Remodel Underway on CMC's 13th-Floor Penthouse
The California Market Center has begun a major remodel of the building’s 13th floor that will result in 75,000 square feet of open exhibition space, 35,000 square feet of hard-wall showroom space and a nearly panoramic view of downtown Los Angeles.
“We want to try to create an environment where you can house trade shows in one area,” said John Kim, general manager of the CMC, which was purchased by Jamison Properties in February. “[Also,] we want to have the ability to expand our trade show offerings. Through trade shows we want to be able to drive more traffic through the building.”
Currently, trade shows, such as the Los Angeles International Textile Show, are split up among multiple floors and a mixture of hard-wall showrooms and open-booth spaces.
The renovation will encompass the entire A and B wings of the floor, which are used for temporary exhibitors and trade shows. The 13th-floor project will kick off several planned upgrades for the building begun by the CMC’s previous owner, the Hertz Investment Group, which gutted the showrooms in the B wing in 2001 to create an open exhibition area. “The renovation of Penthouse B was never completed,” said Kim. “The ceiling wasn’t really completed, painting wasn’t done, the carpet was old. It wasn’t the environment for an open trade show. We wanted to complete that job.”
The new project will finish off the space with new paint, lighting and a polished-concrete floor.
The B-wing renovation will be completed in time for Glow, a lifestyle-focused temporary show featuring apparel, beauty, and gift and home products and accessories, scheduled for Jan. 19–22.
In the second phase of the project, the CMC plans to knock down all but one section of showrooms in the A wing on the 13th floor. The ceiling will be raised and finished, the carpeting will be replaced with a polishedconcrete floor, and new light fixtures will be added. In addition, the bathrooms will be upgraded and the floor’s air conditioning will be reengineered to create a consistent temperature throughout the floor, Kim said.
Gift showroom California Market Associations, which takes up the entire C wing of the floor, will not be affected by the renovation.
When the A wing reopens in April, the floor will feature a total of 110,000 square feet of exhibition space.
“In terms of contiguous space, it’s the largest next to the [Los Angeles] Convention Center,” said Kim. The building also has 35,000 square feet of space in the lowerlevel Exhibition Hall and 18,000 square feet in the Fashion Theater, off the lobby.
Kim said building executives are also reevaluating how to configure the booths at trade shows on the 13th floor to take advantage of the natural light from the wraparound windows.
Other plans for the building include installing a new polished-concrete floor on the sixth floor’s A wing, which houses childrenswear, and a new color scheme for the fourth-floor C wing, which houses men’s lines.
“One way or another, each floor of the building will have some sort of work [done],” said Kim.
