By Kevin Herrera
Daily Press Staff Writer

SM PLACE With few customers coming into All Sports Pro to purchase jerseys and baseball caps, clerk Sandra Garcia passes the time with a magazine as she sits near the dormant cash register.

“It’s dead around here,” Garcia said Tuesday morning, as she looked out onto a sales floor that was littered with merchandise but devoid of any customers. “When I started here five years ago, this place was crowded. But now, it’s really, really slow.”

Across the way at Hot Topic, a clothing store that specializes in rock attire, clerks Shayan Dourmohamad and Adam Hamilton echoed Garcia’s sentiments about the unpopular Santa Monica Place mall, which has seen retailer after retailer relocate in recent years, leaving storefronts empty and glass windows covered in black.

It’s an eerie experience for those shoppers used to the hustle and bustle of a typical Los Angeles mall.

“It was a good mall, a place where everybody used to go and hang out,” said Hamilton. “Now, there’s really no reason to come here.”

Hamilton’s co-worker believes gossip hasn’t helped things at the flagging mall.

“Ever since rumors started to spread like five years ago about the mall closing or being redeveloped, people have just stopped coming,” Dourmohamad said. “Now, people mainly just stick to the first floor. The only people who really come around are tourists who are browsing. Everyone else is at the (Third Street) Promenade.

“I think it’s unfair to the mom-and-pop stores,” Dourmohamad said.

Shoppers and merchants feel competition from the promenade has hurt the mall, but not as much as its owners — Santa Monica-based Macerich Co. Ever since the third largest mall operator in the country announced its plans to redevelop, and later, remodel the Frank Gehry-designed structure, merchants have slowly packed up and moved on.

Of the 73 stores that have stayed, some have suffered from declining sales as the mall and its empty storefronts become increasingly less attractive.

The mall is said to be suffering a slow death, causing some to doubt if it can ever regain the popularity it once had after a significant remodel, expected to begin this spring. Officials with Macerich are confident that a new concept for the mall, one that includes tearing off the roof and relocating the food court to the third floor to take advantage of ocean breezes, will reinvigorate the shopping center as it becomes more integrated with the popular promenade.

But that is still more than a year away.

WHAT’S IN STORE

In the meantime, Macerich is very excited about the arrival of Steve & Barry’s, a casual apparel retailer. The company is best known for introducing two of the most high-profile product lines — BITTEN, by “Sex and the City” star Sarah Jessica Parker, and the Starbury Collection, from NBA point guard Stephon Marbury. Marbury received a lot of media attention last year when he launched his line because it featured, for the first time, basketball shoes that sold for $14.98, a bargain compared to other popular brands that sell for as much as $150.

Robyn Young, communications director for Macerich, said Steve & Barry’s and Macerich are close to finalizing a lease agreement.

“We are really excited about this opportunity,” Young said. “Steve & Barry’s could bring a lot of fun and excitement to the center and we are just excited about the potential of them coming.”

The retailer, which could open as early as September, would occupy space in the old Robinsons-May building, which is now sitting vacant at the corner of Broadway and Second Street. Robinsons-May was a major anchor for the mall, but since its’ departure last year, the space has become somewhat of a blemish. Stores around it have left, leaving the western side of the mall relatively vacant.

Young said the arrival of Steve & Barry’s demonstrates to shoppers and merchants that Macerich hasn’t forgotten about Santa Monica Place. The company is still planning to do promotions in the fall and the holiday season.

Steve & Barry’s would be forced to vacate the mall during construction, along with all other merchants, including those in the food court, Young said.

“We have been very open with all of our retailers about where we are in the approval process and that we plan to close the mall during the development,” Young said. “We wanted to give retailers all of the information so they could make good business decisions.”

For some, that meant relocating somewhere else. Young could not say if those businesses that left would be returning once the remodel is complete. Currently, Macerich officials are still studying what type of retail mix they would like to offer shoppers. That could mean some retailers would be welcomed back, while others would not.

“We are really excited about the new design, having an open air center that connects better with Third Street and downtown, but part of this is to bring a really fresh retail mix, which is something residents have been asking for,” Young said.

Shoppers have been asking for more options, especially now that the mall is missing staples like Gap or Banana Republic, which were two of the main reasons why Theresa Forster visited Santa Monica Place. The 20-year resident of Santa Monica said the mall was the place to shop when she first moved to town, but has since taken a back seat to the promenade and other venues in the Los Angeles area, such as The Grove.

“I think it can be revived, especially if they make it an extension of the promenade, but offer different attractions,” said Forster, who stopped at the mall with her son to buy lunch and check out video games. “Maybe they could put in an IMAX or provide more things for kids to do, like an arcade or a play area. They could also offer some educational activities as well.”

Forster and other shoppers said the biggest draw for the mall now is the food court. Other than serving as a shortcut to the promenade for those parking on Colorado Avenue, many shoppers said the food court is what causes them to visit Santa Monica Place.

Young said the food court is booming, so much so that operators have requested to stay open an hour later than the mall on Sundays to accommodate the demand.

But does that mean customers will return to the mall after it’s been remodeled?

“People know Santa Monica Place,” Young said. “When people see the drawings and the potential, and knowing what we plan to do with the center, I think any negative perception will be gone.”

“It’s really a shame,” London native Priscilla Newton said about the mall’s emptiness. “I was just thinking ‘Oh dear, I really want to go to Payless, but because it’s on the third floor where nothing else really is, do I want to make the effort?’ It’s just so strange to see it empty like this,” Newton added.

“I think it’s a great mall. I really don’t understand why it’s like this, but then again, in London, we really don’t have anything to compare it too.”

kevinh@smdp.com