California Apparel News

First tenant will be Lisa Kline

Orange County shoppers have some of the best luxury shopping in California, but David Goldman and Zachary Sussman of Allied Retail Partners LLC believe their Bel Mare project in Newport Beach will give the area’s well-heeled residents something they have yet to experience: the boutique cool of Los Angeles’ Robertson Boulevard and Melrose Avenue shopping districts.

In September 2006, Los Angeles–based Allied Retail will debut Bel Mare, a 56,000- square-foot specialty shopping center. The first tenant to sign a lease is one of the doyennes of Robertson’s boutique culture, Lisa Kline.

Kline signed a lease for a 5,200- square-foot space that will house three of her stores: Lisa Kline, Lisa Kline Men and the first Lisa Kline Kids store.

Kline said she had been hoping to expand into Orange County but did not want to move into a mall. Newport Beach is also convenient to Los Angeles, she noted.

“There’s not many places to expand in L.A.,” Kline said. “Newport is not that far from L.A., but it’s completely different.”

Kline will not start buying for the shops until next year. She plans to give the men’s store a lounge feel and the kids’ store a play area.

Goldman and Sussman also will try to import prominent boutiquestyle stores from New York and San Francisco to guarantee the greatest variety of lines.

“South Coast Plaza is similar to Rodeo Drive shopping,” Goldman said. “Fashion Island is similar to more mainstream shopping, but there’s nothing like [Bel Mare] in Orange County.”

Bel Mare is located in a stretch of Newport Beach that has not seen development in decades. Patricia Temple, director of planning for the city of Newport Beach, said the center’s location—at the corner of West Coast Highway and Dover Drive, overlooking the Newport Beach Harbor—is packed with buildings that are 30 to 50 years old. “New retail space is probably going to do well,” she said.

Goldman estimated it will cost between $18 million and $20 million to construct Bel Mare, which he said will replicate an Italian village right down to the masonry. Allied Retail plans to import stone from Italy and employ stone masons who work in an old style to make the shopping center look like a city that has been constructed over several centuries.

Goldman said he wants to bring two signature sit-down restaurants to the 10,000-square-foot upper level of the development. The tenant list also might include three service businesses, such as hair salons. The rest of the center’s 20 spaces will be reserved for highend fashion stores.

Allied Retail and its partner, Santa Ana, Calif.–based Red Mountain Retail Group, will have some hoops to jump through before their dream is realized. Some significant roadwork around Bel Mare is scheduled to be completed before the place opens.

“The current configuration of the road is a traffic bottleneck,” Temple said of the busy intersection. More than 105,000 cars pass through it daily, said the developers.

Caltrans will oversee the roadwork, which the developers might finance. The stretch of West Coast Highway adjacent to Bel Mare will be widened from two to three lanes. A stoplight will be placed over one of the center’s parking lot entrances.

Goldman hopes to start construction after May. “We want an all-star team there,” he said.

Bel Mare marks a new chapter for Allied Retail, which is better known for constructing mainstream shopping centers. The 3- year-old company’s recent projects include The Plaza at Upland, a 440,000-square-foot shopping center in Upland, Calif., that will be dominated by big-box retailers and completed in 2006.

Allied Retail is also redeveloping the Tampa Plaza shopping center in Northridge, Calif., a $25 million project that will house stores such as Bed, Bath & Beyond.