Galanter Opposed Ikea Store for Crenshaw : Development: The councilwoman refused to support a plan to include the giant store in a plaza redevelopment because of the traffic it could generate.
Councilwoman Ruth Galanter refused to support a proposal that could have brought Ikea, the world’s largest furniture store, to the economically beleaguered Crenshaw area, saying the store would have generated too much traffic and would do “nothing for the community.”
Manhattan Beach developer Alexander Haagen had proposed to redevelop the Santa Barbara Plaza, a collection of rundown retail stores, social service centers and other facilities that has been losing business recently, and the Scandinavian firm Ikea had expressed interest in being included in the plan. When an Ikea store opened in November in a Haagen-developed mall in Burbank, it provided 360 jobs and grossed $2 million in revenue in its first six days of business.
The proposal, made in late 1988 or early 1989, and Galanter’s opposition to it were not widely known in the largely middle-class black community, an area that many say needs more--not less--development.
“It’s not to our advantage to block any department store from coming into this area,” said Millard Tatum, the president of the Crenshaw Chamber of Commerce. “That is the kind of traffic jams we need, especially if it is bringing revenues into our area.”
Haagen said the furniture giant was interested in taking part in a plan that would have allowed him to redevelop most of Santa Barbara Plaza, an aging shopping center across the street from Haagen’s $120-million Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza and close to the lucrative Westside market.
Haagen said he believed that a proven performer, such as Ikea, would have given the area the drawing power needed for him to persuade the Nordstrom chain to also open a store there. Nordstrom will soon be joining Ikea at a Haagen mall in Burbank.
“It would have done miracles for this (Crenshaw) community,” said Haagen, who said he made the proposal directly to Mayor Tom Bradley and Galanter. “I went with the interest of Nordstrom and Ikea to the (councilwoman) and the mayor, but she didn’t want it. (Galanter) said it would bring too much traffic.”
In a recent interview, Galanter acknowledged that she had been approached by Haagen, but said she was against the idea because of the traffic it would generate. “The people who live near the Westside Pavilion are grateful to have a Nordstrom nearby, but I’m sure they are not grateful to have the problems caused by the traffic.”
But traffic was not the only problem Galanter said she had with Haagen’s proposal.
“It would provide a regional draw but do nothing for the community,” Galanter said. “It would have given the entire site to a European company, would have given it to Haagen, and he is neither local nor minority.”
After Galanter refused to give her blessing, Haagen dropped the proposal.
The 240,000-square-foot Ikea store in Haagen’s gigantic $300-million Media City Center shopping mall in Burbank, which drew 146,000 people in its first six days of business, is the first of four stores that Ikea plans to open in the Los Angeles area. Others are planned at another Haagen mall in Fontana, one in the Torrance area and another in Orange County. Nordstrom made a commitment to open a store in a Culver City mall.
At Galanter’s urging, the Los Angeles Redevelopment Agency commissioned an $80,000 study to look into other possible uses for the Santa Barbara Plaza.
But that plan is years away from offering any immediate help for Haagen’s Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza, which has had difficulty attracting national retail tenants and local shoppers in the two years since its opening. Haagen developed the shopping center in partnership with the Redevelopment Agency.
After two years of operation, only 60 of the plaza’s 100 stores are open. And last year, the Plaza, which is anchored by a Sears, The Broadway and May Co., ranked 43rd out of 45 malls in the county with only $28 million in retail sales, compared to $153 million at nearby Fox Hills Mall.
For Ruby Golden, the owner of the fashionable Radiance Boutique in the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza, Ikea would have been a godsend.
“If they had put an Ikea store here, that would have been all we needed to turn this place around,” said Golden, an experienced businesswoman whose once prosperous store has hit hard times since moving into the mall two years ago. “Every time I see one of those prime-time Ikea ads on television, I die a little.”
The word of Galanter’s veto also angered Mary Lee Gray, a senior deputy for County Supervisor Deane Dana who is seeking to unseat the councilwoman in next June’s election.
“It seems as though she is treating Crenshaw like a stepchild,” Gray said. “In Crenshaw, she wants to give the impression that she is slow-growth, but actually she is the opposite. She is pro-development, especially in Venice.”
But Frank Holoman, the owner of Boulevard Cafe in the Santa Barbara Plaza, said he was against any plan that would hand over control of the Santa Barbara Plaza to Haagen or Ikea.
“It would mean that the people in the community would be included only as customers, not as owners,” he said.
Victor Parker, president of the United Homeowners Assn. in View Park, said he does not want to see the area dominated by a large Ikea, but would prefer it to be developed into office space and other small businesses.
“But if that doesn’t happen,” he said. “I think we need to try to get something like an Ikea.”
