Shopkeepers Hope Traffic Will Bring Cash to Golden Mall

For merchants along Burbank’s Golden Mall, waiting is the hardest part.

Although they anticipate a substantial increase in business once the mall is reopened to vehicle traffic in early fall, they say the ongoing construction project has nearly cost them their livelihoods.

“Right now, business is down about 90%,” said Maria Shilvock, 49, who has operated a gift shop on the three-block pedestrian mall for 14 years. “All the merchants say business is down.”

Indeed, many of the shop owners along the mall on San Fernando Road say business has declined by about half since construction began in May. The mall, which stretches from Olive Avenue to Magnolia Boulevard, is in the heart of a downtown area targeted for redevelopment by the city.

Burbank officials say the $2.1-million street reopening will probably be finished before Nov. 2, its scheduled completion date, but it cannot open soon enough for the shopkeepers.

Worse Than Expected

Elliot Leifer, manager of Ed’s Towne Shop, a menswear store, estimates that he has lost 50% of his business since workers began ripping up the walkway in front of his store. “It’s hard to win new friends in this type of situation,” he said. “It’s not that we didn’t expect it. We just didn’t know how bad it would be.”

But Vernon Michel, owner of Michel’s Records and Tapes, said merchants have to keep in mind that business on the mall was declining long before the renovation work began.

“It’s been in decline since the early ‘70s,” said Michel, who has been doing business on the mall for 22 years. “Since then, a lot of businesses have gone out or changed hands.”

Admitting that work on the mall has cut his business in half, Michel, 53, said: “I’m encouraged. The future looks really great here. Once the street is opened up, it will be much better. It will be like opening a window and letting the light in.”

City officials couldn’t agree more. They say the outdoor mall was an outdated concept almost from the moment it opened in 1967.

‘Too Little, Too Late’

“The problem with the Golden Mall is that it was on the drawing boards in the mid-’50s, and it didn’t get built until almost the ‘70s,” City Councilman Thomas E. Flavin said. “By then it was too little, too late. It was never the success it was hoped to be.”

Mayor Robert R. Bowne, long an advocate of renovating the mall, noted that Santa Monica is undertaking a similar project to reopen its Third Street mall to traffic. That project is nearing completion.

“These malls are dinosaurs,” Bowne said. “It’s an idea that is very passe; that kind of operation is no longer effective in this age of more festive . . . retail concepts.”

But Golden Mall merchants said that even in the face of present hardships, they must concentrate their energy on the future.

“We’re all suffering now, but the pain will be worth it because of what we’ll be getting afterward,” said Lou Quiles, vice president of Killeen Music. “The improvements are going to be for the better. It will make us more accessible and more visible for customers coming into the area.”

Hopes for Holidays

Quiles said that if the street is opened on time, he will be able to make up for lost business during the holiday season. “We’re planning to stay open longer hours to take advantage of the drive-by traffic,” he said.

Even Shilvock is confident about the future. “I think after the street goes through, things will be a lot better,” she said. “A year from now we’re going to say, ‘My gosh, what a change.’ ”

City officials, meanwhile, say they are doing all they can to help merchants get through the hard times.

Ora Lampman, Burbank’s director of public works, said the city included a bonus incentive in its contract with Moulder Bros. construction company in the hope that the firm would finish work early. Under the agreement, Lampman said, the contractor would receive a $5,000-a-day bonus, up to $70,000, if it finishes ahead of schedule.

“The major reason for getting the bonus agreement in the contract was to ensure that the street would be open before Christmas,” Lampman said. “Right now, it appears it will be complete by mid-October.” He said the contract also calls for a $5,000-a-day penalty if the company does not complete work on time.

Flavin said the City Council is considering a request from several shop owners for the city to provide some kind of financial assistance.

Low-Interest Loans

“They’re looking for a low-interest loan program to help them get back on their feet for the holidays,” Flavin said. “I don’t know what we can do, but we have instructed our staff to look into it.”

Some mall merchants blame the City Council for letting the mall fall into disrepair.

“If they would have taken care of the mall, it would have been different,” said Gigi Wardi, 30, proprietor of Gigi’s dress shop. “But all the time bums were sleeping on the benches, and there was trash all over.”

Although Wardi said she believes that opening San Fernando Road will eventually help her business, merchants and customers remain split on the issue.

Irene Edrington, 55, part owner of Book Castle, said she would have preferred keeping the mall the way it was. “You had trees; people could sit down, and it was pleasant,” she said. “Now you have a street that goes into 40 acres of nowhere.”

Edrington was referring to the 41-acre lot at the west end of the mall--the proposed site of the $200-million Burbank Gateway Center, the centerpiece of the city’s plan to revitalize the downtown area. The City Council is expected to give final approval to the project Sept. 12, with ground breaking the next day.

Merchant Skeptical

Many Golden Mall merchants are hoping that they will benefit from the customers attracted to the new shopping center, but Edrington said she is not convinced that there will ever be a Gateway Center.

“That’s not going to be in our lifetime,” she said. “The City Council, they’re all talk. A lot of yackety-yak, but no action.”

And then there are those such as Richard Wydra, owner of Richard’s Krause Jewelers, who say they have nothing to gain from the mall renovation.

Wydra said he is being forced to relocate off the mall by the end of the month because the building he occupies is one of several targeted for redevelopment. The AMC-10 Theatre next door recently purchased the property as part of its expansion plans.

Wydra said he was forced to move from another location on the mall five years ago because of redevelopment, “and people are still looking for me.”

With the sound of jackhammers and nail guns resonating outside his door, Mitch Siegel, manager of Book City, seemed to sum up the general mood of merchants:

“I can’t wait till they finish up,” he said. “It’s giving me a headache.”