From Bust to Bustle : Plan to Revive Westwood Village Includes a Make-Over and New Businesses
Sure, Tom Carroll wants to see Westwood Village rise from its slumber. Why, just the idea of having its theaters, restaurants and shops bustle again with customers sends Carroll’s hard-charging personality into overdrive.
But whatever you do, don’t ask the village’s 45-year-old business consultant and marketing manager about returning Westwood to the boom town days of the 1970s and early 1980s. Because the way Carroll sees it, what got Westwood into trouble in the first place was its onetime status as Los Angeles’ premier nightspot.
“For years, Westwood was the place to go for first-run movies. It was the place people came to on dates and for dinner,” said Carroll, executive director of the Westwood Village Management Corp. “So there was this enormous pressure on Westwood and its businesses. . .and to a certain degree, it blew up on them. So, we’re not looking to be a boom town. . .boom town was a boon and then a bust.”
The decline was long and painful.
A year ago, village restaurants and shops were in dire shape. After large crowds and parking problems led some to shy away from the village, other problems such as the recession, competition from other plazas and several well-publicized crimes contributed to Westwood’s downward spiral. This time last year, more than 15% of the village’s 300 or so stores stood vacant and those still open were hurting for customers. So troubled was the village that the Los Angeles City Council earmarked $600,000 from a special parking fund as seed money for the area’s make-over.
Now, as Carroll approaches the end of his first year with the village’s management company, he and others say a revival of Westwood is under way.
“For the first time in six or seven years, we have seen people talk positively about the future of the village. That you can do business there. That people have invested in the place,” said Los Angeles Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, whose district includes Westwood.
“I think the corner has been turned,” added Rich Given, president of the Westwood Village Assn., a 150-member nonprofit group made up of merchants, homeowner groups and representatives of local schools and churches.
Since October’s Westwood Village Celebration, a two-day festival that drew some 10,000 people, the village has been renewed with a sense of hope, Given says.
“You are now seeing some positive differences in the physical appearance of Westwood Village. You see new trees. New (sidewalk) furniture. Even new trash receptacles,” he said. “You have seen the beginnings of what will come.”
The new vision for Westwood is a place with wide, tree-lined sidewalks dotted by outdoor cafes, clubs and new nationally known retailers. A place that will lure people from Westwood neighborhoods, Wilshire Boulevard office towers and UCLA. A place where the crowds may be a bit older and moneyed than at other shopping plazas such as the one Carroll last helped revive: Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade.
“Santa Monica was a hard eight-year job,” Carroll said, recalling the complete make-over for that long-dormant outdoor mall.
“This month, Carroll said, the village revamp will surge forward when the Westwood Village Management Crop. signs a contract with at least one more major retailer and announces the results of a traffic study vital to construction of a parking deck.
“January,” Carroll said, smiling, “will be sort of a coming-out party for the village.”
By month’s end, officials hope to advance the village’s make-over in several ways:
A long-awaited traffic study will be released to pinpoint the demand for a new $5-million-plus parking structure on Broxton Avenue. Once the amount of new parking is determined, officials hope to begin construction of the structure within six months.
The village’s so-called Streetscape, an ambitious renovation that includes new storefront designs, sidewalks and landscaping, will be unveiled Thursday to the merchants association. The $2.8-million plan, developed by Gruen and Associates of Los Angeles, calls for complementing the village’s Mediterranean-style architecture with wide promenades decorated with jacaranda trees and other flora.
The influx of new businesses--particularly restaurants--will be in full swing. A leas for a Circuit City electronics store, the village’s first major new retailer in decades, is expected to be signed this month. Construction also is slated to start on a Jerry’s Famous Deli, a 250-seat version of the popular Studio City-based restaurant chain. And two other popular franchise restaurants, Arizona-based Maloney’s Taverns and Texas-based Hooters. A sports bar featuring barbecue are under construction.
While enthusiastic about the long-term plans, Carroll is particularly excited about what is already in the works because he believes the soon-to-open stores and restaurants will be the first test of Westwood Village’s promise.
In the case of Circuit City, for example, Carroll notes that the village has not had another large retailer selling electronics since Sears, which left the area in the 1950s, “So this is the biggest retailers of its kind to come here in practically 40 years. And that is a major change,” Carroll said.
The proposed location of the 26,000-square-foot store, at Gayley Avenue and Lindbrook Drive, also will serve as a commercial anchor for downtown Westwood, Carroll said, because it will be at the southwest corner of the village. Bullock’s, the only other large retailer, is at the northeast corner.
What’s more, he says, Circuit City officals anticipate that the store’s annual sales will top $20 million, a volume that will mean a significant number of shoppers.
