RETAILING : Cooper Building Orange County to Shut; Failure to Meet Projected Income Cited

The Cooper Building Orange County will permanently close its doors on Sunday.

The discount fashion center “just wasn’t generating the kind of income” that had been projected when it opened in Santa Ana in 1987, said Rick Hertel, marketing consultant with Collins Fuller commercial brokerage, which is trying to lease or sell the project.

One year ago, the center was home for 26 retailers selling brand-name clothing, shoes, handbags, makeup and home furnishings, usually far below list prices. Today, only eight of the shops are left, said Malik Khan, manager at the center.

It was originally hoped that the Santa Ana operation would complement the original--and apparently successful--Cooper Building in downtown Los Angeles’ garment district. That center, a collection of more than 70 retailers, draws millions of bargain-hunting shoppers annually and has been open since 1976.

Stanley Hirsh, the company’s top executive, had envisioned the Orange County center as drawing local customers who had been driving to the L.A. building, said Rick Hertel. But instead, Cooper Building Orange County did not meet projections, Hertel said.

The result is that Hirsh, who had leased the local site, is surrendering the lease on the 200,000-square-foot center and will concentrate on the original retail operation, said Hertel. Hirsh could not be reached for comment.

The mart here occupies four low, industrial buildings and is owned by the Irvine-based Muller Co. and Copley Real Estate Advisers of Boston.

So far, no one has been found to take over the remaining 30 months of the lease, Hertel said. But he said his firm is negotiating with someone interested in subleasing the entire property and that another firm has offered to buy the entire 13.4-acre site.

“I think we’ll find someone who wants to sublease the (main) building or who wants to occupy all four buildings,” Hertel said. “We could lease it as warehouse space or manufacturing-type space. Or if another retailer wanted it, we could do that, too.”