Santa Monica Place

Will the newly renovated Santa Monica Place increase the city’s property values? Santa Monica Place is quite attractive and seems to integrate seamlessly with the Third Street Promenade. It features a collection of luxury retail stores, mass merchandise retailers, and specialty boutiques. The open air environment is very reminiscent of Westfield’s Century City Mall except Santa Monica Place is owned by Macerich.

Homeowners who are currently looking to sell are hoping that housing prices will increase with the mall. Interestingly enough though if a NEW mall were to be built it might actually lower property values if it were to block great views or create additional congestion. In the case of Santa Monica Place, the mall already existed and was going through a transformation – so it now looks better than ever and will bring in more revenue for the city given that some of the shops are new to Santa Monica thereby serving pent up demand for those stores. At the very least Westsiders have the option of going to the Louis Vuitton in Santa Monica if they do not feel like driving to Century City.

On the flip side, some believe that any retail development will encourage additional pan handling. Several years ago, the city council had already put in place an ordinance that would not allow pan handlers to sit on the benches during shop hours. The benches are meant to be used for a short period of time to rest and relax in between shopping on the Promenade, not in lieu of a couch. Should there be more pan handlers, will they contain themselves to just the retail development or might they spill out onto the residential areas?

We might not know the economic results of the mall as it affects housing prices for a year or so and in this economy, it might even be harder to tell. In the meantime when I visited the Third Street Promenade on Friday, I stopped at Banana Republic and chatted with the sales clerk. She stated that business has declined ever since the mall opened. Consumers were spending their dollars at some of the new places. Overtime though, she believes that people would come back to the store and the level of consumption will be strong again. Let’s hope this will be the case for them as I am a fan of their clothing line and don’t want to drive across the city to shop at their store. In looking over which retailers have opened up a post at Santa Monica Place…it is also interesting to see which stores have not. Missing are some of the doyens of women’s apparel: Ann Taylor and Talbots. What does it mean that a White House Black Market opens up but its sister company Chico’s is missing? Maybe the question is of greater significance to business owners in Santa Monica than homeowners in the city.

Claire Thuy Le