New Kid on the Block : Santa Monica: The Third Street Promenade has been transformed into the new hot spot in town. It’s Westwood Village without the traffic, lack of parking and rambunctious teen-agers.

Nearly a year after its official opening, the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica--once an aging eyesore of a bygone era--is becoming a bustling pedestrian-oriented entertainment center of the ‘90s.

Visitors can park in one of six garages with 3,000 spaces, walk along a three-block area to see a movie at one of more than 20 screens, eat at a fancy dinner or snack at a burger joint, then browse through several bookstores. At the end of the night--as late as 3 a.m. on weekends--people are heading to a coffeehouse for an espresso.

“It has exceeded our wildest dreams in terms of generating a new social center for the city,” said Mayor Pro Tem David Finkel, who has observed the changes from his 4th Street law office. “It’s just amazing to see and feel the electricity of the people.”

The successful transformation of what was a nearly-dead outdoor shopping mall along 3rd Street between Broadway and Wilshire Boulevard has occurred so quickly that a new road built through the promenade to accommodate one lane of traffic in each direction has been closed on Friday and Saturday nights to allow people to walk freely.

The promenade, with its movie theaters, restaurants, bars and shops, is being compared to what Westwood Village used to be like before becoming congested with traffic, plagued by a shortage of parking and overrun by rambunctious teen-agers.

“Where else can you go in West Los Angeles and walk around outside of Westwood,” said Barbara Tenzer, a commercial real estate broker for Sommer Broida Commercial Brokerage Co. “But even Westwood is a younger crowd. This is a real good mix of older people, young people and families.”

Herman and Millie Rosenstein, both 75 and Santa Monica residents for 10 years, take daily walks through the promenade.

Although both are concerned that it will become “yuppieville,” they said they enjoy being able to walk at a slow pace and view the activity around the promenade.

“It’s fun,” Herman said.

It has been some time since anyone said the Third Street Mall, as it was once called, is fun.

The mall opened in the mid-1960s, when outdoor malls were the rage. It enjoyed modest success, despite a shortage of parking. The city tried to resolve the parking problem by building parking garages along 2nd and 4th streets, but in the process dislocated many businesses on those streets.

The final blow to the mall came in the early 1980s, when Santa Monica Place, an enclosed shopping center with two anchor department stores, opened across the street from the mall.

After that, some merchants half-heartedly joked that the Third Street Mall attracted more transients than customers.

Efforts to revive the mall began in 1983, with construction beginning in May, 1988. Construction focused on public improvements along the street, since the buildings are all privately owned. The city issued $13 million in bonds, with $3 million to pay existing debt, $4 million for new parking spaces and $6 million for street improvements.

Property owners are paying off the bond over 30 years through an assessment district. For their money, property owners have 3,000 parking spaces in six garages along 2nd and 4th streets. Along 3rd Street, the city has planted palm and jacaranda trees, improved lighting, placed wrought-iron benches and trash receptacles and built small plazas with fountains and topiary dinosaurs in the middle of the street at each end of the three blocks.

Thomas H. Carroll, executive director of the Bayside District Corp., the nonprofit group that manages the promenade, said he is pleased with the early success of the promenade and already is looking to add another 300 parking spaces by building more levels on existing parking structures.

“This is exactly what we wanted,” Carroll said. “We want to be a great walking street.”

Carroll said there are no statistics available on the number of people who visit the promenade, but he said that on weekends the four garages between Broadway and Arizona Avenue are filled to near-capacity, and the two garages between Arizona and Wilshire are about 70% full.

With the increase in visitors to the promenade, the number of transients who roamed the mall before the renovations were completed apparently has dwindled. Police officials say the visibility of beat cops who ride bicycles up and down the promenade and patrol the six garages also helps keep transients away.

Carroll and merchants on the promenade point to the opening of three movie theaters as the catalyst for the early success.

