A Nail and Noodle Shop? A Yogurt and Flower Store? There Was That and More at . . . : The Nightmare Mini-Mall

Workmen on Thursday did what many Los Angeles residents can only dream of doing to irksome mini-malls that seem to pop up on every corner in town.

They took sledgehammers to the neon pink-trimmed “Shangri La Plaza” in North Hollywood.

The mall flower shop advertising free yogurt with every purchase of a dozen roses was demolished. So were the tanning salon, doughnut stand, video rental store and the mall’s centerpiece storefront, “Nam’s Nails and Noodles.”

Since it was built six weeks ago, the shopping strip at the intersection of Vineland Avenue and Burbank Boulevard had been a standout even for the San Fernando Valley--where each new L-shaped corner mall tries to outdo the last.

Umbrella-topped fast-food dining tables lined the mall’s second floor patio. Stylized artificial palm trees stood beneath a jarring, Miami Vice Moderne roof. Two giant frosted doughnuts revolved atop the “Donut Hole” kiosk at the front of the mall’s tiny, crowded parking lot.

Along with the requisite tax preparer’s office and fast (“12-minute”) photo processing store, the mall included “Bondo Bros. Auto Body Shop,” where walls were decorated with grease-smeared calendar pictures of girls in bikinis.

In short, Shangri La Plaza seemed to many to be the ultimate Mini-Mall From Hell.

“Tacky. Gaudy. It doesn’t go with what I call master planning,” North Hollywood resident Robert Mein said Wednesday as he surveyed the mall from across the street.

“It’s, hmmmm, unique ,” offered Jerry Jones, also of North Hollywood. “I’d prefer something more orderly.”

Jones didn’t realize that the mini-mall was a spoof. Neither did hundreds of others who tried to pull in and shop.

The mall was a plywood and chicken wire backdrop for an unusual musical comedy about people who work in a fictitious Los Angeles shopping center. It is one of about 30 new shows being prepared this spring for CBS television.

Technicians finished filming the half-hour pilot for the proposed “Shangri La Plaza” series on Thursday. Network executives will decide later this month whether to include the rock-opera in next season’s schedule, said CBS Entertainment spokeswoman Paula Askanas.

The mock mall was built atop a partially constructed real mini-mall. Once the make-believe shops and garish decorations are completely ripped out, the real mall will be finished and its storefronts leased.

But compared to Shangri La Plaza’s dancing doughnuts, artificial trees and phony second floor, the “Dupre Plaza” may end up looking a little dull, acknowledged owner Marc Dupre, who was paid $1,000 a day for the use of his mall site.

“Too bad I can’t leave it looking like that,” he said. “The way they dolled it up is kind of neat. I hate to see them go.”

Others won’t, conceded Dupre, who operated a 48-year-old auto body shop at the corner before trying his hand at mini-mall development. He said Los Angeles zoning laws prohibited him from modernizing his repair shop at the site.

“We’ve constantly gotten phone calls from people who think I’ve built the mall that way. They call up and ask if my contractor is on drugs or something. They’d ask what I was doing renting to competitors, the Bondo brothers.”

Nick Castle, the show’s director and executive producer, said studio designer Jeremy Railton drew from the 500 or so mini-malls that have been built in the Los Angeles area in fabricating his mock mall. The result was outrageous--but realistic.

“People have tried to buy flowers and tires. They don’t believe you when you say it isn’t real and we have to pull it all down when we’re through,” said Ron Mitchell, the show’s coordinating producer.

Security officer John Spencer, an off-duty Los Angeles policeman, said one passer-by stopped to ask the name of the Shangri La Plaza architect. “The guy liked the look of the place and wanted to contact the builder,” Spencer said.

Across the street from Shangri La Plaza, real-life mini-mall merchants in the BV Shopping Center who rent videos, sell doughnuts and do nails said they wish the make-believe mall would stay.

“To be honest, I like the way it looks,” said Lester Quintero, a tax preparer who rents office space in the BV mall.

“At first, we didn’t know they were making a movie,” said nail salon operator Hrachik Grigorian. “I didn’t think it was a good idea to have another nail shop over there.”

Sang Kim, owner of BV mall’s “99 Videos,” said he hopes a real video rental shop doesn’t lease space when the real mall opens.

Realistically speaking, “There’s not enough business here right now,” Kim said.