Hawthorne Sees Allure in Fashion Center Plan : Economy: Developer of proposed $150-million complex has designs on bringing a large part of the Los Angeles apparel business to the South Bay.
On a vacant stretch of land just off the San Diego Freeway in Hawthorne, a developer and city officials envision a project that could help alleviate the South Bay’s economic woes.
It is called Fashion City, a $150-million complex that would house one of the nation’s largest concentrations of garment wholesalers under one roof.
While ordinary consumers would not be able to shop there, the project’s boosters say it would help heal the South Bay’s bruised economy by filling hotels and restaurants and possibly luring job-producing garment manufacturers to nearby sites.
The man behind Fashion City is Bob Comstock, a Manhattan Beach developer whose firm has just completed the redesign of the Peninsula Center shopping complex in Rolling Hills Estates.
Although his project has several obstacles to overcome, he is confident that it will come to fruition, with construction perhaps starting next spring.
The centerpiece of Comstock’s complex would be an ultra-modern building of mirrored glass, similar in style to the Pacific Design Center in West Los Angeles.
About 700 garment wholesalers and independent sellers would sell their wares to as many as 25,000 wholesale buyers each year, Comstock predicts.
The biggest hurdle, Comstock said, would be luring tenants from downtown Los Angeles’ 32-year-old California Mart, a privately run complex better known as CalMart, where most of Southern California’s garment wholesalers do $8 billion in business annually.
The developer says he will know if the project is viable if and when he leases 300,000 square feet of the project’s estimated 700,000 square feet--a goal that he predicts he will achieve by September.
“It’s like the herd effect,” said Comstock, adding that 60 CalMart tenants--representing 100,000 square feet--have signed letters indicating that they intend to move into his project if it is built. “Everyone we talk to says they are interested, but they say, ‘I’ll only go if he goes.’ ”
If Comstock reaches his leasing goal, he said he hopes to break ground next spring, provided he surmounts what he called lesser obstacles: the completion of financing for the construction and city approval of his building permit. Comstock said he is seeking financing through Mission Land Co., a development subsidiary of Southern California Edison, and Bank of America.
On Friday, South Bay civic officials, business owners, hoteliers and restaurateurs heard Comstock pitch his plan, which he promised would be a boon to business in the region.
Comstock wants South Bay business leaders to help him market his proposal. They seemed receptive, although no commitments were made.
“We can enrich the fabric of your community,” said Don Merrill, a downtown tenant who has tentatively agreed to relocate to Hawthorne. “This is not just another office building.”
Merrill was among a group of CalMart tenants, upset with their rental fees and frustrated with crime and homelessness downtown, who formed an association more than a year ago to scout places for a new mart.
“We are in a crystal palace in the middle of a ghetto,” said one independent seller, who appeared at Friday’s meeting but did not wish to be identified. “Our buyers are afraid to come to L.A. They fly in, take a cab to downtown, and then they are prisoners in their own hotel rooms.”
Last month, the seller said, a buyer from Newport Beach brought a bodyguard with her, fearing for her safety--not in the building, but on the way there.
When it comes to moving out of Los Angeles, there is no consensus among mart tenants. In December, about 300 of the mart’s 1,455 tenants participated in a poll to gauge feelings about relocating. Fully 42% of the poll’s participants favored moving to Santa Monica’s Water Garden, a partially completed office and commercial complex that is competing with Comstock for tenants.
Comstock’s site drew 34% of the votes, and 21% favored staying downtown, according to the 110 E. Ninth Street Tenants Assn.
The developer of the Santa Monica site has touted the city’s scenic beauty and reputation as a fun place, saying Hawthorne has a less glamorous image that would keep prospective tenants away. He said 400 CalMart tenants have expressed interest in his site.
“If you were a buyer, would you rather stay at the Loews Hotel on the beach in Santa Monica, or would you stay in Hawthorne?” asked Santa Monica developer Jerome Snyder. “We have the restaurants, the hotels, the fun environment.”
Snyder has proposed a $150-million, 600,000-square-foot addition to the Water Garden, which has a park-like setting with a central lake and fountains.
“Our plans are complete,” Snyder said. But he has not secured financing nor has he received any commitments from prospective tenants.
For their part, CalMart’s owners said a majority of tenants at the 1.5-million-square-foot center at Ninth and Main streets want to stay, and they doubt the occupants would want to abandon the established hub of apparel activity.
“A wholesale center for the fashion industry . . . cannot be created by a developer who does not come from a history of mart expertise and experience,” said David Stamper, a spokesman for CalMart and its general partner, Sidney Morse.
Last year, CalMart dropped rental rates 23%, to as little as $2 per square foot. Management is not increasing the rates as leases expire. The Water Garden and Fashion City said they will offer comparable rates.
To fend off attempts to woo tenants away, CalMart last year also enlisted the help of city officials to repair and clean the streets and assign bicycle police officers to the neighborhood to supplement the mart’s security force. A program to give buyers discounts at area hotels and restaurants was also launched.
The Hawthorne suitors are undeterred. Comstock and city business and political leaders plan to wine and dine CalMart tenants at a meeting downtown next month and then have a bigger reception at the Fashion City site under a tent.
Comstock said the 25-acre Hawthorne site would have an advantage over CalMart and Santa Monica because it offers easier access to freeways and Los Angeles International Airport.
It also would be near a future station for the proposed Green Line, a light rail transit system that will run from the South Bay to Norwalk.
“The benefits are obvious,” said Steve Anderson, the mayor of Hawthorne. “What we need to do now is jump that last gap and make this thing happen.”
Fashion City
A Manhattan Beach developer is trying to garner support to build a seven-story apparel showroom and exhibition complex in Hawthorne. The center would be called Fashion City and open in 1995
