> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Future of downtown mall remains uncertain - URL: https://www.smdp.com/future-of-downtown-mall-remains-uncertain/ - Published: 2004-08-17T15:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-23T04:52:06.000Z - Author: Guest Author - Tags: Business, Promenade, #archive-import *RETAILERS CRY FOR SOLID GROUND* *By JOHN F. MULLER Special to the Daily Press* While retailers and shoppers have continued to file out of Santa Monica Place, plans to renovate downtown’s shopping behemoth appear to have stalled. After nearly a year and a half of silence from Macerich Co. — the publicly traded trust that owns the mall — many retailers within the structure have expressed frustration with an unstable situation that has left them unable to secure new long-term leases, or attract as many shoppers and stores as the Promenade. Last year, shops and restaurants along the Promenade grossed $2.2 billion in sales, while Santa Monica Place brought in $1.1 billion, according to City Hall documents. “The customers come in (to the mall) and they don’t see anything new,” said Sameer Jooma, whose family owns Gallini in the mall and Giorgio Vasari on the Promenade. “It’s such a good mall, with such high potential to bring in tenants... But everything is up in the air. Everybody is just waiting. Who knows what will happen.” Jooma said Gallini has been in Santa Monica Place since the mall opened in 1980. Macerich representatives met with city officials more than two years ago to discuss a plan to open up the shopping mall and connect the city’s center of commerce with its center of government, as well as the pier. When economic realities squashed grandiose plans to tear down Santa Monica Place and make it into an outdoor mall that would connect to the Promenade, officials from Macerich began searching for ways to open up the existing mall. They last met with the board of the Bayside District Corp. in the spring of 2003\. Funded by the city and downtown business owners, Bayside manages downtown Santa Monica with City Hall. While Randy Brant, the senior vice president of Macerich, said the company is aiming to begin construction by the end of the year, many city officials expressed considerable doubts about that goal. RETAILERS CRY FOR SOLID GROUND Since officials from Macerich met with Bayside, company representatives have been exploring a variety of renovation alternatives that would open up the structure — like removing portions of the mall’s roof and moving the food court to the third floor, Brant said. He said the ultimate goal is to create a seamless flow from the Promenade to the indoor mall. Brant said it was a business decision to change the mall’s environment. He pointed out that when Macerich bought the mall in 1991— two years after the Promenade’s 1989 makeover — suburban malls were popular across the country. Since 1989, however, Santa Monica Place and many other malls across the country have been falling behind popular outdoor malls. “The consumer likes the urban feel — the outdoor, street feeling,” he said. “Our challenge is simple but difficult in trying to bring the outdoor, urban feel to a regional mall structure.” Retailers in the mall have begun to run out of patience, however. Avak Ourishian, the manager of Tic Time on the third floor of Santa Monica Place, said taking out new leases has become a challenge at the mall. They also were unhappy with the occupancy level, which Brant said is below traditional levels, though he would not release actual figures. “It’s frustrating. There’s a lot less foot traffic, especially on this third level with all the empty spaces,” Ourishian said. “They always say it’ll be in one, two months, but then it’s nothing. D68,“I don’t know who’s to blame — the city or the mall,” he said. “But if I were running this, I’d want to move it a lot faster. The mall is losing a lot of customers.” While Ourishian said his lease isn’t up for another a year and a half, he said he was not sure whether he would stay in the mall if Macerich would only give him a series of 30-day leases, which it has been offering other mall retailers. Brant said the mall has continued to give out leases, but only those that provide the mall with enough flexibility to move ahead with renovations as necessary. “It’s every 30 days they have a chance to kick you out,” Ourishian said. “I wouldn’t want that. You have to have something solid.” UP IN THE AIR While Macerich has worked jointly with City Hall on the renovations, city officials said they have been waiting for the company to move the ball out of its court by submitting plans. Miriam Mack, the city’s manager of economic development, said she was confident that the project would go as Macerich has planned and the mall would be able to continue working as normal. “The mall continues to be well-patronized,” she said. “There’s a lot of shopping going on there. In the meantime, Macerich is going to have to deal with its tenants. But this is a vital and viable retail area, and people are making the business decisions to stay... Any renovation causes disruption and people have to work around that, but ultimately the end result is hopefully a better retail environment.” However, Mack said Macerich would have to go through up to a year of review to get through the planning and environmental scrutiny that would be required, making it impossible for the company to begin work by the end of the year. Rob Rader, a Bayside board member, said he was doubtful that renovations would begin any time soon, though he fully supported the concept of opening up the mall to create a more vibrant downtown space. “(Macerich) hasn’t made a big push to do a lot of things — to truly lease (Santa Monica Place) out like you’d expect them to lease out a mall,” he said. “Until they do, you have to wonder. Maybe they can truly afford to keep doing this long holding pattern.” City Councilman Herb Katz agreed that it was unlikely that renovations would happen anytime soon. “There has been no timetable for this,” he said. “They have not come to the city and said, ‘we want to do this,’ so we don’t know. I know that if they’re smart, they’re going to want to wait until after the council election. What’s the point of an approval now if the council’s going to be different in a few months?” Rader also pointed out that once plans are submitted, the process will likely be long, especially considering the critical nature of the mall’s downtown location and City Hall’s lack of excess money to fund more projects downtown. The estimated $121 million plan to revamp the area around the civic center, just south of Santa Monica Place, has been put on hold. City Hall is currently working to complete a $73.9 million renovation of the downtown library and is working on a $250 million plan to replace parking structures and add nearly 2,000 parking spaces downtown. “It’s a crucial part of the downtown infrastructure,” Rader said. “It used to be the jewel of the downtown, and now it’s not. It should become a jewel again. The question is what combination of public and private attention is required to make it a jewel again.” *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 17, 2004.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/081704.pdf?ref=smdp.com)