SHERMAN OAKS : Fashion Square Plans $20-Million Addition

Hoping to draw an upscale department store such as Nordstrom, Sherman Oaks Fashion Square is planning a $20-million expansion that would increase the size of the mall by 20%, to nearly 1 million square feet.

David Burger, an Australian businessman who owns Fashion Square, has already discussed the project with officials at Nordstrom and other stores, including Bloomingdale’s. Burger also owns the Buena Park Mall in Orange County.

Gaining another deluxe department store in the San Fernando Valley would brighten the local economic outlook, said economist Jack Kyser.

It would be “good for the mall and good for the community,” said Kyser, who is also on the board of the Valley Economic Development Center. Such a store would also “generate a lot of sales revenue for the city of Los Angeles,” he added.

“If it’s Nordstrom, and I can’t imagine that it would be anybody other than Nordstrom, it would be an instant hit,” predicted Dick Carter, a retail specialist at Blatteis Realty and a Sherman Oaks resident. “The customer profile of the Sherman Oaks-Studio City-Encino marketplace fits the Nordstrom profile.”

Burger hopes to start on the expansion early next year and expects it to take about nine months. The city, which must approve the plan, will hold a public hearing on it Sept. 26.

Bringing in a high-profile department store would also be a boost to Fashion Square. One of the malls in the Valley hardest hit by the Northridge earthquake, the mall sustained $5 million in damage that forced it to close for two months. Since the temblor, however, business has picked up 10%, officials said.

Late last year, the mall also lost one of its biggest draws, an I. Magnin store, because the store’s parent company was having financial problems.

Expanding the mall would more than triple the amount of space formerly occupied by I. Magnin to 180,000 square feet, enough to attract a desirable department store, said Brian Pickering, vice president of City Freeholds (USA), the American subsidiary of Burger’s company.

“Something like Nordstrom would be ideal,” Pickering said.

Pickering said he would like to see construction begin in February. It would include widenings and re-striping of nearby streets to add lanes.

Some people who live near the mall, at the southeast corner of Hazeltine Avenue and Riverside Drive, said they fear expansion would create traffic and parking headaches.

“We’re going to work with the City Council to make sure substantial restrictions are put on the project to make sure it doesn’t cause problems in the neighborhoods,” said Richard Close, president of the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn.

In addition to increasing the space for a department store, the proposed expansion would add about 20,000 square feet to the mall’s common area, bringing the total size of the mall to 975,000 square feet.

The project also includes a new four-level parking structure with 2,655 spaces.

Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky will wait until after the public hearing to form an opinion about the project, said planning deputy Ginny Kruger.

“In a sense it’s a good sign that someone wants to put some money into Sherman Oaks right now,” Kruger said.

The public hearing will be at the Sherman Oaks Woman’s Club, 4808 Kester Ave., at 9:30 a.m. A hearing examiner from the Los Angeles Planning Department will make a recommendation based on the hearing to the planning commission, which will consider the application in November.

The final decision on the project will be made by the City Council.

Land that is zoned for surface parking alone would need to be rezoned to allow multilevel parking, and property that is zoned for parking would need to be rezoned for commercial purposes, to enable the project to go forward.