Sears Planned : Crenshaw Mall on Rebound

Celebrating the historic Crenshaw Shopping Center’s most concrete symbol of resurgence since it began its troublesome decline, Los Angeles officials Thursday announced that a third major department store will be added to help anchor the redeveloped mall.

By spring of 1988, Sears will join the pioneer tenants Broadway and May Co. at the site and a fourth major store is expected to be added by the time the refurbished center opens that autumn, officials said.

Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, Council President Pat Russell--who represents the Crenshaw area--and a host of city officials and private citizens who helped shape the planned mall gathered for the formal announcement of Sears’ plans on the shopping center parking lot near where the new store will be built.

“This is a day for celebration,” Bradley said. “We have been proud of what it has represented in this community for a long time. We were disturbed when there became a period of deterioration. We were determined we were going to revitalize it.”

Was a Model Mall

Russell had a more succinct pronouncement when she greeted the crowd of several dozen sweltering in the late morning sun.

“Hallelujah!” she said.

Before its current decline, the Crenshaw shopping center proved a model for the sort of all-purpose malls that now dot Southern California.

The Los Angeles area’s first suburban shopping center when it opened in 1947, it took the then-unprecedented step of teaming two department stores--the Broadway and the May Co.--along with dozens of shops, markets and restaurants.

But as other--more modern--malls sprouted in Fox Hills, West Los Angeles and the Wilshire District, Crenshaw fell into decline. By the early 1980s, city figures showed that the center’s retail sales were down by nearly 10% but were up elsewhere in Los Angeles.

“It was developed to the needs of the ‘40s,” said Jim Wood, chairman of the Community Redevelopment Agency. “And it served the people well. But times have changed, the people have changed; they have different needs and they look for different services.”

Two years ago, the redevelopment agency declared the 42-acre area blighted and began piecing together a complex financing package to pull the center to its feet. The redevelopment plans suddenly hit a roadblock last year when fears were raised that possible earthquake faults under the site would make construction impossible.

Back on Track

But a time-consuming geological investigation uncovered no signs of underground earth rupture, and the $150-million redevelopment effort was back on track.

Plans call for a partnership between the redevelopment agency and the Alexander Haagen Development Co., which has built malls in Watts and Manhattan Beach.

The mall’s current open-air stores, located along Martin Luther King Jr. and Crenshaw boulevards, will be modernized and linked in an enclosure. A covered bridge containing small stores will link the Broadway and the May Co., which sit on opposite sides of Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. A new leg of the mall will include Sears and dozens of new stores.

To emphasize the mall’s new face and lure shoppers, its name will be changed to the Baldwin Hills Regional Shopping Center.