Wholesalers Weigh 3 New Apparel Sites
Promising upscale surroundings and catchy names like Fashion City, two developers last week tried to woo unhappy tenants of the California Mart garment building to new sites in Santa Monica, Hawthorne and the Miracle Mile district.
Developers J. H. Snyder & Co. and Comstock, Crosser & Hickey touted the benefits of their developments at a Monday night meeting attended by roughly 400 apparel wholesalers who are considering moving out of the 27-year-old California Mart because of discontent over yearly rent hikes and deteriorating Downtown conditions. The unhappy tenants organized into the 110 E. 9th St. Tenants’ Assn. in July and hired real-estate brokers to find an alternate site in the Santa Monica or South Bay areas.
The members will vote Nov. 30 on whether to leave the mart. Results will be announced Dec. 11.
The tenants’ main gripe is the Downtown area’s crime and image problems. Buyers who come from across the country and stay Downtown complain of high hotel and transportation costs and fear walking the streets at night, association members said.
Some tenants also said the Morse family, owners of the California Mart, hindered business by increasing rents as much as 20%, mixing apparel types on the same floor and renting space to competing wholesalers, who provide inventory on the spot and sell retail to the public.
The consultants sought sites of at least 600,000 square feet with convenient access and financially stable management. Three were identified--the Water Garden commercial complex in Santa Monica and Wilshire Place in the Miracle Mile, both J. H. Snyder projects, and the site of the former Mattel Toys building in Hawthorne, which developer Bob Comstock promises to rename Fashion City for the apparel industry.
Wilshire Place would be built in a district now undergoing a revival as a safe, attractive place for businesses, said Cliff Goldstein of Snyder & Co.
The Water Garden, at Olympic Boulevard and 26th Street, offers a park-like setting with a central lake and fountains, said Snyder’s Milt Swimmer.
Comstock focused primarily on the strong financial backing of his company and its partner, The Mission Companies, wholly owned subsidiaries of Southern California Edison. Comstock proposes to demolish the old Mattel building and construct a complex to the tenants’ specifications.
Although the developers’ proposed monthly rents are slightly higher than the California Mart’s average $2.50 per square foot, tenants said they still feel the need to move.
“I’m fearful Downtown, and my customers are fearful,” said June Michaels, a lingerie wholesaler and an eight-year California Mart tenant.
