Arco Plaza Mall Fights for Customers, Tenants
April Hazen adjusted the porcelain vase of roses and baby’s breath on the counter of her bookstore. “People are bringing flowers like someone died,” she said.
Dutton’s, the independent bookstore that Hazen has managed for 10 years in the underground Arco Plaza, will close its doors at the end of September because of declining sales.
“I’m really sad, not just for myself. It’s been a haven for people in the corporate world,” she said. “They come in and poke around.”
This downtown bookstore, part of the venerated Dutton’s dynasty of L.A. bookstores, is also suffering the vagaries of retail life below ground at the southwest corner of 5th and Flower streets. Not only are retailers unseen by sidewalk pedestrians, they are losing business as the twin buildings lose tenants.
“Nobody around here is making a killing,” said Walter Hyman, manager of Downstairs Florists. His tour around the vacated spaces of B level conjures ghosts of businesses past.
Once, merchants say, they thrived under the gleaming black towers displaying the Arco and Bank of America logos. Corporate tenants took an elevator or escalator trip down to spend money on flowers, books, wine and beauty treatments. A social scene bloomed at night in the restaurant Francois and a pub called the Roaring Lion.
But in the past few years, merchants say, business at Arco Plaza is about the only thing taking a trip downward. The table service restaurants have been replaced by McDonald’s and Taco Bell and other fast-food places clustered on the B level of the mall.
Out of about 40 businesses listed in the directory of Arco Plaza, three have closed in the past year, including--most lamentably, say merchants--the minimarket where you could buy anything from aspirin to sandwiches, and soon, Dutton’s.
The number of recent closures doesn’t convey the desolation of the lower level of the two-story mall. There are just about as many shuttered storefronts as there are open ones.
“C level is kind of a difficult level,” said Narine Salatian, the newly hired marketing director of Arco Plaza.
Not all the merchants are complaining.
“We were struggling for a few months but we’ve had a busy month,” said Radio Shack Manager Mike Rademacher. He enjoyed a rush on electronic equipment related to the Democratic National Convention.
Merchants suffering declining business lay some of the blame on the mall’s management. They say Arco Plaza could advertise its stores better with bigger signs outside and refurbish the three-decade-old mall.
“The things they did have for promotion were silly,” Hazen said of building management. “A swing dance contest that maybe five people went to.”
Storekeepers agree that they are hurt by dwindling occupancy in the towers above them as well as in nearby high-rises. Corporate downsizing and the migration of businesses to other parts of the city have whittled away at customers, merchants lament.
Once, Dutton’s was awash in corporate accounts. “They’d use me to buy books in bulk,” said Hazen. She has only a couple of such accounts left.
“How can we create traffic if the building is empty?” said Yolanda Aguilar, who runs the Institut de Beaute on C level.
Aguilar has survived by advertising her salon on television and radio talk shows. She has been in the mall for 28 years, and is president of the Plaza Merchants Assn.
“You see the plaza; we need a lift. The colors are outdated,” said Aguilar. It is outfitted with red brick floors and illuminated with dullish white lighting.
“When a big company moves out, you don’t not notice,” said Moe Taghdis, general manager and owner of Gourmet Wines & Spirits, a wine and liquor store and wine bar tucked into a lonely corridor on B level. As he ate a late lunch of soup and salad at one of the many empty tables in his cozy wine bar, he ticked off a list of the businesses that vacated entire floors.
Taghdis estimates that his business, which moved into the mall in 1984, has declined 40% since the mid-1990s.
“We just try to survive the best way we know how,” Taghdis said as he stabbed at his salad with a fork. He sends out fliers, but relies on longtime customers and word of mouth.
“They’ve got to try to attract people into this building,” he said. “They’re not aggressive enough or they’ve got to spend some money to make this building more upscale. They have to refurbish it.”
Shuwa Investments Corp., owned by Japanese builder and investor Shigeru Kobayashi, bought the property in 1986 for an astonishing $650 million. At one point, the company had $3 billion in real estate holdings in the United States. Analysts estimate that the twin towers of Arco Plaza are now worth half, at best, of what Shuwa paid.
Some of the retailers hear that the building is 60% vacant and that the owners are looking for buyers.
Salatian, the plaza marketing director, said the owners won’t comment on vacancy rates or plans for the mall.
“We are trying to do our best to lease more of the tower offices,” said Salatian.
But, sitting in her bright 12th-floor office high above the sunless retail plaza, she does have some thoughts on how to improve business. “We’re getting a new advertising firm to help us, we’re looking into a Web site, we’re looking to do more events,” said Salatian.
She insists that her bosses want the retail plaza to flourish. “My being here shows the owner’s commitment to that,” she said.
