A third giant showroom has been added to downtown’s garment district, bringing a much-needed upgrade to the faded area and creating something of a one-stop shop for wholesale buyers of apparel, textiles and even flowers.
The Wall Street Textile Mart opened for business Aug. 15 and is currently 50 percent occupied, according to Ezri Namvar, a principal in the general partnership that developed the property.
The 55-store facility occupies an entire city block bounded by Wall, Cecilia, Eighth and Ninth streets and contains approximately 100,000 square feet, according Solomon Rastegar, the venture’s other principal.
“It’s a state-of-the-art facility,” Namvar said. “We could have saved up to $3 million by doing it in block concrete, but used steel to increase window size instead.”
Rastegar claims the Wall Street Textile Mart, built on the former site of a parking lot, is the largest building erected within the confines of the garment district in about 15 years.
“The garment industry is growing and there is need for this kind of space,” said Namvar, who hopes the building will be filled by new businesses and, perhaps, tenants from the L.A. Flower Mart across the street. That property, he explains, has been up for sale and its tenants have expressed interest in moving to the textile building.
Although the textile mart has tenants already doing business, a grand opening is planned for December, once more clients have moved in.
“Any time you have 55 spaces to lease, it’s a challenge,” Namvar said.
Jobbers and importers
The area immediately surrounding the mart is packed with small-time “jobbers” selling fabrics of varying quality and design on a retail and wholesale basis. The mint-condition appearance and imposing size of the textile mart structure represents a marked improvement for the area.
A best-case scenario has the mart establishing itself as a one-stop locale for the area’s many designers and clothing manufacturers, forming a triangle with two other garment-industry marts: CalMart, which was recently purchased by the Hertz Group, and the New Mart across from it on Ninth Street, south of Broadway.
Ann Davis, president of the Textile Association of Los Angeles a longtime assembly of fabric salespeople suggested the mart’s eventual tenant mix would most reflect the surrounding neighborhood. “It’s probably going to be filled with jobbers and importers; merchants linked to the Iranian community,” she said.
She went on to suggest the mart’s contribution to the area’s core apparel business would be marginal at best. “I would venture to say that the same people who patronize the little storefronts in the area will go there, too the small manufacturer, the high school or college student looking for a little fabric. It’s not the mainstream manufacturers that would normally be shopping there.”
Some of the more important fabric houses downtown include Cone Inc., Peyk International Inc., Symphony Fabrics Inc., Eastern Silks Inc. and Stylecrest Inc.
One-stop resource
It has been noted, however, that smaller designers with quality lines stand to benefit from the mart’s presence. These producers of finer specialty garments for trend-setting stores such as Fred Segal or Ron Herman can’t always meet the minimum order required by the big fabric houses. The mart promises to be that one-stop resource where pricey fabrics in smaller quantities can be had.
“It’s one of the exciting things happening in the garment industry right now, and speaks to the increase in wholesale showroom space we’re seeing here,” said Kent Smith, executive director of the Fashion District Business Improvement District.
The structure was designed by Santa Monica-based Safai Architects. Construction began at the end of 1998 and was done by Page Construction.
Century 21/Vic Harvey is handling the leasing. The roof has a 370-space parking lot being operated by Joe’s Auto Park.
In addition to individual wholesalers and retailers leasing space in the building, Network Bank U.S.A. plans to occupy a larger space on the second floor. Namvar chairs the bank’s board.
