Westwood’s Supermarket Void to End

It’s taken more than a quarter-century to do it, but they’re finally bringing home the bacon in Westwood Village. And enough milk, beans, fresh fruit and canned goods to fill the biggest grocery cart.

Developers of the empty Bullock’s-Macy’s department store plan to announce today that a Ralphs supermarket will be built inside the landmark building on Le Conte Avenue next to the UCLA campus.

The decision is a milestone for struggling Westwood Village, where the once-vibrant shopping district has fallen on hard times in the last decade.

It’s also a victory for neighbors and UCLA students who have had to leave the area to shop for groceries since Westwood Village’s last supermarket closed in 1974.

Residents say they had to beg the developers of the 225,000-square-foot structure to rent space to Ralphs. As recently as three months ago, the Cincinnati-based Madison Marquette property management firm had leaned toward renting to a big box-style electronics outlet.

Word that a full-service supermarket is coming was met Wednesday with jubilation from Westwood residents.

“This is probably the only development project in the history of Westwood Village with absolutely no naysayers,” said Sandy Brown, president of the Holmby-Westwood Property Owners Assn. “It just never happens that everybody wants a project. But this is a project that everybody wants.”

Ralphs will operate a large “Fresh Fare” market that will offer gourmet items along with regular groceries. The supermarket will use 55,000 square feet of the building’s second floor, which opens onto Le Conte Avenue.

An upscale interior furnishings showroom, EXPO Design Center, will occupy about 90,000 square feet of the former department store’s ground floor, which faces Weyburn Avenue.

Officials of Madison Marquette will announce the development plans at a 9 a.m. reception at the site at 10861 Weyburn Ave.

Residents say they began lobbying for a supermarket at the department store site after the Macy’s (successor to Bullock’s there) closed in early 1999. Madison Marquette, which has a long-term ground lease for the building with Macy’s owner, Federated Department Stores, entered into negotiations with Compton-based Ralphs earlier this year.

But in midsummer, the talks hit a snag and Madison Marquette reportedly turned to Best Buy, a large electronics and appliance retailer.

With the help of Los Angeles City Councilman Mike Feuer, Westwood Village-area leaders such as Brown and Laura Lake of the Friends of Westwood group, pleaded with Madison Marquette and Ralphs to come to an agreement.

Brown said she personally telephoned Madison Marquette President Jim Bennett.

“I asked, ‘What’s going on? Where’s our market? We want a market,’ ” Brown said.

Feuer said construction of the supermarket--expected to be open a year from now--will be a turning point for Westwood Village.

A year ago, some merchants were describing Westwood Village as a ghost town suffering from a retail vacancy rate of more than 30%. These days, about 15% of village retail space is empty, according to city estimates.

Some of the neighborhood’s troubles began in 1988, when a bystander was killed in a gang shooting on a Westwood street. That scared off some visitors, and in the 1990s the district lost even more pedestrian traffic to newly revamped shopping and restaurant areas elsewhere, particularly the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica and Old Town in Pasadena.

“Westwood Village needs more neighbor-serving businesses that allow residents to return again and again” and rejuvenate the area, Feuer said Wednesday.

Bob Walsh, executive director of Westwood Village’s business improvement district, said Wednesday that the momentum that the new supermarket and interior design center are expected to generate could help knock the village’s vacancy rate down to 5% by the end of next summer.

Madison Marquette officials, who also manage other Westwood Village properties, agree that the supermarket will have a ripple effect.

“This is bringing a different type of tenant to Westwood. You’re expanding the shopping base” by drawing shoppers that “other small tenants can feed off,” said Mike Tewalt, vice president of development for Madison Marquette.

These days, officials say, restaurants and movie theaters account for most of Westwood Village’s foot traffic.

Ironically, a restaurant and theater now occupy the building that housed Westwood’s original grocery store: a Ralphs.

It was built in 1929 and was operated until 1962, when the grocery company pulled out because the building was outdated and too small, said Terry O’Neil, a Ralphs spokesman.

For a time, Westwood Village had five markets, including a Safeway and an A & P supermarket, said Steve Sann, a Westwood business consultant.

The Safeway was the last supermarket when it closed in 1974. A wine and cheese shop offered some food in the 1970s and a convenience market called Breadstix opened in 1979, Sann said.

“It was a godsend. Without it, there would be no place to buy groceries. But it’s staggering to think a community with the demographics of Westwood has been so underserved in terms of groceries. Food is the most human need,” he said.

Residents say a Bristol Farms market--a high-end, gourmet-type food store--is the closest food store to the village. It is located about three blocks south of Wilshire Boulevard, too far for UCLA students to walk to if they need groceries.

“You have 30,000 students, and at least half of them don’t have cars and a quarter of them live in nearby apartments,” said Westwood resident Carole Magnuson.

“The new supermarket is going to be greeted with great huzzahs.”