Redone Mall Struggles to Bounce Back
What is in a sense the Westside’s newest shopping center is also, in a way, one of the nation’s most historic.
When the Crenshaw Shopping Center opened in 1948, it was the first center in the country to contain two anchor stores--May Co. and the Broadway. But a $120-million remodeling job completed in 1988 as a city redevelopment project was so extensive that the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza, as it is now known, is essentially brand new.
The Alexander Haagen Co. built the plaza on the site of the old center, which hit hard times more than two decades ago when whites abandoned the neighborhood and store owners began slashing services and selection. Even though black professionals replaced the departing whites, the reputation of the community’s business district suffered, in part because of its nearness to crime-ridden, economically hard-pressed areas of the inner city.
Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza is surrounded by the largest concentration of affluent blacks in the West, but despite the glossy remodeling, it has not yet found the formula for attracting them as customers.
Although it has a large Sears department store in addition to its other anchors, the mall has been unable to attract other national retail outlets found in competing shopping centers. It remains only about 60% occupied. The mall also appears to suffer from a widespread impression among shoppers that its merchandise lacks the pizazz and diversity available at other Westside malls.
Based on sales per square foot, the mall is the poorest performer of any regional mall in Los Angeles County. On overall sales in 1989, the Baldwin Hills mall ranked 43rd among the 45 largest shopping centers in the county.
The shopping center is by far the most community-minded of the regional malls. Its May Co. store houses the Museum of African American Art. The mall also has a senior citizen center, a small post office, a Municipal Court office and a police substation.
Jointly owned and operated by the developer, Alexander Haagen Co., and the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency, the mall has been praised for its private security force--it may be the only shopping mall around where a guard opens doors for its patrons. The center has plenty of parking space, but the closest freeway, the Santa Monica, is two miles away.
BALDWIN HILLS CRENSHAW PLAZA
Year opened: 1947 (reopened after complete renovation in 1988)
Retail square footage: 730,000
Anchor stores: the Broadway, May Co., Sears
Number of stores: 77
Memorable feature: Bold Art Deco design
