SHELLY GARCIA

Staff Reporter

Outdoor malls? In the Valley? In the middle of summer?

At least four shopping center developers believe that open air is the key to their success, hot days or no. They’re in the midst of renovating their centers to include outdoor plazas and streets where folks can while away the day or night dining, shopping, strolling or just hanging out.

With enclosed shopping malls falling out of favor with many shoppers, mall owners hope that the open-air format will be just the breath of fresh air needed to revive their pricey but currently lagging investments.

But in the Valley? In the summer?

“That’s a great point,” said Allen Young, senior vice president at CB Richard Ellis Inc., who is handling leasing for the Sherman Oaks Galleria, one of the malls getting an open-air facelift. “But people are going with it anyway.”

The Galleria is tearing down an office building to make room for an outdoor plaza and promenade filled with shops and restaurants. In Woodland Hills, Westfield Corp. Inc. is set to announce a renovation of Shoppingtown at the Woodland Hills Promenade that will replace the enclosed mall with an outdoor version that connects to the existing movie theater.

Northridge Fashion Center has just completed an addition called the North End, which features open-air shops and restaurants, as well as a movie complex. And in Valencia, Newhall Land and Farming Co. is finishing Town Center Drive, a combination office and retail center designed al fresco.

Fallbrook Mall in West Hills is considering going topless as well, although executives there said no final decisions have been made.

“Virtually every mall in the San Fernando Valley is undergoing some kind of metamorphosis,” said Greg Whitney, senior associate with CB Richard Ellis, who is one of several real estate executives coordinating an International Council of Shopping Centers program this month called “The Re-Malling of the Valley.” “The malls have sort of stagnated, and they’ve had to find a way to attract more tenants and more consumers.”

In other portions of Los Angeles, the open-air format has proven to be very successful. Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade, the Spectrum in Irvine and Old Town Pasadena have all attracted a new breed of retailers who previously shunned shopping centers including restaurants.

“When we looked around at shopping centers that were very successful, most had a pretty prominent outdoor component,” said Mee Lee, vice president of development for Douglas, Emmett & Co., which is remaking the Galleria. “The other factor is, a lot of the restaurants we’re talking to really want to have outdoor seating areas. They like the energy.”

Over the past decade, consumers have been making fewer trips to the mall and are spending less time when they do go. The average visit is less than an hour today, according to numerous studies, compared with up to two hours in the early part of the decade.

There are various explanations for the trend from traffic and parking hassles to the increased use of e-commerce to the fact that with so many national chains, most malls today look pretty much the same. These and other factors have retailers and mall operators looking for new ways to bring in the crowds.

“They’re all cookie cutter,” said Michael G. Lushing, a vice president with Madison Partners who handles retail leasing. “It’s the same merchandise over and over, and everyone’s looking for the original, unique new concept.”

Movie theaters were the first attempt to bring more shoppers to malls, but the strategy has only met with mixed success.

“I think movie theaters have done what they said they were going to do,” said Vincent Citrino, general manager for Fallbrook Mall. “They’ve brought more consumers in, but that hasn’t necessarily brought more people into the stores.”

Many believe that the answer lies in making malls a fun place to visit, and increasingly, that means providing different types of entertainment, like restaurants and music clubs. These amenities, in turn, attract newer retail shops such as Zany Brainy, a kid’s store, and Urban Outfitters, a trendy boutique for the twentysomething generation.

Outdoor locations also provide merchants with a better opportunity to tout a store’s name unlike the one-dimensional nature of an enclosed mall. Situated outside, stores can build different types of layouts, such as two-story units that help differentiate them from their competition.

“It’s a form of advertising,” said James Ashton, the owner of AFC Commercial Real Estate Group Inc. in Westlake Village. “If they’re outdoors at a mall, all of the people parking outside have driven by or walked by their front door. Eventually, they’re going to go in.”

Shoppers, too, appear more willing to frequent outdoor malls.

“Anthropologically speaking, all human beings like to get out and mingle in public space,” said G. Alexander Moore, professor and chairman of anthropology at the University of Southern California. “The last generation preferred to do their socializing in enclosed suburban malls, but to the current generation, that environment seems sterile and insulating. Today’s shoppers are seeking authenticity. People like street settings.”

The architects for Newhall Land anticipated the need for a more urban environment more than 30 years ago and planned for a town center that would serve the emerging Valencia community. An enclosed regional mall was developed first, but a few years ago, Newhall began work on a half-mile strip called Town Center Drive, designed to recreate a Main Street, with 800,000 square feet of offices and retail shops.

Construction will be completed early next year on Town Center Drive; the stores that have been built are about 80 percent leased.

Town Center Drive has attracted women’s apparel retailer Ann Taylor and Zany Brainy, among others, though restaurants are among the most willing to sign on for the outdoor venue.

“What I’m finding is, those that feel they can still draw their own traffic will make the jump,” said David Sorenson, senior leasing representative for Urban Retail Properties, which represents Town Center Drive. “Those that feel like they have to have the synergy of the other tenants still like the comfort of being inside the mall.”

And what about the weather? “Weather is usually a concern,” Sorenson said, especially for retailers based outside of California. “I think a lot of them may not know the climate here. It becomes an educational process.”

At the Sherman Oaks Galleria, “We talked about it and thought about it at length,” said Lee. “And that’s why we have a lot of landscaping going in.”

All of the tables along the Galleria’s open-air area will have umbrellas, and there will be fountains, a water wall and trees to offer a respite from the heat. Besides, Lee adds, “If you want to be in air conditioning, you can pop into the stores or the movies.”

Brokers and developers also point out that because the majority of their outdoor tenants are restaurants, consumers will be visiting these centers during evening hours, when Valley temperatures are less intense.

Then too, these centers are expected to draw locals who are used to the area’s climate. “I think people that live and work in the San Fernando Valley know it’s going to be hot and expect it,” said Lee. “It’s not going to be a big surprise to walk over to the Galleria and have it be warm.”