual 3%, Morse explained that “We have deliberately created vacant space to allow for renovation and upgrading of certain areas in existing buildings.”
Currently housing more than 2,000 showrooms, the Mart displays about 10,000 lines of merchandise ranging from women’s clothing and menswear to footwear, accessories and linens, and is host to 100,000 retailers annually from all 50 states and about 25 foreign countries.
“The dynamics generated by a building focus on the menswear industry very exciting. It also provides it with a permanent home in Los Angeles 52 weeks of the year. We feel it is the right tool at the right time for manufacturers and representatives to expand markets and save money,” added David Morse, another prime Cal Mart mover and general partner.
Morse said between 1980 and 1986, a period following the last California Mart expansion of showroom space in 1979 with the addition of the C Building, wholesale apparel sales have grown at a compounded rate of 8.7% to a total of $5.4 billion.
The expansion site, covering almost a full city block, is bounded by Olympic Boulevard, Broadway, 9th and Main streets and is located directly across Main Street from the existing 3-million-square-foot California Mart complex.
Over the past 24 years, the Mart has constructed four buildings, with the design of the newest addition unifying the overall concept. Gruen Associates, architect for the preceding four phases, has also designed the new structure.
In its newest venture, California Mart has been working closely with city officials and the Community Redevelopment Agency to expedite the approval process, though no financial commitment is involved by the CRA.
Mayor Tom Bradley, who attended last week’s Mart reception, stressed the importance of the expansion to the revitalization of downtown Los Angeles, and indicated greater security and safety for the area with the increase of new officers to the city’s police force.
Maris Peika, partner-in-charge of design at Gruen, said the 702,825-square-foot expansion (excluding parking) will consist of two eight-story wings separated by an atrium fronting on Broadway and Main streets, and a four-story attached rotunda facing the corner of Olympic and Main.
Peika said the soaring 125-foot-high atrium will allow natural light to filter into the upper levels of the showrooms and will be covered by four pyramidal skylights which, in concert with the conical capping of the rotunda, will lend dramatic interest to Los Angeles’ urban skyline.
An enclosed bridge with a moving sidewalk will span Main Street, connecting the second level of the new building with the second level of the Mart’s A, B, and C buildings, Peika explained.
Fashions for Executives
The new building will have an 8-foot base shell of black polished granite contrasting with natural buff-colored limestone combined with clear glass panels starting at the first and second levels, Peika said.
The D Building’s 100,000-square-foot exhibit center will house the 1,000-exhibitor California International Menswear Market, barely a year old, displaying classic and comfortable new fashion for young executives. The center will provide access for large freight capability to bring vans and automobiles onto a floor capacity of more than 400 booths.
In addition, D Building will provide 400,000 net square feet of wholesale showroom facilities on seven floors, 25,000 square feet of Mart service retail space, 25,000 square feet of Broadway retail space, on-site parking for 625 cars and 1,200 spaces located off-site in a separate parking structure.
A two-story, 800-seat Fashion Theatre on the second level adjoining the atrium will showcase the industry’s fashion shows, special promotional events and seasonal trade shows.
Tishman Construction Corp. of California is the construction manager for the project; John A. Martin & Associates is the structural engineer, and Flack and Kurtz, the mechanical engineer.
