Restaurateurs Hope Downtown Is Cookin’
It’s more of a trickle than a flood so far, but construction of the Staples Center--along with other downtown L.A. “coming attractions”--is starting to draw restaurateurs who plan to cash in on growing nighttime crowds. Other retailers are expected to follow.
“We believe [the arena] will be fabulous for business downtown,” said Susan Feniger, who, with partner Mary Sue Milliken, operates Santa Monica’s Border Grill and stars in the popular “Too Hot Tamales” cooking show on cable television.
After scouting many prospective locations in the Los Angeles area, the partners selected downtown’s Union Bank Plaza for their new venture, Ciudad, a Latin American restaurant to open in November.
Los Angeles-based California Pizza Kitchen is negotiating a lease for its second downtown restaurant with representatives of the Citicorp Plaza and Seventh Market Place complex at 7th and Figueroa streets. The fast-growing Corner Bakery division of Dallas-based casual restaurant giant Brinker International is also said to be negotiating for a site at the same complex. And the owners of downtown’s newest upscale restaurant, Cafe Pinot, are looking for another downtown site.
More deals are sure to follow, according to downtown watchers.
“There has not been a new restaurant [lease] signing since the opening of Cafe Pinot [in early 1995], but this year I’m expecting to sign four full-service restaurants--all in anticipation of the arena,” said veteran downtown retail space broker Mark Tarczynski of CB Richard Ellis. Tarczynski has been involved in the Ciudad and California Pizza Kitchen negotiations but declined to identify the other two.
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While many restaurants in and around the downtown high-rise core can count on a busy lunch trade, most have trouble filling tables as workers head home at the end of their shifts. In other words, although visionaries have long dreamed of a “24-hour city,” even the less-ambitious sense of being “alive at 5” has remained elusive.
“We’ve got a long way to go before we’ll ever see a 24-hour environment, but a lot of people will be pleased to see traffic here at 9 to 10 p.m.,” said Carol Schatz, president of both the Central City Assn. and the Downtown Center Business Improvement District.
“I think you can say without a doubt that an enterprise of this magnitude, this kind of private-sector investment, is completely changing perceptions that downtown is a problem,” Schatz said. “It says we are open for business, that people are spending significant amounts of money to bring business here.”
The $370-million sports arena, which opens in October 1999 and will host as many as 300 sports and entertainment events a year, seems to be the most magnetic draw. But observers also point to other construction projects that are expected to create new reasons to visit downtown, among them the Walt Disney Concert Hall (set to open in 2002), the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels (scheduled to be dedicated in 2000) and the recently completed Colburn School for Performing Arts.
“It’s not going to become a ‘24-hour city’ overnight, but there’s a heck of a lot going on right now that should all help change perceptions about downtown and keep people here outside traditional business hours,” said real estate broker Richard Plummer of Cushman & Wakefield.
“People have talked about the resurgence of downtown L.A. for some time, but now we’re seeing commitments that are transforming the entire area,” said Fred Hipp, CEO of California Pizza Kitchen.
“There are some amazing things happening in the art world at night downtown that people don’t have any idea about,” Feniger added. And although she and Milliken are aware that their new location doesn’t yet have much evening foot traffic, they are optimistic enough about downtown’s progress that “we would have gone ahead” with Ciudad even if the new arena ended up elsewhere, Feniger said.
“People said we were doomed, we were crazy when we opened downtown,” said Christine Splichal, who with her husband, Joaquim, and their partners own Cafe Pinot on 5th Street, Patinette on Bunker Hill and several other restaurants in the region. Despite tough times for downtown due to the depressed economy and fears related to the 1992 riots, Cafe Pinot “proved everybody wrong”--and the Splichals are now seeking “the right location and right deal” for a third downtown eatery, she said.
Burgeoning traffic tied to downtown’s increasingly popular cultural attractions and improving convention bookings are adding to evening and weekend business, Splichal said. While restaurants appear to be the first businesses to make significant commitments to downtown in anticipation of arena-related traffic, other retailers are expected to follow suit as opening day nears. Some business owners have long considered locating new or additional stores downtown, and the looming arena “pushes them over the edge,” broker Tarczynski said.
For instance, women’s shoe chain Nine West and apparel and luggage purveyor Leather Mode are looking for sites to set up shop. Tarczynski said others who were on the fence about a move downtown, “see the arena eventually making their stores a slam dunk.”
Hotel business to be generated by the arena, as well as the adjacent convention center, is particularly meaningful to California Pizza Kitchen, which does a “huge takeout business” at many other downtown restaurants across the country, Hipp said.
Patrick Lacey, general manager at Citicorp Plaza/Seventh Market Place, said additional restaurant leases at the shopping center will follow within the next few months.
“The arena is definitely helping generate interest, and we’re expecting people to want to wine and dine here” as they come downtown to attend events. “The [property] owners are focusing on getting some high-quality restaurants here, including some patio dining,” he said, adding that downtown’s overall economy and office market has been picking up after struggling during much of the 1990s.
“What Staples Center will do is bring people from the Westside, the Valley, the South Bay, and get them into the habit of visiting downtown and discovering what it has to offer,” said Hal Bastian, leasing director at the Macy’s Plaza shopping center. “And that repeat business is critical” to the success of downtown retailers, he said, noting that some of the merchants at Macy’s Plaza have suggested keeping the center open later.
“You’ve got 350,000 people working downtown every day that we’d like to get out of the office towers and into the shops,” Bastian said. “And the arena should help, as downtown workers attending an event at Staples won’t go home first; they’ll eat here and shop” between office hours and events.
Rite-Aid is negotiating to lease space at the historic Robinson’s department store site at 7th and Hope streets. “It’s an area that we think is in need of drugstore services,” a representative of the Camp Hill, Pa.-based company said. Office Max is also said to be interested in opening a store at the Robinson’s building, but the company doesn’t discuss potential locations until a deal has been made.
Tarczynski noted that such major retailers are anticipating that the arena and other new downtown attractions will provide a major boost to convention bookings. That, in turn, should significantly expand the number of visitors needing pharmacy goods and services, computer parts and other products, he added.
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Observers anticipate that downtown’s residential base will grow as entertainment, shopping and eating choices continue to expand--giving merchants a better “built-in” clientele.
Brentwood-based developer G.H. Palmer Associates is anticipating more interest in downtown living as it pursues plans for the biggest new residential complex the area has seen in years--a $100-million, 626-unit development just west of the Harbor Freeway on the former site of the Thomas Bros. Cadillac dealership.
Jack Kyser, chief economist at the Economic Development Corp. of L.A. County said the arena and the Palmer development “have got to be very good news for Seventh Market Place.”
