Texas is invading the California Mart.

Or at least that’s what some tenants at the huge complex in downtown L.A.’s Fashion District are saying.

In August, a Dallas-based group representing the gift and home accessories industries signed a lease to take over one of the three high-rises (Building C) in the sprawling complex that houses 1,200 permanent showrooms. The Dallas group includes the Dallas Market Center, George Little Management and DMG World Media.

Now, it is negotiating to take over management and leasing of the rest of the complex (Buildings A and B), which is devoted to apparel and textile businesses. This has upset tenants, who worry that the new management, representing primarily the gift and home accessories industry, will spend less money to promote the mart’s seven annual trade shows that draw retail buyers and which compete with shows in other cities, including Dallas.

Currently Hertz Investment Group, which bought the California Mart last year, leases and manages the apparel showroom.

“We all feel it would be a conflict of interest because Dallas worries about the Dallas market weeks instead of our market weeks,” said Hal Kaltman, owner of Hal Kaltman Textiles and chairman of the mart’s liaison group called the Board of Governors.

Dallas management said there would be no conflict between Dallas and L.A. market weeks.

Talks held

Bill Winsor, president and chief executive of the Dallas Market Center, was in Los Angeles last week conferring with owner Judah Hertz about an expanded lease, according to Cindy Morris, executive vice president of marketing at the Dallas Market Center.

“We are in the process of evaluating the (leasing) business and seeing if there is an opportunity to become involved,” Morris said.

Kit Marchel, executive vice president of marketing and business development for the California Mart, said the Dallas group would be ideal to manage the apparel showrooms because “they have a sensitivity to our marketplace, respect the individuals here and the teams in place. If they do take over management, I don’t anticipate a huge change.”

The Dallas Market Center has moved tenants out of the top three floors of Building C to make way for new gift and home accessories tenants scheduled to arrive in January. The anchor tenant in Building C will be California Marketing Associates, which is moving its headquarters from the L.A. Mart down the street to a 40,000-square-foot space on the 13th floor of California Mart. It represents 80 gift and home accessory manufacturers.

Already there has been fall-out by the new leasing arrangement in Building C.

The International Swimwear/Activewear Market, which organizes an annual swimwear and activewear trade show in October, has moved out of Building C and set up shop in Burbank because the new management would not provide free office space IS/AM has held for years, said Barbara Brady, IS/AM’s executive director.

For the first time, Brady said she is leaning toward moving the trade show from the mart to the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium.

The new venue has swimwear manufacturers concerned that retail buyers who shop for several clothing categories will be reluctant to travel to Santa Monica if they are already at the downtown mart.

“I’m not necessarily in favor of moving to Santa Monica,” said Lynne Koplin, president of Gardena-based Apparel Ventures, which manufactures women’s swimwear lines such as Anne Klein, Nautica, La Blanca and OP.

Competition possible

In the past, the California Mart has contributed $30,000 a year to sponsor the annual IS/AM trade show. Now that IS/AM has moved out, California Mart officials are considering taking that money to set up a rival swimwear trade show during the October market week.

“What the tenants are concerned about is who is really going to be managing the building. If it is the Dallas group, there might be a conflict of interest between the Los Angeles market and the Dallas market,” said Peter Jacobson, owner of Creative Concepts, which represents several women’s wear lines in a 2,000-square-foot showroom on the mart’s second floor.

The Dallas Market Center has five apparel market weeks a year that draw retail buyers to stock their department stores and specialty shops. The California Mart has similar markets several times a year catering to many of the same buyers.

But the Dallas market people say that is not a problem. “We don’t see a conflict,” said Morris of the Dallas Market Center. “Many of the retailers who shop at the market shows come from the regions around the mart. And we coordinate our market week dates to make sure they are not at the same time as other mart’s markets.”