Courtyard Mall Is Turning Highbrow to Lure Upscale Shoppers on Peninsula
Nearly seven years after opening in Rolling Hills Estates, The Courtyard mall is taking dramatic--and expensive--steps in an effort to become what it wanted to be from the start: a magnet for affluent Palos Verdes Peninsula shoppers seeking upscale merchandise.
As part of an $11-million project to be announced next week, the Hahn Co. of San Diego, which owns the mall, will change the center’s name to The Shops at Palos Verdes. Hahn Vice President Bob Welanets said the change is an attempt to shift the center’s image from that of a traditional mall to individual stores.
New tenants, offering what Welanets termed “quality merchandise . . . of better value,” are already moving into the mall. He said half of the mall’s 80,000 square feet of space for smaller stores could be leased to new stores by April. The mall’s two anchor department stores, Bullocks Wilshire and May Co., are staying, he said.
What many regard as the mall’s austere look will be softened with a “city park” decor using landscaping and hanging plants, fountains and waterfalls, banners and wrought-iron benches and old-fashioned light posts with globe lamps. These plans go to the city Planning Commission on Oct. 3.
In addition to the redecorating, the $11 million will pay for a marketing program based on the new theme and undisclosed financial incentives to attract new tenants.
Welanets said Hahn decided in January to redesign The Courtyard because the existing style and mix of tenants were “not doing an effective job.”
He said the mall “needed a higher-grade merchant oriented toward customer service and good, quality merchandise.” The peninsula shopper, he said, “does not mind paying a little extra for things, but the merchandise ought to last longer and be of better value.”
Welanets acknowledged that The Courtyard, only a few miles from the giant Del Amo Fashion Center in Torrance, failed to become the preferred peninsula shopping destination as the developer hoped.
“It was not received with open arms,” he said, explaining that when The Courtyard opened in late 1981, people saw it as a “big development” in an area that “everyone wanted to keep more rural, less commercial.”
He said the tenant mix was also wrong, with stores that were “too national, not distinctive enough.”
‘Demand Special Stores’
One merchant, who asked for anonymity, said “people in the community demand special stores,” and The Courtyard has not given them that. The merchant called the changes “very good . . . a mix (of tenants) the community will support.”
There have been many tenant changes over the years, and several observers said the mall’s fortunes began improving two years ago.
In 1986, the last year for which complete figures are available, taxable retail sales at The Courtyard--which currently has 72 stores and is one of the South Bay’s smallest malls--were $35.2 million, according to Los Angeles Times Marketing Research. Taxable sales for the first three-quarters of 1987 were $25 million, but this does not include the lucrative holiday season. (The fourth quarter accounted for one-third of The Courtyard’s 1986 business.)
“We could have inched along, but we felt the opportunity had come for revolutionary change,” Welanets said.
The first of the new stores, Units women’s fashions, opened in May. Brentano’s books opens next week. Other stores signed to move into the mall are Hudson-Goodman Jewelers, which is under construction; Williams-Sonoma, a culinary shop, and two women’s fashion stores, Talbots and Laura Ashley.
Negotiations are under way with 10 other stores.
“We are not looking at trendy Rodeo Drive-type merchandise but . . . the more conservative East Coast feel” that will suit the peninsula, Welanets said.
Units owner Gary Wimp, who has 13 stores in California, including some in other Hahn malls, said The Courtyard shop “is a very good store for us.” He said Hahn asked him to come to the mall, and he agreed because the peninsula “is an affluent area, women are fashionable, and they understand and want good fashion.”
Stores to Leave
Welanets said some mall stores have left and some others, which he declined to disclose, will be leaving.
One is Radio Shack, which closes at the end of the day Sept. 24. Manager Ken Register said the mall is “making a big mistake” with its new plans. “We need traffic stores, not high-dollar stores,” he said. “The clientele here is not Rodeo Drive.”
But Robert Bearson, a Long Beach retail consultant who studied The Courtyard four years ago, said the mall is “being very wise” in making changes. He said it is “dependent on the hill” for business and is “going now for very high-end professional tenants.”
