High hopes and a few suggestions for new retailer

The vacant 10,500-square-foot retail space at the corner of Brand

Boulevard and Wilson Avenue soon will be home to a new tenant,

apparently. A local Realtor told the News-Press last week that

negotiations are underway with a national retailer to open a store in

the space formerly occupied by Zany Brainy.

Beyond that, though, details are sketchy. Citing the

confidentiality needed to successfully conduct such negotiations, the

Realtor couldn’t reveal more about the future tenant, other than to

say he hoped the deal would be closed in the next four to six weeks.

That a new tenant is replacing Zany Brainy so quickly -- the

educational toy store closed its doors on Jan. 27, less than four

years after it opened -- is good news for that section of mid-Brand,

which doesn’t enjoy the sort of foot traffic the Marketplace and even

the beleaguered Exchange experience.

But the fear remains that the wrong kind of occupant -- which, for

all its commendable products, Zany Brainy clearly was -- simply will

eat up some floor space for a while until all the factors that drove

the previous tenant out of business converge to create the same fate

for the new residents. Meanwhile, the struggling business does little

if anything to help revitalize mid-Brand, which is one of the goals

any business lured to that site should be trying to do.

Obviously, abject failure is no one’s wish for a new business,

downtown or anywhere else. Hopes are high that whatever this new

retailer turns out to be -- and we here at the News-Press have an

especially vested interest, since the retail space in question is

right underneath us -- it will have a long and successful run at that

location, and will help draw more shoppers to the section of Brand

above Broadway.

We think a few things need to happen to help the business succeed:

* The availability of parking at the Orange Street garage and

other sites just off Brand needs to be loudly advertised. It remains

something of a mystery why the Orange Street garage, with its

convenient distance from Brand (there’s a cut-through alley between

the two) and its voluminous available spaces, continues to be

underused. For that matter, plenty of other parking off Brand is

available if shoppers would just suck it up and become willing to

walk a block or two. Regardless, the city and mid-Brand businesses

should team up to pay for more signage about the parking.

* The new business must make itself an integral part of the

community. The drawback to putting a national retailer in any space

on Brand is that, because such businesses are headquartered

elsewhere, strong local connections -- be they through a general

manager’s appearances in the community, active membership in the

chamber of commerce, or other vehicles -- tend to be absent. The new

tenant must make a point of investing personally in the community,

like thousands of other local businesses do.

* The new retailer should fly on its own. That is to say, no rent

subsidies, tax breaks or other incentives should be proffered by the

city. One could argue -- and we will -- that such “incentives”

actually can serve as a disincentive for businesses to do everything

they should to remain viable.

Zany Brainy got a $55,000 annual rent subsidy from the city of

Glendale, which covered a substantial chunk of its rent payment each

month. Nevertheless, it failed to find and build a customer base.

Other factors came into play, but the fact that it had a substantial

safety net from the outset contributed considerably, we think, to its

demise; it didn’t need to worry about meeting all its expenses each

month. Like the butterfly that is freed from its cocoon with outside

help and dies because it didn’t build up the strength it needed by

fighting its way out, so too did Zany Brainy fail to take wing.

Glendale should welcome the new business at Wilson and Brand with

open arms and an enthusiastic attitude. Few things are as troubling,

not to mention depressing, as empty storefronts in the heart of a

city’s retail district, and getting them filled always is a good

thing. But any venture that hopes to succeed, here or anywhere, would

do well to learn from Zany Brainy’s missteps -- and do things

different.