Residents, shop owners in Los Feliz both lament, welcome changing character of area as arrival of chain stores boosts business, drives up rents

Not so tony as the Westside nor as gritty as Hollywood, not so hip as Silver Lake nor so bland as the Valley, Los Feliz Village represents just the right urban blend for the businesses and residents who make the neighborhood their own.

But changes are afoot in the Village.

The endearing mix of venerable neighborhood establishments and funky one-of-a-kind boutiques that have distinguished the area for years is transforming. In addition to the half-dozen or so pricey eateries that opened their doors in the past year, national chains are starting to move into the Village at a rate that has some merchants and residents alarmed.

“A lot of people are in love with the area and when you look at the demographic mix, it’s very attractive,” said Jim Kruse, executive vice president of Grubb & Ellis Co. in Los Angeles. “Retail America is taking a close look at that little area and looking to make some inroads.”

While the drawing power of national chains promises to add even more traffic to the already busy sidewalks along the commercial thoroughfares of North Vermont and Hillhurst avenues, they are also contributing to a trend of escalating rents that threatens to alter the character of the neighborhood.

In the vast, amorphous landscape of Los Angeles, Los Feliz is a true anomaly: a compact, defined and heterogeneous neighborhood with a strong sense of identity. Favorably situated between Hollywood, Griffith Park and the Franklin Hills, Los Feliz is also a neighborhood on an economic upswing.

Eclectic mix

As the multimillion-dollar homes north of Los Feliz Boulevard have been repopulated by a new breed of Hollywood glitterati since the mid-1990s, the 1920s- and- 1930s-era middle-class houses, bungalows and apartments in the flats of Los Feliz have become home to an eclectic mix of lesser show-biz types, writers, young professionals and Armenian, Latino and Eastern European families. Talk to residents and you learn the thread binding this diverse group is a true appreciation and loyalty for one of the most distinctive neighborhoods in the city.

And while some chains such as 7-11 and Louise’s Trattoria have been in Los Feliz for years, they were the rare exceptions to the independent flavor of neighborhood commerce. No longer. In recent months, Starbucks, Robeks Juice, Video Hut and a Pac Bell PCS phone store have all opened for business in Los Feliz, and many lament that it’s only a matter of time before they are followed by still more national retailers.

“I’m afraid this is going to be the next Melrose,” said Andrew Maleski, who has been selling real estate in Los Feliz for more than 15 years, the past five as the owner of ACM Properties. “You’re seeing a lot of the big chains come in and try to buy out the leases of the smaller operators.”

Maleski acknowledged that he has profited as the local residential real estate market has shot up by about 40 percent since 1996, but he worries that the transformation will have a negative effect when the cycle reverses.

“I think once the chains come in, that’s the beginning of the end,” he said. “You’ll lose the character of the neighborhood.”

Bargain rents

While real estate prices have also gone up, Los Feliz remains a relative leasing bargain at $2 to $2.50 per square foot per month for retail space. Compare that to about $3.50 per square foot in Santa Monica and Westwood and $8 to $10 in Beverly Hills.

“The affordability is a huge magnet,” said Kruse. “The big question is where the economy is growing. That will determine what happens in Los Feliz.”

While reminders of the changing face of Los Feliz are everywhere in the dining rooms of upscale Vermont and Vida, the latte line at the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf and the jazz bar at newly opened Los Feliz Restaurant nowhere is the transformation more apparent than at the former site of Onyx, an artsy coffeehouse and neighborhood hangout that shut its doors in 1998.

The earthy Onyx was replaced in 2000 by Figaro, a decidedly upscale bakery and boulangerie.

For Kerry Slattery, general manager of Skylight Books, an independent bookstore owned by 11 partners, including writer and drama teacher Milton Katselis and actor Tony Danza, Figaro represents a welcome addition to the neighborhood while Starbucks down the street is not.

The distinction, she said, is not just one of aesthetics but stems from concern for her business. Simply stated, the type of customer likely to travel to Los Feliz to eat fois gras at Figaro is more likely to come into her store and buy a book than someone dashing in for an iced cappuccino at Starbucks.

“It’s a double-edged sword. Starbucks came in and they cleaned up a corner that hasn’t been well taken care of, and that’s good for everybody,” said Slattery. “But we’re one of the last neighborhoods in the city that is strong and independent. Once you lose that, I don’t know if you can get it back.”

Independent tenants

Skylight Books, which is next to the landmark Los Feliz Theatre in the space occupied for decades by Chatterton’s bookstore, opened about four years ago when Los Feliz was attracting a number of new independent retailers and restaurants.

Around the same time, Fred 62, a hip space-age diner, moved into George’s, a formerly unhip 1950s-style diner that had been in the neighborhood for years. Other new independents included SquaresVille, X-Large and Vinyl Fetish, all locally owned clothing stores. They joined cult-oriented video stores Jerry’s Video Rerun and Mondo Video, as well as Yucca’s taco stand, The Dresden Room, Mexico City and Palermo Restaurant to add to Los Feliz’s unique flavor.

“It’s a neighborhood that’s always had a bohemian, very intellectual atmosphere,” Slattery said. “But in the time since we’ve opened, it’s had more vitality, more upward movement.”

Not everyone fears the passing of the characteristics that Slattery believes make Los Feliz special, as long as those changes are good for the bottom line.

Roger Garcia, manager of Half-Price Clothing, which has been on Vermont for about five years, said more chains would be good for business.

“Starbucks attracts a lot of people and that’s good for us,” Garcia said. “The neighborhood is definitely changing for the better.”

Arpon Grecula, who works for Los Feliz Lock & Key on Vermont, had a similar view.

“With all the new restaurants, it brings a lot of business,” Grecula said. “Starbucks is a strong name and it will bring in more local trade.”

Dan Michel, director of commercial services in Los Angeles for Coldwell Banker Commercial NRT, agreed that chains like Starbucks and Robeks can mean more customers for surrounding businesses, but at a cost.

“It probably will change rents (upward) and it will probably squeeze out some of the little shops that don’t do what they do well,” Michel said.

For Slattery and others, that cost is too high.

“Los Feliz is a place where people feel that they belong, rather than just a place where they live,” she said. “There is a real identity here, a real sense of neighborhood. It would be a shame to lose that.”