Mall Redevelopment Plan Scaled Back

By Jorge Casuso

March 27 -- A plan to tear down most of Santa Monica Place and extend the Third Street Promenade an extra block is quickly fading into little more than a pipe dream, an official of the indoor mall told the Bayside District board Thursday night.

Given an enthusiastic thumbs up by City officials last year, the ambitious plan hammered out by City staff and mall officials has been scrapped in favor of a "interim" plan because it would be far too costly, said Henry Lichtman, an official of Macerich Corp., which owns the mall.

For the ambitious project to pencil out, the City -- which faces a budget shortfall that could be as high as $16 million -- would have to spend $150 million to move the parking underground and extend Third Street to Colorado Avenue, said Lichtman, who is also a Bayside board member.

"It's extremely unrealistic," Lichtman said. "They're significant dollars. I don't think it's going to pencil out, ever."

Instead, mall officials are developing a plan that would open up the indoor mall by tearing out the front entrance, as well as the second level up front, and move the ground-level food court to the third floor patio overlooking the ocean, Litchman said.

"Even though the City is encouraging" Macerich to pursue the original plan, Lichtman said, "we have to be responsible and pursue the interim plan itself."

Robert O. York, a consultant to the Bayside, urged City officials to support the mall's scaled-back plan.

"Now that we understand the big picture, I don't think anyone should hold their breath" waiting for the original plan, York said.

The ambitious plan -- approved by the City Council and members of two task forces last June -- calls for tearing down most of the 22-year-old indoor mall built by world-renowned architect Frank Gehry.

It would be replaced by a mixed-use project that calls for keeping the mall's two department stores intact. The proposed project would slightly increase retail from 561,250 square feet to 567,250, add between 150 and 450 housing units, increase parking from 1,956 and 2,220 spaces and add as many as 100,000 square feet of office space.

City officials saw the plan to tear down most of the mall as a way of removing an obstacle blocking the flow of pedestrians from the thriving Promenade to the proposed Civic Center.