Commercial Fortress Awaits a Second Transformation

Rising, mirage-like, from a jumble of factories and offices is the facade of an Assyrian palace. Its squarish main tower stands six stories high; its crenelated walls span a third of a mile of frontage on the Santa Ana Freeway.

Claudia Torres stole puzzled glances from her car for years, never quite sure what it was.

“You do see it--it gets your attention,� Torres, 25, said with a laugh. “Finally, a friend told me, ‘It’s a shopping center.’ �

More precisely, it is a retail outlet mall known as the Citadel, a funky, faded, historic bit of faux Middle Eastern history in the industrial core of Commerce, nine miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles. An unwitting monument to urban change, the fortress-like wall and its bas-relief griffins, winged genies and warriors in chariots were originally constructed to contain a tire factory.

The ancient cities of Khorsabad, Nineveh and Nimrud inspired the exterior design of the Samson Tire Co. Plant, the biggest tire maker west of the Mississippi River when the 22-foot-high walls were completed in 1930.

In nearly half a century of operation, the plant churned out as many as 6,000 tires a day, plus a like number of inner tubes. Uniroyal, which took over the facility, finally closed the doors in 1978, during a time of painful retrenchment for Los Angeles-based industry. The demise of General Motors, Bethlehem Steel and other factories in the area cost thousands of blue-collar jobs and forever altered the region’s demographics.

Now even the outlet mall is outdated. Ten years after its celebrated opening, the Citadel’s row of 42 discount shops looks tawdry and weather-worn. Wood is chipped, paint is faded and signs are too small. Holidays remain busy, but too often the feel of the center and its half-moon-shaped food court is downright sleepy.

The city of Commerce has begun reviewing three competing proposals from developers--none yet presented publicly--to overhaul and expand the commercial space to nearly 250,000 square feet, roughly twice the current area, over the next two years. It is hoped that the expansion will bring the city an additional $300,000 to $400,000 a year in sales tax revenues.

There is one important caveat: The wall must be preserved.

“It’s a community icon,� said Brian Dowling, the city’s Redevelopment Agency project manager. “The wall is the reason we developed [the property] in the first place. There’s a lot of community pride in that wall.�

Though never recognized as a federal or state landmark, the wall was given cultural landmark status by the city in the early 1980s, before the Citadel’s retail shops and adjoining offices were built. Except for the wall and main tower, which houses a leasing office, the original tire plant is all but gone; only parts of a roof and a few girders remain.

A tall, aging sign announces the Citadel and outlet stores to the streams of passing freeway traffic. But the facade is so unusual, so incongruous in the surrounding industrial landscape, that many people see it for the first time and have no idea what it is.

“It looked like an old castle,� said Roxanne Rozas, 19, of East Los Angeles, who was browsing the shops one recent morning.

Her friend, Carlos Perez, 21, laughed and said, “I thought it was a warehouse. I heard from a friend that there was an Eddie Bauer store, and at first I didn’t believe him.�

James McKnight, 27, of Los Angeles used to think the place was a prison.

“It looks like one--for real,� he said. He arrived with two friends who had yet to see it, and he played the joke on them. “I told them it’s a prison, because they didn’t know.�

Casey Wirt, 20, of Alhambra said: “I thought it was a castle.�

Rosie Acosta, 17, of Rosemead said: “It looked like a casino to me.�

“I honestly thought it was one of those family fun centers . . . with miniature golf and arcades,� said Meggan ODell, 18, of Long Beach.

Whether the wall attracts patrons or keeps them out is not entirely certain, but the mall does draw a sizable number of tourists, in addition to bargain-hunters, said Randy Petro, the assistant manager at the Leather Loft store.

“We get people from Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, and also up in the [San Fernando] Valley,� Petro said. “There are tourists from all over the world . . . even though some of the tour buses don’t come here any more.� Some of that traffic has gone, he said, presumably, to newer shopping destinations.

Petro said he was one of those who used to “drive by and go, ‘What is that?’ �

He credits the city and the Trammell Crow Co., which manages the property, with a good job of marketing. There are brochures and coupon booklets in nearby hotels and at Los Angeles International Airport, he said. Vacancy rates are low, he said, and most of the shops turn a profit.

Even so, retailers are looking forward to the renovation. A larger center, they believe, would keep shoppers from commuting to distant outlet centers in Camarillo, Ontario and Lake Elsinore. The Citadel features a sampling of such stores as Benetton, London Fog, Old Navy, Geoffrey Beene and Samsonite. But there are not enough choices to create the three- or four-hour adventure that some shoppers crave.

“We’re the smallest outlet,� said Michele Vargas, manager of the Izod store. “There could be more children’s wear, more men’s outlets, more name brands . . . Guess, Armani. . . .�

John Moore, 55, of Sunland, who remembers when this was a tire plant, is glad the ornate facade was protected.

“I think it’s cool,� he said.

But he is amazed to stop by on a weekday morning and have entire stores to himself.

“Man,� he said, in a long, empty courtyard, “there’s nobody here.�

him.�

James McKnight, 27, of Los Angeles used to think the place was a prison.

“It looks like one--for real,� he said. He arrived with two friends who had yet to see it, and he played the joke on them. “I told them it’s a prison, because they didn’t know.�

Casey Wirt, 20, of Alhambra