CMC Sets New Agenda, Leadership

New Year’s is still a couple of weeks away, but the management of the Los Angeles–based California Market Center is already preparing for 2004 with a new advisory council made up of CMC tenants representing the many categories of merchandise and businesses in the building.

With two new Dallas markets preparing to open their doors during the first quarter of 2004 and heady competition coming from neighboring facilities, the CMC is taking steps to stand out from the crowd. “We need to assume a leadership role,” CMC General Manager Paul Lentz told tenants during a Dec. 16 “town hall meeting.”

As part of the new agenda, Lentz unveiled a new advisory council, which will replace the decade-old Board of Governors that has been advising management. “We need new voices and new ideas,” Lentz said.

The council will represent all merchandise categories in the sprawling CMC, which encompasses approximately 1,000 showrooms in more than 3 million square feet.

Lentz also distinguished himself from previous managements, admitting that he didn’t agree with some of the decisions made by Dallas Market Center Chief Executive Officer Bill Winsor, who managed the CMC during its transition from the old California Mart to a multi-segmented gift/home/apparel center.

As an example, Lentz pointed to the previous management’s decision to move the buyers’ club to the seventh floor.

“We brought it back to the second floor—a location that’s easier to find and access,” he said.

With the DMC group no longer managing the building, Lentz announced several changes, including several capital improvements and shifting marketing duties of the gift and home showrooms to California Gift Show producer George Little Management LLC, based in White Plains, N.Y.

The CMC plans to launch an aggressive leasing campaign to draw resources from out of the area, as well as to “bring back the manufacturers that have strayed,” said Lentz.

Key to guiding the future will be the new council, which will be rotated every two years to keep mixing in new perspectives.

For the first advisory council, half of the members will step down after one year, to stagger the terms of the council members so there will always be a mix of new and seasoned council members. Previous Board of Governors members Hal Kaltman, Don Reichman, Margaret Cox and Peter Jacobson will become officers of the new council for a year to help ease the transition.

The new council members will include Mark Reisner, a rep in the junior/young contemporary category; Bryan Wilson and Judy Kurgen, both reps for contemporary apparel lines; Lynn Girard and Arlene Henry, reps in the better/updated/bridge/missy categories; Tony Cabana, who reps urban apparel lines;, Betty Wells, from the intimate apparel segment; Ute Wegmann, from the accessories segment; Rochelle Perlman, a rep for children’s apparel lines; Dick Firestone and Mickey Lang, reps for gift and home lines; Bregman Associates’ Stuart Berman, who will be representing the buying offices; Dan Sassower, who will be representing the textiles reps in the building; and the Fashion District Business Improvement District’s Kent Smith, who will be representing services and technology.

Tenants agreed that marketing efforts such as the recent Intersection campaign with neighboring buildings, plus the CMC’s building improvements, have helped, but some suggested taking it to the next level.

“We’re in a hyped-up business and you have to pay for it,” suggested Michael Gae of the Rep et Trois showroom. Ernesto Mantilla, director of marketing for Betty Bottom Showroom Inc., suggested that the CMC is losing business to the soon-to-become FashionCenterDallas because of lavish buyer-incentive programs such as air and hotel packages. He suggested offering some type of incentive program for buyers.

“It could be something like [free] dinners. The buyers have to feel like they’re being catered to,” Mantilla said.

The CMC does have some incentive programs in place, according to Lentz, who described such programs as “one of the many tools we have in our tool kit to selectively target retailers.”

“We’re told that other markets are utilizing financial incentives in an attempt to attract people to attend their markets,” Lentz continued. “As one of two, true national markets, our program is geared more toward providing the resources that retailers have to have.”

Such issues will be explored in the coming weeks, said Lentz. Meanwhile, the new management, under equity partner dmg world media, cited numerous accomplishments such as growing attendance during the last April and November markets to the highest levels in six years. Lentz noted that 30 percent of recent attendees were new to the CMC and that the center has garnered more than 400 new apparel lines.

Going forward, Lentz noted that the West Coast fashion market should continue to gain momentum with Los Angeles Fashion Week and a growing core of designers working and staging shows here.

Citing recent Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. statistics, he noted that in 1994, 10.6 percent of apparel industry workers were based in Los Angeles. Now it stands at 24.3 percent. “We need to do a great job and build on it,” he said, adding that among the priorities should be to take advantage of the apparel market’s proximity to Hollywood and the entertainment industry. —Robert McAllister