More than 20 years ago, the redevelopment of Colorado Boulevard turned Old Pasadena into a shopping and dining destination, its sidewalks packed with people drawn by a mix of well-known fashion retailers and big chains.
Now, the city is rejuvenating its retail and restaurant scene. Old Pasadena is still thriving, but the city is trying to get more hip by leasing to interesting and high-end specialty stores as well as restaurants that are aimed at foodies more than the crowds.
Twelve retailers are expected to open by the end of summer. Those include Palo Alto electric car company Tesla Motors Inc., and apparel brands Scotch & Soda from Amsterdam and Vince from New York. Three restaurants opened last month: Picnik, Union and Pie Hole. More are expected soon, including Escuela Taqueria and Del Frisco’s Grille.
Robert Montano, at the city’s economic development division, said when he tries to attract businesses he sometimes has to fight the perception that the city is behind the times.
“If you’re a cutting-edge restaurant or a chef-driven restaurant, why do you want to go to a very boring city?” said Montano, parroting what he hears.
But Montano said the city lately has had success attracting more hip restaurants and boutique retailers. And the growth is no longer isolated in the popular area of Old Pasadena but further east into areas like South Lake Avenue and along East Colorado Boulevard – areas where new businesses wouldn’t have looked before.
In the past, familiar retail chains such as L.A. fast-fashion company Forever 21, Swedish clothing store H&M and Chicago’s Crate & Barrel shaped the Pasadena shopping scene, but the landscape is beginning to change, said Paul Little, chief executive of the Pasadena Chamber of Commerce.
While Pasadena has always been a thriving area for businesses, the city wants to create a better mix of chain stores looped together with independent shops. And it’s an offering that would keep locals shopping in Pasadena while still appealing to tourists.
Little said many of the new stores aren’t big chains. For example, independent clothing store Mohawk General Store, which operates one store in Silver Lake near its store for men called Mohawk Man, chose Pasadena for its second Mohawk General location.
The co-owners, Kevin and Bo Carney, are known for selling a curated collection of fashion’s cult favorites such as Dries Van Noten from Belgium and Isabel Marant of Paris.
The flurry of tenants has dropped the city’s vacancy rate for retail space to 5.6 percent, down from its recent high of 6.3 percent in the third quarter. The overall commercial vacancy rate, including retail, is about 13 percent for Pasadena and 17 percent for Los Angeles County.
“There are fewer empty storefronts,” Little said.
Pat Hurst, president of brokerage Hurst/Harrigan Associates in Redondo Beach, said tenants are eager for spaces to become available.
Hurst represented Old Town Partners, the landlord of a former Barnes & Noble store on Colorado. She said that when the 16,000-square-foot-space opened up this year, she received 29 proposals in the first two weeks.
The space has been subdivided and filled to house apparel brand Splendid, candy retailer It’s Sugar, Tesla, Scotch & Soda and two more retailers – one a luxury home furnishings designer. The stores are expected to open by the end of summer.
Hurst was hired by the city as a consultant for the redevelopment plans in 1993, soon after the city and property owners launched the sweeping revitalization effort that transformed Old Pasadena.
“Old Pasadena went from six blocks to 20 over the course of the last 20 years,” she said.
Many of the older tenants have burned through their leases and no longer have options to renew, and current lease rates have given some sticker shock. Rates have climbed from $4 a square foot a month to as high as $10 for prime locations in Old Pasadena, she said.
Now, the new activity extends across the city’s Central District, made up of Old Pasadena, Paseo Colorado, the Playhouse District and South Lake. Examples of shops opening farther east include Urth Caffe and pilates Studio Metamorphosis, both in the Playhouse District, and Jimmy John’s restaurant on South Lake.
Sally Lunetta, property manager of One Colorado, a 17-building group of shops in Old Pasadena, said the new retail concepts also come in response to competition from Americana at Brand in Glendale. She said when that mall opened in 2008, its store selection was similar to those in Pasadena.
“Even though they had a lot of the tenants that we had, it seemed like they pulled a lot of customers from this area,” said Lunetta. “We knew that we were going to have to keep a combination of some of the national stores, but also bring in more curated, special brands like Mohawk General Store.”
Besides Mohawk General, One Colorado is preparing to open stores such as Vince and floral boutique Botany. In addition, clothing retailer Anthropologie moved to One Colorado’s building from its old store on South Lake to be closer to the action.
Rick Caruso, founder of Caruso Affiliated in Los Angeles, developer of the Grove and Americana at Brand, said he doesn’t see Pasadena as competition. “Pasadena being more successful, more vibrant, attracting better retailers is great for the whole region,” said Caruso.
More spaces
Pasadena’s Montano said a wider range of retail and restaurant offerings is only one aspect of the city’s change as developers have plans to build hotels, housing and more office space. A standout example is the AT&T building between Old Pasadena and Paseo Colorado, another shopping district. The building was purchased by Saunders Property Co., a property management company in Newport Beach, for $81 million from Dallas communications giant AT&T Inc.
Steve Nelson, first vice president of real estate brokerage firm CBRE Group Inc. in Universal City, whose firm represented AT&T, said Saunders is expected to develop the property to house office tenants, a restaurant as well as creative office space for tech startups.
Nelson said the city was always a vibrant place attracting many tenants.
“It’s just a very well-rounded city that attracts some of the better retailers,” he said.
That vibrancy is what attracted Shallom and Jilla Berkman, co-owners of Urth Caffe.
The Berkmans opened a fifth location in the Playhouse District last year and knew sales would be good because customers were asking them to open a Pasadena location. But it’s performing better than they expected.
“It’s far busier than we ever imagined,” said Shallom Berkman. “The bar is so overburdened that we actually are in permits to expand and build a second bar.”
He said their downtown L.A. store had been their busiest, serving about 3,000 espressos a day. But Pasadena has been serving double that amount, outstripping their other locations at some of the most desirable shopping areas in the L.A. area.
“It’s hard to beat Beverly Hills and West Hollywood and Santa Monica,” he said. “People from all over the world go there, so maybe Pasadena is becoming discovered as just as great of a spot.”
