CMC Hires Former L.A. Mart Exec
The California Market Center has hired Jon Weiglin as director of leasing for the Gift and Home category.
Weiglin is a gift industry veteran with more than 24 years experience in the industry, most recently as president and chief operating officer of the L.A. Mart, a position he held from 1991 until 2001, when the building was sold to Vernato Realty Trust. During his time at the L.A. Mart, the building’s sales volume increased from $7 million to $15 million annually and tenant occupancy rose from 51 percent to 98 percent, according to the CMC.
Prior to overseeing the L.A. Mart, Weiglin was director of sales and marketing for AMC tradeshows, the company that produced the California Gift Show, among other trade shows. He got his start in the gift industry with stationary company PCC.
Weiglin’s contract with the L.A. Mart included a non-compete clause, which kept him out of the gift industry until now. During the interim, he started and ran a company that provides maintenance and cleaning services for high-end restaurants. Weiglin still owns the business, but has turned over the day-to-day operations to a separate management team.
Weiglin noted that his experience makes him well suited for his new position.
“Both the California Gift Show and the L.A. Mart, in both instances, those were big turnaround projects—and that’s really my specialty, turning around buildings and trade shows that are not as successful on the national stage,” he said, noting that his ideas for expanding the cross-merchandising possibilities between the apparel market and the gift and home market were a good fit with CMC management.
“The thing that is terrific here at CMC is the ownership,” he said. “We’ve been talking on and off for six months about what their vision for the building is and what mine is. And it’s meshing nicely.
Our building is the only building west of Dallas that is large enough to house the entire gift and home industry and all that is temporary, as well. We can use every square foot and literally put everything under one roof, like [the AmericasMart in] Atlanta and like [the Dallas Market Center in] Dallas. Those are the models that we’re looking at right now.”
Weiglin will get an opportunity to test th ecross-merchandising strategy when the CMC hosts the Glow lifestyle show on March 23–24.
The temporary show, held on the building’s newly renovated 13th floor, will feature baby products, fashion accessories, and home and gifts.
“Our main focus in the short term is to shore up our temporary exhibits,” he said. “We are trying to retain our buying audience through cross merchandising, trying to pick up new retailers who are interested in this cross promotion. Women’s accessories and gift are strong categories and we’d like to introduce that to our gift buyers as well.”
And, Weiglin noted, temporary shows like Glow will also provide an opportunity “to aggressively try to lease the building to those categories.” —Alison A. Nieder
