Redevelopment of SM Place expected to begin next year
DOWNTOWN Executives with Macerich Co., the Santa Monica-based real estate giant that owns Santa Monica Place, said Wednesday that their plan to renovate and revitalize the aging shopping center has been approved by the various boards and commissions, and are now just waiting for city planners to issue a permit for construction.
Bob Aptaker, vice president of development for Macerich, said he expects the permit to be issued by the end of February or early March, and that construction would begin shortly thereafter.
The Architectural Review Board unanimously approved the remodel on Monday. That is in addition to the support Macerich has earned from the City Council and the planning, arts and coastal commissions.
“It has been an amazing journey,” Aptaker said. “We really owe a big thank you to the community for coming out and telling us what they really wanted in this project and then coming back and supporting it once we had the plan in place.”
Macerich submitted a formal plan for the remodel in March that included removing the roof along the mall’s central spine to create an open-air, multilevel complex that makes use of the ocean breezes and better connects with the Third Street Promenade, Santa Monica Pier and the Civic Center.
The parking structures, with just under 2,000 spaces, will remain and be open during construction, along with Macy’s, but other stores will be closed. Aptaker said construction is expected to last 20 months, with completion by fall 2009.
Macerich has agreed to retain the current scale and work within the mall’s footprint and current height limit, featuring just three stories; the top floor to include a new food court.
The “adaptive reuse” plan came just over two years after the council asked Macerich, one of the nation’s largest retail real estate investment trusts with 73 regional shopping centers in its portfolio, to abandon a plan to demolish the mall and replace it with three, 21-story office towers that would have included space for offices, retail and housing.
Residents and elected officials felt that proposal was out-of-step with the community and were concerned about traffic impacts in an already congested downtown.
Admitting they made a mistake, Macerich officials last summer met with community members in a series of 14
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 20, 2007. Read the original PDF.