Century City Mall Turns Drab Image Into Top Spot

Several years ago, Century City mall was considered a drab outdoor shopping center, but its recent renovation has put some pressure on its competitors.

In 1987, it opened its very popular indoor-outdoor food hall, Marketplace, where specialty restaurants and patio vendors offer eat-in or take-out food of nearly every description--Mexican, Southwestern, New York deli, French, Mediterranean, Japanese and so on.

Office workers in the nearby Century City high-rises now descend by the hundreds at lunchtime. In the evenings and weekends, the new 14-screen movie theater makes Century City the top entertainment spot among the Westside shopping centers.

As a result of these amenities, and such popular new stores as the Western-themed Raffia, even Century City’s competitors praise it for its artful resurgence.

For Liz Rios, a shopping expert in the truest sense--she used to be an assistant buyer for Macy’s in New York--it is the shops and the ambience that draw her to Century City Shopping Center. Rios said she bypasses several malls closer to her Brentwood home because Century City has her favorite selection of specialty stores--Laura Ashley, Talbot’s, Victoria’s Secret, Crate & Barrel--as well as the most comfortable atmosphere around.

“I like it because it’s outdoors and you don’t feel claustrophobic like in other malls,” she said. “It doesn’t seem to get as crowded and it’s got the right merchandise, even though it’s not the most upscale. It just has the nicest ambience of the bunch.”

Analysts concur that specialty stores such as Crate & Barrel, Ann Taylor and the Disney Store are the key ingredient for helping regional malls post significant year-to-year sales gains, and are essential for drawing customers to the other stores.

As with most of its competitors, Century City’s biggest drawback is its access. It suffers from traffic congestion in Century City and has no easy freeway access. Parking can be difficult, especially with the addition of the new theaters, and shoppers must remember to get their tickets validated if they want to park free.

Century City is organized almost like a small European town, with intersecting lanes full of shops. The mall’s layout can be confusing to the uninitiated, who often take one of the numbered escalators from the underground parking structure with no clear idea of where they will emerge and no sure sense once they do.

“I get lost, and I’ve been here a lot of times,” said Dan Pauley, 27, a Studio City man who recently came to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s new store in the mall.

Nancy Leff, 42, of Los Angeles, has no trouble navigating the mall, her favorite. “I’m maze bright,” she said. “I have a very good sense of direction, and I always park in the same spot so I know where I am.”

Owned and managed by Rosenberg Real Estate Equity Funds, Century City Shopping Center ranked 11th in total sales in 1989 among the 45 largest shopping centers in Los Angeles County.

CENTURY CITY SHOPPING CENTER

Year opened: 1964

Retail square footage: 771,000

Anchor stores: the Broadway, Bullock’s

Number of stores: 142

Memorable feature: the Marketplace, a trendy indoor-outdoor food hall