New Mall: It’s Working
The Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza, the nation’s first enclosed regional shopping mall in a predominantly black urban neighborhood, is more than a shopper’s dream, although it clearly is that. The upscale mall, created at a cost of $120 million on the site of an aging postwar shopping center, features three major department stores and 100 smaller shops and boutiques. But it also represents a chance to turn a surge of middle-class shoppers into an economic revival for the whole area.
Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley and former City Councilwoman Pat Russell deserve much of the credit. They persevered in the remodeling project even after the loss of federal funds, the suspicion--unfounded, as it turned out--of the presence of an earthquake fault and general skepticism in the community. They encouraged private investors, led by developer Alexander Haagen and the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency, to pour millions of dollars into an economically mixed neighborhood teetering on commercial decline. The hopes for long-term success lie in the fact that there are more than 50,000 households with incomes greater than $35,000 within five miles of the new mall.
To attract upscale shoppers, the ambiance at the plaza is trendy--art deco, glass brick, soft colors, skylights and towering palm trees. A bridge connects the two original department stores, the May Co. and the Broadway--both newly renovated. The May Co. Baldwin Hills features grand new departments, bright displays and trendy designer merchandise. New signs point the way to a small Museum of African-American Art tucked away on the third floor. The Broadway Baldwin Hills also offers upscale fashions. Both stores promise an emphasis on service--a key to keeping customers.
The new Sears Roebuck & Co. store--the first built in the inner city in 35 years--offers contemporary, upbeat fashions including national-brand labels, sporting goods and appliances. The Sears store at Baldwin Hills Crenshaw replaces two older Sears stores on West Pico Boulevard and on East Manchester Boulevard in Inglewood. A Sears official said that sales at the new store were “very strong, very good.” That’s all it will take.
Although only a handful of the 100 smaller shops are open at the mall, space for 60 is already under lease, of which 25 were signed by black tenants. Banks, restaurants, shoe stores, jewelry stores, apparel stores, a bookstore and a Los Angeles Police Department substation are scheduled to open in the next several months. A badly needed grocery store, drugstore and dry-cleaning shop will open in a neighboring area.
The Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza offers more than 800,000 square feet of shopping space. The new mall offers jobs, economic opportunities, profits, sales-tax revenues and a vibrant future for what was a blighted section of Los Angeles.
