California Apparel News

One entire block of Seventh Street was blocked off on Dec. 1 as crews dangled lights from one side of Seventh Street to the other, connecting the Roosevelt loft building to the huge retail center now called The Bloc, formerly known as Macy's Plaza.

Even though traffic was snarled for most of Monday, as buses and other vehicles had to go around the boxy brick shopping center, the end result was a festive flair to the busy shopping street.

The idea was hatched pretty much by Michael Taylor, the site's senior property manager who used to work at DreamWorks. "He is of the opinion there is no such thing as excess and nothing can't be done," said Clare De Briere, the chief operating officer at The Ratkovich Company, which bought Macy's Plaza and is taking nearly two years to transform the ugly and dark shopping center into a more open-air approach to retail.

Taylor said he and his staff had to go through about 10 different city departments to get permission to close the block in front of the shopping center from 11 p.m. on Sunday to the following afternoon. They had to be extra careful not to intrude on the apartment residents at the Roosevelt Lofts as workers on large booms hung lights. "So far I haven't heard any complaints" about the street closure, Taylor said.

Next year, The Bloc hopes to team up with its retail neighbors who are part of the Seventh Street Merchants Association to hang lights over four blocks of Seventh Street. "We love celebrating the holidays," De Briere said.