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# Sales holding steady on the Promenade
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/sales-holding-steady-on-the-promenade/
- Published: 2002-11-20T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T00:57:44.000Z
- Author: Andrew Fixmer
- Tags: Business, Promenade, #archive-import

*Outdoor mall still pumping revenues into city coffer*

Sales at shops and restaurants along the Third Street Promenade held steady in recent months, despite that business throughout the downtown area continues to decline.

The city’s economic analysts said sales tax revenue from locations along the Promenade grew by.8 percent during the recent business quarter ending June 30 compared to last year during the same period.

However, sales tax revenue at businesses throughout the Bayside District, which encompasses the city’s commercial core — including the Promenade, fell by 7.3 percent.

“We’re holding our own,” said Kathleen Rawson, the executive director of the Bayside District Corp., a non-profit organization that helps manage the downtown with the city.

“If you take these figures at face value, the Promenade is in very good shape,” she said. “The district as a whole, well that’s a substantial dip over last year.”

Rawson said she believes slumping sales at stores in Santa Monica Place Mall may have contributed to the drop-off. Currently, the company that manages the mall is planning for a major renovation, which Rawson believes could be having a negative effect on sales.

“They are one of the major players for the area, outside the Promenade, and they are going through significant changes,” she said. “Any major shift in their sales would definitely be reflected in how the Bayside performs.”

Richard Eichembaum, general manager of Santa Monica Place Mall, was unavailable for comment Tuesday.

Comparatively, the city’s revenue from sales has slumped 5.4 percent at stores along Main Street and by 1.6 percent for businesses along Montana Avenue.

But businesses along Pico Boulevard fared well this summer, with sales tax revenue increasing more than 5 percent.

“I think this is still very much related to the drop off in restaurant activity,” said Mark Richter, the city’s economic development manager. “Both Bayside and Main Street have a fairly large number of restaurants, and when there is a drop off in restaurant activity, those districts are hurt more than others.”

> “I think this is still very much related to the drop off in restaurant activity.” — — MARK RICHTER Economic development manager, City of Santa Monica

“Pico is the result of improved, new and enhanced community serving retail,” he added.

Sales tax amounts were not immediately made available Tuesday.

Sales at restaurants and retailers — along with automobile dealers — comprise the bulk of what the city collects in sales taxes. However, as the economy has slowed nationally, local restaurants and retailers are seeing less people eating out and buying less merchandise.

The result has been declining tax revenue for the city, which is battling a multi-million dollar budget deficit next year. By the 2004-2005 budget year, analysts have predicted deficits may swell to more than $15 million if drastic changes aren’t made.

To ensure the Promenade retains its economic vitality, the city has convened a Promenade Uses Task Force, which has been charged with coming up with ways of improving the commercial corridor.

“We do feel the Promenade is still in a very good economic position,” Richter said. “The point of the work being done by the Promenade Uses Task Force is to make sure that success is sustainable over time.”

Richter said the eclectic nature of the Promenade is the likely cause for its success in otherwise difficult economic times for retailers.

“I think one of the reasons the Promenade has remained strong is that it doesn’t offer just a retail experience, but it has movies, street entertainment and events that draw people,” he said. “Visitors have multiple reasons to come down to the Promenade that do not exist in the rest of the Bayside District or the mall.”

But Rawson said the longer store fronts along the Promenade remain vacant, like the former Discovery Store at the corner of Third Street and Arizona Avenue, the lower the sales tax revenue trend will dip for the Promenade. American Eagle, a national retailer, plans to move into the Discovery location.

“What stores came and went during these periods needs to be determined for these numbers to really have any significance,” Rawson said. “We need to understand that before we can say whether the area really had an increase or a decrease.”

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 20, 2002.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/112002.pdf?ref=smdp.com)