A New Plan for Santa Monica Place
One maxim in retailing is that location is everything. That does not appear to be entirely true for Santa Monica Place, which is two blocks from the Pacific Ocean and next to the popular Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica, Calif.
The formula sounds infallible, but the 570,000-square-foot enclosed shopping center, owned by The Macerich Co., has an occupancy rate of only 70 percent. Newer cen-ters such as Caruso Affiliated’s The Grove and other concepts have taken away market share, but Macerich aims to grab some of it back with a new plan for an open-air lifestyle center, new shops and other attractions.
The Santa Monica–based real estate investment trust bought the property in 1999. It planned for an outdoor mall back then, but it also wanted to build a 21-story residential complex, along with a seven-story office building. Santa Monica residents, known for community activism that spawned a strict rent control system, opposed the towers. Macerich shortly thereafter withdrew its plan.
The company returned in 2003 with a plan to tear down the enclosed mall and extend the Promenade but determined the project would be too expensive.
Now Macerich is ready to try again. But it says it has learned from the past and is embarking on a community outreach to get feedback from local businesses and residents about Santa Monica Place. Macerich is meeting separately with 14 community organizations to discuss its “adaptive re-use” plan, which it hopes to submit to the city of Santa Monica by year’s end.
Basically, the company plans to tear the roof off the mall, relocate the food court and create a more pleasing environment in general.
“It’s the right time to get back into the community and talk about the development plans,” said Robyn Young, a Phoenix-based manager of development marketing for Macerich.
Young confirmed that Macerich purchased the Robinsons-May building from Federated Department Stores, which had shuttered the store last month after its acquisition of the chain. The purchase was part of a package deal in which Macerich acquired 11 shuttered stores from Cincinnati-based Federated for an undisclosed sum.
This time around, the feedback to Macerich is much more positive, Young said. “We’ve met with 10 of 14 groups, and we’ve received lots of great feedback. A lot of it has been ’Thanks for listening to us.’”
The current plan would reduce the square footage slightly. The mall would remain a three-story structure. A new food court would feature an ocean view. Young said the food court’s current location at the Broadway entrance created something of a barrier between the Promenade and mall shops. “We want a more seamless environment,” she said.
The company hopes to submit plans by the end of the year. Construction would take at least 18 to 24 months, Young said, and the mall would be closed during that period.
Tenants appeared to welcome any change. “I think it would bring more excitement and more people here,” said Melissa Bishop of the clothing store Planet Funk. “The mall can be dead at times.”
Macerich officials admitted being “off the mark” with previous plans, but the new one, though in its early stages, appears to be gaining favor. “It’s exciting. It’s going to be an amazing project,” Young said. “We just want to start moving forward.”
