Owners Shopping for Ways to Revive Mall
Nine months after buying the Promenade shopping center, Westfield America is hatching plans to revive the Woodland Hills mall and to link it more closely with its Topanga Plaza property.
In meetings with Los Angeles city officials, Westfield has discussed reorganizing the mall’s space and creating a new entrance on the north side facing Topanga Plaza. Westfield is even considering removing the mall’s roof, or a portion of it, to create an open-air center, according to one city official.
“They want to find some way to make it unique,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Westfield America Co-President Richard E. Green said no formal plans have been developed, and said it was premature to discuss any possible changes. But he confirmed the company is looking at ways to make the mall more successful.
“It’s a competitive world,” Green noted, “and everybody’s trying to improve their situation.”
Westfield America is the U.S. subsidiary of Australia-based Westfield Holdings Ltd. It bought the Promenade from Simon De Bartolo for $33.5 million early last year. Then in November, it acquired 100% of Topanga Plaza, in which it had held a minority stake since 1994.
In addition to the two West Valley malls, Westfield also owns most of the land in the long block between the two shopping centers.
“Because we own all three properties, it would make sense to create some kind of relationship in a complementary form,” Green said.
Both malls have already been renamed to reflect the company’s brand identity; Topanga Plaza is now Westfield Shoppingtown Topanga, and the Promenade is now Westfield Shoppingtown Promenade.
In November, Westfield America kicked off a television and radio advertising campaign to establish Westfield Shoppingtowns in the American consciousness. Westfield’s aim: to create a recognizable brand signaling consistent standards of customer service, cleanliness and safety, just as McDonald’s signifies quality in fast food, Marriott in hotels.
The proximity of the two Valley mall properties has fueled speculation that Westfield will attempt to bridge the two shopping centers with a third retail project.
Green, however, was reluctant to discuss specific ideas, and perhaps not surprisingly. Two years ago, Westfield’s plans to build a Home Depot on part of the land were shot down after neighbors complained about increased traffic and congestion.
Later, it presented a plan to build a 225,000-square-foot retail project at that site. But that too never materialized.
Part of the land will be used for a new 11-story office building and six-story parking structure for 20th Century Insurance. Commercial real estate industry sources, however, also say that Westfield presented a plan at a shopping center convention last year showing a shopping street located between the two malls--a claim Green denies.
Woodland Hills Homeowners Organization President Gordon Murley said that any development proposal for the land between the malls must take into account the impact on traffic.
“If you’re going to have a viable business area, it has to be so people can get in and out without a lot of time spent queuing up,” Murley said.
For now, Westfield appears to be focusing most of its energy on finding a winning formula for the 26-year-old Promenade.
The 600,000-square-foot mall has long aspired to be the upscale West Valley shopping destination with high-end retailers hawking pricey goods. At one time, the now-departed I. Magnin and Saks Fifth Avenue were Promenade anchors. But despite efforts of past Promenade owners, Woodland Hills shoppers have never been as free with credit cards as Beverly Hills patrons.
“Those people don’t spend money like people on the other side of the hill,” said Cliff Goldstein, a partner with J.H. Snyder Co., a Los Angeles developer.
As recently as 1995, the Promenade was a retail ghost town. That changed three years ago with the arrival of the AMC-16 theater megaplex. This state-of-the-art cinema, with stadium seating and plush airliner-style seats, draws large crowds, especially on weekends. The nearby food court does a brisk business, according to Green. But oddly enough, the theater’s success hasn’t translated into increased retail sales for most Promenade merchants, according to Green, although there are exceptions.
Westfield sees the theater and restaurants as a springboard for more entertainment-tinged retail excitement. “We want to build off that activity,” Green said.
The developer also has plans in store for its Topanga mall. Last year, Forbes magazine reported that the Canoga Park mall would be one of several Westfield properties around the U.S. to integrate some international retailing concepts into its mix--introducing grocery stores, for example, alongside fashion retailers that range from middle-of-the-road stores, such as Sears and Montgomery Ward, to more upscale merchants, such as Nordstrom and Ann Taylor.
Westfield’s Australian parent company believes the presence of food stores and pharmacies, common in fashion malls outside the U.S., is good for business. The concept: While shopping for clothing can be put off, shopping for food or medicine cannot. Mall traffic will increase by adding these shops, or so the theory goes.
Green noted that in Australia food stores are so common in malls that some centers offer on-site storage capabilities, shopper-dedicated freezers and refrigerators.
And if shoppers want to check their groceries so they can shop for dresses and shoes, the mall obliges them.
Similar retailing options may be headed this way, he said.
“We are evaluating how we can make one-stop shopping totally vertical in the mall,” he said.
Westfield Holdings is the shopping mall pioneer of Australia. Its Westfield Shoppingtowns are within a 30-minute drive of 70% of Australia’s 18 million people. In the U.S., Westfield America currently has 38 malls, 20 in California, 8 in the Los Angeles area.
Westfield’s red-coated personnel follow the company’s “10 Commandments for Customer Relations,” rules about how its employees should behave with mall patrons.
One example: “The customer is never an interruption to your work!” These and other measures are designed to set Westfield apart from rivals and establish a brand identity.
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Freelance writer Bob Howard contributed to this story.
