Stores bring new hope for Venice
Jennifer Horn could see it coming.
First, a new housing complex popped up around Rose Avenue and Seventh Street, followed by the opening of a new wine specialty store on Lincoln Boulevard, then the biggest indicator of change — an advertisement that a Whole Foods would soon open at the site where a Big Lots once stood.
“It was so obvious there was revitalization going on,” Horn, who moved to the area earlier this year, said on Wednesday at the grand opening of the natural foods store. “You could tell this was going to happen.”
“You could tell this was going to happen.”
The once neglected area around Lincoln Boulevard and Rose Avenue has seen some love these days by the private sector as new, higher-end retail and service shops have opened up shop over the past year, a change that is welcomed by many, some who are cautiously optimistic.
The most recent addition is the 48,000-square-foot Whole Foods that opened its first Venice store earlier this week, its appearance somewhat cleaning up a shopping center that many described as previously being less than appealing.
“That shopping mall was very neglected,” Sheelagh Cullen, a resident of the area since 1992, said.
The corner is home to many long-time businesses, including a hamburger joint and two iconic Mexican restaurants. The neighborhood in just the past year has seen the addition of Checa Boutique, a clothing store located just a few blocks north in Santa Monica, Lincoln Fine Wines and Floyd’s 99 Barbershop.
While each is a small piece of the Venice business community, they have combined to make an impression on the residents of the area.
“We’re encouraged that those kinds of businesses are coming into Venice,” David Moring, the vice president of the Venice Chamber of Commerce, said. “Unfortunately the look was not always kept up at that center.”
Nazmul Helal, the owner of Lincoln Fine Wines, said he is surprised by the rapid rate in which the change is occurring, adding that the area looks different from when he began constructing the store in September 2007.
“When I chose this location, I thought it would maybe go slowly,” Helal, a Santa Monica resident, said. “But when I moved in, I saw the neighborhood was totally different from what I was expecting.”
For Patty Checa, the owner of Checa Boutique, Lincoln seemed to be a perfect fit for a new store after a salon where she sold her merchandise moved more than a year ago.
The street was nearly devoid of any boutiques, Checa, who grew up in Santa Monica, said.
“This wasn’t always the cleanest or greatest area but now they’re cleaning it up,” she said. “I think it’s going to start changing things.”
But with gentrification comes fear that the low-income residents and small businesses of the area could soon be forced out.
Residents in Venice have long prided themselves on being a community known for its unique and somewhat bohemian culture. Parts of the neighborhood, including the area around the Abbot Kinney shopping district, have long tried to resist the entrance of corporate chain stores.
“Everyone needs to keep in mind that we don’t want to turn Lincoln into a super high-end shopping area that tends to eliminate or push out many businesses that have been there for a long time,” Mike Newhouse, the president of the Venice Neighborhood Council, said.
The issues surrounding gentrification were a concern for the Venice Community Alliance when Whole Foods announced it was moving into the neighborhood. The coalition, which represents community and faith-based organizations, reached an agreement with Whole Foods to ensure the grocery store would hire locally.
The agreement includes a living-wage salary for employees and a benefit for nonprofits to pick up expired baked items that are just a few days old.
“What we’re trying to do is make sure the long-time low-income residents of Venice have an opportunity to benefit from the economic growth of the area,” Michele Prichard, the president of the Venice Community Housing Corp., which is a member of the coalition, said.
The changes have also sparked concerns about added traffic congestion to an already impacted area.
“We have to consider a very fine line between building up what is already a busy traffic corridor and busying it up too much and causing traffic,” Newhouse said.
L.A. Councilman Bill Rosendahl, whose district includes Venice, once lived just a few blocks north of Rose Avenue in a neighborhood called “NoRo” during the late 1980s. The shopping center at the corner of Rose and Lincoln at the time had a supermarket, which attracted foot and bicycle traffic to the area.
Once the market closed down and was later replaced with a Big Lots, it forced those pedestrians to get in their cars once again to go grocery shopping at the nearest store — the Ralphs on the corner of San Miguel Avenue and Lincoln.
“The Whole Foods is tremendous because it allows you to walk to the store,” Rosendahl said.
Since many of the employees and patrons come from the Venice area, the traffic to the store is lower than expected, Mike Bowen, the general manager of Whole Foods, said.
“My problem is I don’t have enough bike racks right now,” he said.
The change in the area is a welcoming one to at least one long-time business — La Cabaña, which opened on Rose Avenue in 1963.
Carlos Haro, whose mother, Nina, owns the restaurant, said the new stores have made an improvement.
“It’s helping and improving it,” he said. “It’s pulling people from other places that might not have come to Venice before.”
Jump hedline: New stores bring new hope for Venice
Suggested pullquote: “This wasn’t always the cleanest or greatest area but now they’re cleaning it up.”
Patty Checa
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 6, 2008. Read the original PDF.