Malls Still Putting the Pieces Back Together : Recovery: Stores severely hit by quake fight time, competition to reopen. Some pitch ambitious improvements to win back customers.

Resurrecting the Northridge Fashion Center from the rubble of the Jan. 17 earthquake is turning out to be an even tougher challenge than expected.

“We’ve found more damage from the earthquake than we originally anticipated, so the renovation process is going to take longer,” said Chan Chandler, spokeswoman for the mall’s owner, MEPC American Properties of Dallas.

Earlier estimates had the 1.5-million-square-foot mall partially reopening in November. Mall officials now say two of their anchor stores, The Broadway and Sears, Roebuck & Co., will meet that deadline. But shoppers will now have to wait until spring--more than a year after the quake--for smaller stores to open along the corridors of the mall.

“We’re shooting for that deadline,” said the Lloyd Miller, Northridge Fashion Center’s general manager. “We want to make sure it’s done right from the aesthetic, safety and leasing standpoints.”

When it does return, Fashion Center is likely to face even more fierce competition than usual. While it has been closed, mall rivals such as Topanga Plaza and The Promenade in Woodland Hills have enjoyed 15% to 20% sales increases by attracting some of the 50,000 shoppers a day that used to patronize the Northridge mall. And they intend to hang on to as many of them as possible.

“Of course, some are going to return to their old shopping habits,” predicted Clyde Ahl, general manager at Topanga Plaza. “But we feel we’re going to retain a number of them.”

Northridge’s Miller, however, is ready for battle. “The people I talk to can’t wait to come back to Northridge,” he said. “They’re very excited to see what the renovation is all about.”

The following is a survey of how hard-hit Valley malls are faring six months after the Northridge quake:

* Northridge Fashion Center: The infamous images of devastation--a crushed Bullock’s store and pancaked parking garages--are gone, but from the outside the mall still seems a long way from recovery.

The only businesses currently operating are those located in the mall’s ground-level parking lots, including restaurants, auto service centers, banks and The Broadway’s temporary “Home Dome” store, which sells home furnishings in a giant, bubble-like tent. Some tenants admit it’s been hard to convince customers that they are open.

“Business has been kind of erratic,” said Tom Boulanger, manager of the Pizzeria Uno restaurant. “But it’s increasing steadily as people become more aware that we’re open.” MEPC, which purchased the 24-year-old Northridge mall one month before the earthquake, has ambitious renovation plans that include replacing carpet with multicolored granite tiles and installing elaborate skylights to illuminate indoor palm trees and fountains. For the first time, the center will also feature a food court.

But officials say construction workers cannot start remodeling the mall interior until they have more places to park--and completion of the four new parking structures is still months away. While the structure sites have been graded, only one of them has so far received a permit for foundations to be laid.

The Broadway and Sears stores, which expect to reopen in November, in time for the holiday shopping season, can be served by ground-level parking with separate entrances.

But the two Robinson’s-May stores aren’t scheduled to reopen until spring, and the Bullock’s might not reopen until September, 1995.

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The Broadway says its remodeled store will be the first in Southern California featuring a new design that has already been implemented in the company’s Walnut Creek, Calif., and Las Vegas stores. “It will have a very different look, feel and architecture,” said Bob Menar, executive vice-president of operations for Broadway Stores Inc.

The design features a circular configuration of merchandise displays and upgraded lighting. The store will also offer automated teller machines and customer service centers where shoppers can make free local telephone calls. “We want to provide a friendly, interactive shopping experience,” Menar said.

* Topanga Plaza: Topanga Plaza, which avoided more serious quake damage thanks to a seismic upgrading in 1992, may only be three months away from complete recovery.

Of its anchor stores, Nordstrom reopened in February and The Broadway followed last month. Mall officials say Montgomery Ward will be back by the end of August. That leaves Robinson’s-May, scheduled to reopen Nov. 10.

At the moment, the Robinson’s-May store is an ugly skeleton of concrete columns and metal girders. “I bet people in the community think the store doesn’t look like it will be ready,” said company spokesman Jim Watterson.

But he predicted everything would be ready by Nov. 10. “This is a company where we don’t miss deadlines.”

As for Topanga Plaza’s specialty stores, general manager Ahl reports that the quake has been something of a tonic. Store remodeling and the Northridge mall’s closure have boosted traffic, he said.

Sales during the first six months of the year were up 20% on a same-store basis and up 48% overall compared with the same period of 1993.

“We have become stronger,” Ahl said.

* The Promenade: Officials at The Promenade mall, which has struggled at times in the Valley’s competitive retail market, also report a sales surge, fueled in part by customers replacing quake-damaged household items.

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Same-store sales for the year to date have been up an average of 15% same-store with home furnishing categories up 70%, said general manager Kim Solomon.

“People were reluctant to replace their china when all the aftershocks were happening,” she added. “Now things are more normal, they feel more comfortable about it.”

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Another potential boost for the mall: The former site of the Saks Fifth Avenue store, which was ravaged by the quake, has been sold to AMC Theaters and will become a multiscreen cinema complex.

* Fashion Square, Sherman Oaks: At Fashion Square, where water from sprinkler systems caused much of the quake-related damage, 94 specialty stores have reopened and another 23 should have completed remodeling by next spring.

Marketing director Sandy Turner said renovation had helped many stores to upgrade their image and enhance their appeal to the affluent clientele the mall hopes to serve.

“Sometimes tenants come in, and they do cookie-cutter stores, they don’t really look at what their market is,” she said. “Now they have remodeled, they have seen an increase in shoppers with more upscale demographics.”

Meanwhile, the mall’s Bullock’s and Broadway anchor stores still have one floor closed but expect to be fully open in October.

Construction began this month on a new parking structure behind The Broadway and is expected to take three months.

* Sherman Oaks Galleria: At the Galleria, the twin Robinson’s-May anchor stores are preparing for a grand reopening this weekend. That could be a mixed blessing for the mall’s specialty stores.

The smaller stores appear to have benefited from the absence of competition with the anchors. According to a mall spokeswoman, same-store sales have been up a monthly average of 10% to 15% since February.

But on the other hand, Galleria officials hope the return of Robinson’s-May, with its relatively heavy promotional programs, will stimulate traffic mall-wide.