City council plans to change the ‘face’ of Promenade
Capitalism isn’t working on the Third Street Promenade, so the Santa Monica City Council plans to step in and give restaurants more breathing room on a mall which is choked with chain retail stores.
For the past two years the city has grappled with ways of keeping cash-strapped small businesses and restaurants competitive with nationwide retailers willing to pay exuberant rents for long-term leases.
The ensuing space crunch and skyrocketing rents has forced locally owned stores and eateries to migrate off the Promenade, changing the face of the community’s main commerce mecca, city officials say.
“If it swings too far out of balance not only will the Promenade be hurt but a lot of the rest of the downtown as well,” said Santa Monica Mayor Michael Feinstein, “and also the entire city’s economy because the Promenade is (our) primary draw.”
But local business officials disagree. The Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce has voted to oppose the city’s efforts to regulate the Promenade.
“Primarily, we are very concerned there are businesses that are not making it along the Promenade and we feel this might scare away any potential businesses that want to move there,” said Kathryn Dodson, the chamber’s executive director. “The timing (of the moratorium) will be extended and that’s problematic by itself, but when you tell businesses you are going to prevent development in this area,they are only going to go someplace else.”
In order to clot the hemorrhaging of restaurants on the Promenade, the city voted Tuesday night to not allow leases currently held by restaurants to be changed to retail purposes. This, say city officials, will temporarily put a stop to further degradation of the mall.
So far the council has only temporarily suspended businesses from changing, but a permanent ordinance could be passed at the next council meeting. A task force consisting of residents, elected officials, city administration and business owners to investigate further regulation will be appointed by the end of December.
“I would prefer this would come from the business owners,” said Councilmem-ber Kevin McKeown. “But the city has an interest here because the Promenade is more than a shopping place, it’s also the civic heart of the community.”
Unlike privately owned shopping malls where a central owner determines the balance between retail and restaurants, the Promenade operates under the devices of an open market, with landlords leasing to the highest bidder.
“When there is a public-private partnership like we have on the Promenade, exactly where the line is drawn is going to shift over time,” said Feinstein. “We intervene only as necessary, but when necessary we will intervene and (now) it is the appropriate time.”
But business owners say shoppers are the ones who should make the decision which stores to patronize on the Promenade and not the city.
“The city is trying to predetermine which stores will be successful on the Promenade,” Dodson said. “The shoppers who go to those stores should pick which businesses should be successful, but instead of letting the consumers make those selections, the council is trying to do that for us.”
“The city is trying to predetermine which stores will be successful on the Promenade.” — — KATHRYN DODSON Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce
In the past, the city enacted regulations when too many restaurants dominated the Promenade and there was scarce retail. Now, they say, a similar plan needs to be devised to rescue the restaurants.
“The goal, I would think, is to develop policies that achieve and maintain the appropriate uses of the Promenade and the surrounding district, said Councilmember Ken Genser. “My sense is that there would have to be some regulation to ‘incentivize’ the property owners to participate in such a district.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 29, 2001. Read the original PDF.