Lifestyle Retail Goes Urban
Lifestyle shopping centers typically have been the domain of more upscale markets, but a group of Orange County, Calif., developers is bringing the concept into the more urban environs of southeast Los Angeles.
Red Mountain Retail Group of Santa Ana and Allied Retail Partners of Newport Beach have launched plans to develop a 600,000- square-foot lifestyle retail center called The Gateway in the city of South Gate. The $175 million center is scheduled for completion by May 2008 and will feature Las Vegas–like bigscreen digital signage.
“Think of New York’s Times Square, where the project architecture transforms itself into an ever-changing canvas of graphic content and messaging,” said Greg Lyon, principal at the KTGY Group Inc. of Santa Monica, Calif., the architect for the project.
The signage, which will offer the latest in digital and graphic technology, will create an entry to the center, which is expected to feature local and national retailers as well as several entertainment venues. The 35-acre site is at Firestone Boulevard and Atlantic Avenue in South Gate, which is about 10 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles.
The city has typically been a middle-class market, but it is surrounded by some of the poorest cities in the state, such as Bell, Maywood and Cudahy, where the average household income is about $30,000 according to the U.S. Census.
However, residents in the area do have spending power, as evidenced by a 2004 retail study showing that South Gate residents spend more than $220 million a year outside the city. The immediate market of 5 square miles supports about 1 million residents. The closest shopping centers are Macerich’s Stonewood Center in Downey and the Craig Group’s Citadel Outlets in Commerce.
“Retailer interest in this project has been sensational,” said David Goldman of Allied. “The major retailers that will occupy this development will essentially own the market for decades to come, as there are no alternative locations in this highly desirable and literally underserved trade area.”
If anything, The Gateway will create quite a spectacle. The signage will be mounted on buildings and feature streaming commercials, TV programs, movie trailers, and live sports and entertainment events, said Allied’s Doug Beiswenger. The advertising is expected to create a significant revenue stream. —Robert McAllister
