3rd Street Smarts
Peyman Bolandhemat knew 3rd Street in Los Angeles had an identity problem from the way telephone callers asked for directions to his restaurant.
“They would ask, ‘What part of the Promenade are you on?’ ” said Bolandhemat, referring to Santa Monica’s popular Third Street Promenade. “In 1994, I received about 15 to 20 of these calls per month.”
Identity wasn’t the only problem on the 3rd Street strip between Fairfax Avenue and La Cienega Boulevard in 1994. Bolandhemat, owner of a restaurant named Cava, said the vacancy rate at the time was about 28% and sales along the one-mile corridor were lackluster.
Today, however, the vacancy rate is down to 15% and some merchants are enjoying healthy sales, Bolandhemat said. Callers seldom confuse his location with Santa Monica anymore.
Third Street is benefiting from the same phenomenon that has turned the Promenade and Old Town Pasadena into major shopping destinations--a consumer trend toward neighborhood shopping.
Cava has been the catalyst in reviving 3rd Street.
Bolandhemat, who also owns the Cha Cha Cha restaurants in Los Angeles and Long Beach, said he gambled on 3rd Street because it is near Miracle Mile office complexes, the Beverly Center and CBS Television City.
The relatively high incomes of neighborhood residents and lower commercial rents were also incentives, Bolandhemat said. When Cava opened, rent was 30% below rates on trendy Melrose Avenue, he said.
Cava’s success attracted other trendy restaurants to 3rd Street, and small boutiques followed.
“Third Street is very hot,” said Jack Kyser, chief economist at the Economic Development Corp. of Los Angeles County. “It’s become a restaurant mecca. Many diners window-shop on their way to restaurants, discover interesting stores and tell their friends all about it.”
Noodle Stories, which offers contemporary sportswear for men and women, is among the stores benefiting. It opened three years ago, and sales rose 40% in 1997.
“Sales continue to grow because a lot of people are still discovering us,” said owner Caryl Kim.
Third Street patrons are a bit more mature and wealthier than those who shop strips along Melrose and La Brea avenues, reflecting the characteristics of the 3rd Street neighborhood, Kim said.
“There are exceptions, but the people who shop 3rd don’t like to shop at malls,” she said.
One of the biggest successes on 3rd is Zipper, which sells an eclectic mix of furniture, art, gift items and books.
Zipper opened its first store four years ago. It opened a second shop--Zipper Two--at a site one storefront away from the original about 18 months ago. Now it plans to merge the two shops into one by taking the store in between in March, raising its combined space from 1,800 to 2,500 square feet.
“Third Street has changed tremendously over the last four years,” said Elizabeth Cashour, who manages Zipper with co-owner Steven Saden. “When we first moved in, our site had been vacant for six months. Vacancies don’t last that long anymore. In the past, some specific stores might have been a destination for shoppers. Now, the street itself is a destination.”
Part of 3rd Street’s allure is its large and growing array of restaurants. Restaurants featuring Chinese, Italian and American cuisine are among the mainstays of the corridor. Sprinkled among them are eateries offering Japanese, Latin American and Mexican cuisine.
And merchants who abandoned ventures on the street several years ago are coming back. Tony Di Lembo, who sold Indigo--a bistro popular with the entertainment industry--in 1991, recently opened a restaurant called Tahiti. Di Lembo said his new establishment offers “world cuisine,” with French, Italian, Polynesian and Asian influences.
“Considering our short time on 3rd, business is great,” said Di Lembo. “Third is becoming one of the hot spending spots in Los Angeles.”
