Shoppers’ Tent City : Northridge Broadway Reopens Under a Big Top

Ladies and gentlemen, step right up! The big top has arrived in the San Fernando Valley and is open to all.

Inside the main tent is china, furniture, cordless phones and quilts from parts near and far. There’s even gadgets for the little ones--all for a special price. And they take American Express.

The Northridge Fashion Center’s Broadway department store, shuttered since the Jan. 17 temblor, has found a new venue--the “Home Dome,” two air-conditioned tents pitched in the devastated mall’s parking lot.

From the outside, the two interconnected tents look more likely to contain a trapeze act than a set of kitchen knives. Inside the dome, it looks just like any other Broadway. Colorful displays and sale signs adorn the interior, and everything is departmentalized.

“They’ve done a wonderful job of making it attractive,” said Lucille Malvani, 68, of Granada Hills, who was shopping for glasses to replace a set that shattered in the quake. “And I feel much safer beneath this ceiling than I do in a regular store right now.”

The carpeted tents--300 feet long and 60 feet wide--have been open since Friday and will remain open until the main mall store reopens in late fall, according to Steve Holden, operations manager for the Home Dome, which employs about 75 people.

The domes were erected, decorated and stocked with items by Broadway personnel in five weeks, he said. “Most (customers) are amazed that you can put something together that looks this good this quick in a parking lot,” Holden said.

The high-tech tents are made by the Clamshell Co., a Ventura firm that specializes in temporary structures. About 140 of the tents--which can sustain winds of up to 120 m.p.h. and are built to seismic standards--housed airplanes during the Persian Gulf War. They were also used as relief centers during Hurricanes Andrew and Iniki, according to Mark Alexander, marketing manager for Clamshell.