Calamity Breathes New Life Into Recession-Plagued Mall
For tenants in the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza, the low point came last November.
The recession-ravaged shopping complex and its 88 stores resembled a ghost town as consumers cut back on spending or did holiday shopping at other regional centers. The mall’s Art Deco style, its towering palm trees, glittering skylights and etched glass railings provided little comfort for empty corridors. Its small independent businesses were especially hard-pressed, and several went under.
Ironically, it was this spring’s rioting that sparked a mini-boom at the mall as shoppers and high-profile tenants alike breathed new life into the 4-year-old center.
“The mall is definitely on an upswing,” said Leopold Ray Lynch, the center’s general manager, who recently obtained commitments from big-name retailers the complex had spent years wooing. “It’s unfortunate that it took a calamity for it to occur, but I’m glad larger corporations are taking an interest in the inner city. It will invigorate the center.”
The mall is at the epicenter of some of the worst riot damage. Dozens of stores in the neighborhood were burned and looted, but the mall, which is surrounded by a fence, was relatively unscathed. Officials and merchants at the plaza say the fence, and the presence of a private security force and police substation inside the mall have contributed to the rebound it is enjoying.
“The riots played a major role with us, even though the devastation hit and hurt a lot of people,” said Linda Gray, the plaza’s marketing director. “But we saw some positives that came out of it. Stores that we have targeted for several months decided to come in because it was safe.”
In addition, she said, the center is one of the few places left in the neighborhood to shop for certain items.
The plaza’s tenants agree that the destruction brought on by the riots has helped business by reducing competition.
“I have to believe that because so many other (jewelry) stores burned down, we’ve had a large increase of people walking into the mall and buying,” said Richard Castelleja, manager of Daniel’s Jewelers. “Business has never been better.”
Castelleja and the operators of other small businesses at the mall are encouraged by the recent interest in the mall by big-name shops such as the Disney Store and See’s Candy.
“The more quality stores we have, the more people it will draw into the mall,” said Wanda Wallace, the owner of an ethnic art gallery.
The mall has struggled to bring in tenants since it reopened in 1988 after a $120-million make-over as the nation’s first enclosed mall in a primarily African-American community.
It was developed by the Manhattan Beach-based Alexander Haagen Co. with funds from the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency. Haagen owns more than 30 other shopping centers in the United States, including three others in South Los Angeles.
Among the mall’s post-riot additions or previously planned additions are:
* The 2,500-square-foot Disney Store, which opened Oct. 31.
* A Spike’s Joint West kiosk, a smaller version of the movie director’s store on Melrose Avenue, which opened Oct. 25.
* A 1,650-square-foot See’s Candy store, which is under construction and expected to open in early December.
* The Gap, which has given a verbal commitment but has yet to sign a formal lease.
* An eight-screen cineplex, which is under construction and is scheduled to open in December, 1993
Lynch said that when the scheduled projects are completed, the 900,000-square-foot mall’s occupancy rate, now at 65%, will be boosted to 90%.
But the spurt has not been without growing pains.
Critics say too much attention has been focused on attracting national retailers and not enough on nurturing small neighborhood businesses.
“I’m sorry there are empty spaces in the Crenshaw mall, but I don’t give a fig about attracting national chains,” said Craig Sasser, executive director of the Crenshaw Chamber of Commerce. “This is a good area to do business, given the area’s (average) income and transportation (access). I don’t feel like we need to beg people to come into this area to make money.”
Etha Robinson, owner of the plaza’s Mrs. Robinson’s Tea Cakes, agrees.
“My focus is what we should be able to do for ourselves,” Robinson said. “A constant influx of other people in your community doesn’t give you the confidence to solve problems.”
At the same time, the mall has been criticized for not catering to the upscale clientele of the Crenshaw District, View Park, Baldwin Hills and Leimert Park, which, according to census figures, is the largest concentration of affluent African-Americans in the western United States. The plaza’s anchors are the Broadway, May Co. and Sears, and it features a variety of other stores--from a Lucky supermarket to Magic Johnson’s Magic 32 sports store.
“We don’t have all the goods and services that we should have,” admits Lynch. He said the mall is seeking a quality women’s apparel store. “That is why we are having this leasing effort. If people come and support us, that will help us expand and offer people more of what they want.”
In an effort to further bolster business at the plaza and other neighborhood businesses, Robinson has launched a drive dubbed the “Ten Miles is Too Far Campaign,” aimed at persuading neighborhood residents to shop within a 10-mile diameter of the mall to support local merchants.
The point, Robinson said, is that the plaza’s future is dependent upon some of the people the mall was protecting itself against six months ago.
She said the center has transcended its role as a mere shopping mall to become a symbol of economic empowerment in the community.
“The mall has a wonderful future if the community embraces it, but only if the community embraces it,” she said. “We can’t be fragmented the way we are. There’s got to be some inner healing.”
