Bloomingdale’s Signs Up With Fashion Square

Sherman Oaks Fashion Square officials said Thursday that they signed an agreement to bring a Bloomingdale’s to the shopping center by Thanksgiving, 1996.

The upscale department store would replace the Broadway store currently at the mall. The Broadway chain was recently acquired by Federated Department Stores, Bloomingdale’s parent corporation.

However, the deal is contingent on city approval of a plan to expand the Broadway store site from 190,000 to 230,000 square feet to accommodate Bloomingdale’s added space requirements. The mall would also have to devise a plan for additional parking and possibly take certain steps to mitigate an increase in traffic.

A city zoning official is set to consider the project at a public hearing on Dec. 15, said Allan Abshez, an attorney for City Freeholds USA Inc., the mall’s owner.

“We need to move that fast,” said Brian Pickering, vice president of City Freeholds, because Bloomingdale’s wants to begin the $20-million expansion March 15 and open before the next year’s Christmas selling season gets under way.

“I don’t see a major problem with doing that,” Pickering said. “But you have to go through the bureaucratic process.”

Pickering said he anticipates little opposition because almost a year ago, the city approved the mall’s request to add 170,000 square feet, 129,000 of which was to be added to the mall’s third anchor store that was vacated by I. Magnin. The current application does not ask for permission to add more space. Rather, it asks to use 42,000 of that 170,000 entitlement for the Bloomingdale’s.

If the Bloomingdale’s expansion proceeds, Pickering said, Fashion Square would forgo trying to bring in a third anchor department store. It’s unclear how any further expansion would be done, he said.

Bullock’s, the mall’s other department store, is also owned by Federated. As previously announced, that store is to be converted to a Macy’s. But that change will require no additional space, Pickering said.

He added that the new department stores would help solidify the mall’s position as an upscale center. “We’ve been trying to stay a traditional shopping mall, rather than going to entertainment, as a lot of malls are going toward these days.”

Apodaca is a Times staff writer and Hwangbo is a correspondent.