Closing sales are not unusual on 2nd
SECOND STREET — With offices, yoga studios and gyms as far as the eye can see, it seems as though this sleepy street is located in another universe rather than being only one block away from the hustle and bustle of the Third Street Promenade.
Unlike the promenade and downtown Fourth Street, both of which are filled to near capacity with retails and restaurants, Second Street, with its empty storefronts and numerous parking garages, has failed to attract SLOW ON 2ND, from page 1 the same strong following, level of interest, and pedestrian and vehicular traffic as its neighbors to the east.
Odd considering the street’s proximity to one of the main shopping attractions on the Westside.
“It’s like night and day,” Sidsie Caswell said of the promenade and Second Street. The owner of antique store Historia at 1322 Second St. has seen many businesses come to Second Street, hoping to capitalize on the overflow from the promenade. The only problem is the shopping crowd never seems to head their way.
“It would be nice to have more traffic on Second Street,” Caswell said on Wednesday. “If you’re not on the promenade, it’s hard.”
Bayside District Corporation has worked for years to try to stimulate development along both Second and Fourth streets. Both streets have come a long way in their commercial developments, but Fourth Street has outpaced Second Street.
“The evolution has taken longer than we anticipated,”said Kathleen Rawson, executive director of Bayside.“The good news is we do have potential tenants interested in Second Street that would be good for downtown.
The low level of pedestrian traffic came as a surprise to Benchen Khenpo, the owner of Bhutan Handicrafts at 1418 Second St., a temporary store specializing in traditional arts and crafts from Bhutan.
Khenpo operates the store for only one month every year at a location in Santa Monica. For many years, the store found a home on Main Street where Khenpo enjoyed success from the artsy crowd. It’s been a different story on Second Street where a “closing sale” sign hangs on his window advertising markdowns of 40 percent off. The last day of business for Bhutan Handicrafts is on Sunday.
“Main Street was a lot better,” Khenpo said on Wednesday. “People who come here [to downtown] get stuck with the promenade idea in their head.”
The closing sale is not an uncommon sight on Second Street where the rent is considered to be expensive considering the low amount of food traffic it gets. O’ My Sole, a shoe store on the corner of Broadway and Second Street, is also slashing prices in its own going out of business sale.
Though similar in size, there are differences between Second Street and Fourth Street, said Rob York of York Consulting Group, a contractor for Bayside District Corporation, which oversees Downtown Santa Monica.
Fourth Street has the benefit of seeing more vehicular traffic coming straight off the 10 Freeway while Second Street dead ends to the south on Colorado Avenue. Unlike Second Street, where most buildings have office space on the first floor, Fourth Street boasts an eclectic mix of retailers and restaurants up and down the corridor. Anchor tenants, which are absent on Second Street, such as REI and Circuit City also helps bring in more traffic to Fourth Street.
Another problem lies in the zoning requirement for many of the buildings on Second Street, which are grandfathered in as office use only, causing darkness along the street once 5 p.m. rolls around and many of the offices turn out the lights.
But once a commercial tenant moves out of one of the grandfathered buildings, the property owner has up to a year to find a new tenant to keep the building zoned as office space. If the building is still empty after one year, the space is automatically rezoned as retail, said Dave Wilson, president of Lee & Associates.
The closing of Robinsons-May in the spring after Federated Department Stores purchased the May Department Stores has also hurt the Second Street district where one of the main entrances to Santa Monica Place once faced. The entrance closed after Robinsons-May did.
Macy’s, whose main entrance faces Fourth Street, remains open.
Macerich Co., which owns Santa Monica Place, is planning to give the mall a major facelift in coming years, recently submitting preliminary plans to build an open-air shopping center that would flow with the promenade.
Robyn Young, senior manager of development relations at Santa Monica Place, said there are no immediate plans to fill the space formerly occupied by Robinsons-May. Macerich officials are unsure of whether the space will be chopped up into smaller stores or whether they will find one anchor tenant to fill the vacancy.
Some changes are expected along Second Street too.
Popular LA Pan Asian restaurant Buddha’s Belly has submitted a proposal to open a restaurant in the Hotel Carmel on Second Street. There are also plans to transform the former Mayfair Theatre at 214 Santa Monica Blvd., which closed shortly after the Northridge Earthquake, into a mixed-use development with ground floor retail and apartments above, York said.
Another theatre still in commission, Leammle’s Monica Fourplex, has helped stimulate business for its neighbor, Historia. Historia clients are more likely to patronize the Leammle theatre rather than shop at an Old Navy or Banana Republic, Caswell said.
“For us, the promenade is not a factor,” Caswell said. “People who go to the promenade are not looking to buy a 19th century painting from Mexico.”
“For us, the promenade is not a factor. People who go to the promenade are not looking to buy a 19th century painting from mexico.” — Sidsie caswell store owner historia
The Farmers’ Market, spilling into Second Street off Arizona Avenue, has served as a source for potential customers for many of the businesses on Second Street. One of the beneficiaries is the Natural Resource Defense Council [NRDC] on 1314 Second St. The environmental organization is housed in the second greenest building in the United States.
Most of the activity in the NRDC comes from the free building tours conducted throughout the week for those who have scheduled an appointment. Other than the tours, and the crowd that comes into the center from the Farmers’ Market, the NRDC remains a pretty quiet place.
“We have the gyms and yoga studios here. There isn’t a lot of retail,” said Gisela Levin of the NRDC.“We don’t get a lot of foot traffic.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 28, 2006. Read the original PDF.