Cineplex Odeon was the first to open last October with a four-screen complex just north of Broadway. AMC Theatres followed in March with a seven-screen complex--which includes an indoor-outdoor cafe--on the promenade at Santa Monica Boulevard. Mann Theatres soon opened a six-screen theater across the promenade from AMC. A block away on 2nd Street, Laemmle Theatres operates a four-screen theater, which has been at that location for about 20 years.

Greg Rutkowski, an AMC vice president, said that more than 250,000 people have visited his Santa Monica 7 Theatres since it opened in March.

“The promenade has all the right chemistry,” Rutkowski said.

The large number of people attending movies has meant an increase in business for many merchants.

“The movies have played a major role in the success of the promenade,” said Jivan Tabibian, managing owner of Remi, an Italian restaurant next to the Cineplex Odeon.

Jeffrey D. Gottlieb, general manager of the Broadway Bar & Grill, said he has added a late-night supper to his menu, and keeps his kitchen open until midnight on weekends to accommodate customers who want a bite to eat after they’ve been to a movie.

Daniel Hendrickson, assistant manager of the Midnight Special Bookstore, which has been on 3rd Street for eight years, also said he has seen an increase in business.

“We used to close at 6:30 p.m., but now we stay open as late as 11 p.m.,” Hendrickson said. “There is a lot of late-night traffic.”

Teasers, in business for five years at its location just north of Santa Monica Boulevard, was a popular restaurant and bar even before the renovations. But owner Dan Ringwood said business has increased by at least 25% in the last year.

New businesses are waiting to open with anticipation.

“This is incredibly exciting,” said Irene Astrow, one of the owners of Yankee Doodles, a two-level, 28-table upscale billiard parlor scheduled to open on the promenade in mid-November. “We are there constantly. You can see the increase in the number of people each time.”

Another business hoping to take advantage of the mix of business on the promenade is the Los Angeles International Culinary Institute, which is scheduled to open early next year as a training center, as well as a restaurant.

“The location offers everything we are looking for,” said Raimund Hofmeister, president of the institute and executive chef at the Century Plaza Hotel. “We can help supply the abundance of restaurants in the area with apprentices, and from a student’s point of view, there are plenty of activities. This will add to the school as a sales point.”

Some merchants have become regular customers of businesses on the promenade. Budd Friedman, who owns The Improv comedy club on Santa Monica Boulevard between 3rd and 4th streets, said he and his wife had been going to movie theaters in Century City, but now go to the theaters on the promenade.

“I can’t believe how quickly it has developed,” Friedman said. “I can’t believe the difference in the neighborhood in a little over two years. This has become a destination area.”

Bayside District Corp. is trying to help that phenomenon along with various promotions, such as a free folk and jazz festival being held today from noon to 8 p.m.

Having succeeded with restaurants and movie theaters, Bayside District Corp. director Carroll said the next challenge is to bring new retail shops to the promenade and attract businesses to the block between Arizona Avenue and Wilshire Boulevard, which has developed slower than the other two blocks.

“If we get the people down here we should be able to attract the retail,” he said.

The promenade still has boarded-up shops, and demolition continues at some sites. Many of the older shops, such as The Supply Sergeant and Europa department store, are gone and will likely be replaced with upscale shops. But others, like J.C. Penney and Woolworth, will remain.

Real estate broker Tenzer said that with the crowds that the promenade is attracting, it has been easier to persuade new retailers to locate there.

“There is a lot of interest,” she said.

Carroll said they are going after retail businesses not already located at Santa Monica Place, which they consider a complement to the promenade rather than a competitor.

But while many visitors to the promenade approve of the changes taking place on 3rd Street, some have mixed feelings.

Morgan Fisher, 48, of Santa Monica was recently sitting in the outdoor patio of Congo Square, an espresso and tea house on the promenade between Wilshire and Arizona.

He said he enjoyed being able to sit outdoors in the promenade without having to watch cars go by, but part of him yearns for the good old days.

“I liked Santa Monica when it was a small run-down community,” Fisher said. “Now, ultra-chic is overrunning the place.”