Entertainment Complex Planned for Mall

NORTHRIDGE â€”  The owners of Northridge Fashion Center have agreed to buy the mall’s Broadway department store as part of a plan to convert the northwest end of the shopping center into an entertainment complex complete with a 20- to 24-screen movie theater and trendy restaurants.

The concept, similar to the glitzy Irvine Entertainment Center at the Spectrum that opened last fall, follows the increasing trend of blending entertainment with retailing. Such moves are being driven by department store consolidations and bankruptcies, which have left many malls without important anchor tenants, as well as soft apparel sales, improved technology and cutthroat competition for busy consumers.

“It’s a big mall,� said Donn Fuller, senior vice president of MEPC American Properties, the Dallas-based owner of Northridge Fashion Center, which reopened in July after undergoing extensive earthquake repairs. “Something that large and that dominant needs something more than just fashion. It has the sheer size and draw in the area to be the most dominant center in the Valley.

“I think this will set it apart even more. It will make it even stronger.�

But the Northridge Fashion Center will have lots of competition on the entertainment front, and the prospect of dueling mega-plexes leads some observers to wonder how many movie theaters the Valley can support. The Edwards Cinema theaters at the Northridge mall would be pitted against a proposed 26-screen Pacific Theatres mega-plex just a few blocks away in Chatsworth, as well as the glitzy new AMC theaters that opened last month at the Promenade in Woodland Hills.

Mike Strle, vice president and group manager at the O’Connor Group, the owner and manager of the Promenade, said it was “highly, highly speculative� that both the Edwards and Pacific projects would be built. “I think there’s a little bit of brinkmanship that goes on.�

“It never stops,� mused John Krier, president of Exhibitor Relations, a Los Angeles entertainment consulting firm, referring to the continual announcements of new theater developments throughout the state in recent months.

Although a certain amount of new business is typically generated when a new theater opens, Krier said, there’s also “a lot of cannibalization� of business from other theaters. Some proposed projects, he said, “might not come to fruition.�

Even if both the Edwards and Pacific projects are built, observers say, another concern they face is that movie studios typically won’t allow their films to be shown at more than one theater within a predetermined “clearance area.� That means that one theater development could under-perform if it consistently fails to screen hit movies.

Chan Wood, Pacific Theatres’ executive vice president and head film buyer, said the proposed Edwards project at Northridge Fashion Center would not have any effect on Pacific’s plans to tear down the Winnetka Drive-In and build a 26-screen theater and restaurants at the site.

“Competition is in every film zone in California,� Wood said. “We are going to build what we consider to be the finest theaters.�

Last August, Pacific scrapped plans to build a 20-screen theater near Topanga Plaza in Woodland Hills. The company said its decision to pull out of that project was based on its inability to make a satisfactory financial deal, and had nothing to do with competition from the AMC development nearby.

An AMC spokesperson noted that nearly 500 motion pictures are due to be released this year, a 20% increase from 1995. “At this point, given the amount of product in the market, there is still room for more screens in the northern San Fernando Valley,� the spokesperson said.

Referring to Pacific’s new plans for a mega-plex less than a mile from the Northridge mall, MEPC’s Fuller said with a laugh that he wishes Pacific “wouldn’t do it.� But he argued that the area is large enough to support the two proposed developments. “I’d hate to see any more than that,� he said. “If we don’t do much more than that, we’ll all be OK.�

MEPC plans to meet soon with local residents in hopes of garnering support for its project--and possibly making adjustments to accommodate neighborhood concerns--before it submits a formal proposal to the city in late July. It expects to open the entertainment center in fall 1997.

The company would not disclose terms of its purchase of the Broadway building from Federated, which acquired the chain in October.

Federated Department Stores has been converting many of its Broadway and Bullock’s stores to Macy’s, and a few to Bloomingdale’s, but until now the fate of the Northridge Broadway has remained uncertain.

The Cincinnati-based retailer is selling the store, along with six others in California, as part of a settlement announced Thursday with California Atty. Gen. Daniel Lungren. The attorney general had been investigating whether Federated’s purchase of the Broadway chain would have hurt consumers by restricting retail competition in California.

MEPC’s plans at the Northridge mall call for the Broadway, which was rebuilt after the 1994 Northridge earthquake, and the Robinsons-May Home Store to be torn down.

The Robinsons-May Home Store would move to the current Broadway site, Fuller said. The entertainment complex would be built in the northern end of the mall, where the Robinsons-May Home Store now stands, he said.

MEPC currently has a tentative agreement with Edwards. Better known in Orange County, where many of its theaters are situated, Edwards has been expanding, with plans announced earlier this year for 11 mega-plexes between San Diego and Northern California. Its huge, 21-screen Spectrum development in Irvine opened amid a huge marketing blitz in November, when visitors were dazzled with its Moorish facade, retro-Hollywood decor, cappuccino bars and live music.

Although MEPC has no other deals in place, Fuller hopes to add three restaurants along the lines of a Claim Jumper, Rainforest Cafe or even Spago. He said he is also engaged in preliminary discussions with entertainment companies such as Imax and Iwerks Entertainment to build an interactive, motion-simulator attraction.

The plans also call for a new parking deck at the north end of the mall to accommodate the theater and restaurant traffic, Fuller said.

Francine Oschin, a spokeswoman for Councilman Hal Bernson, who represents the area that includes Northridge Fashion Center, said careful consideration would be given to whether so many theaters are justified.

“There’s probably a tremendous need,� she said. “As you go farther west or farther north you get fewer and fewer amenities. But we’re still going to take a very close look at it.�

Richard Giss, a partner in the trade retail group at the accounting firm Deloitte & Touche, said it’s too early to tell if the trend toward incorporating entertainment venues in traditional retail centers will work well over the long run.

“The question is, will those people going to the movies stop and shop at the other stores?� he said. “Right now it’s an idea that seems to have merit, but it’s not fully proved.