As plans for the new South Bay Galleria go before the Redondo Beach Planning Commission, residents question the inclusion of residential units
Hawthorne Boulevard view of the South Bay Galleria’s proposed redevelopment. Rendering courtesy of South Bay Galleria
During the last budget cycle, Redondo Beach made huge investments toward Artesia Boulevard, North Redondo’s most prominent throughway. More than $500,000 has been budgeted on streetscaping. Another $100,000 was set aside to encourage business owners to refresh their storefronts, while a working group, led by City Manager Joe Hoefgen, has begun discussing the street’s business revitalization.
But the shadow of the South Bay Galleria looms large at the end of Artesia Boulevard. Though the three-story mall has long been considered the economic engine of the city, its sales have declined over the past decade, most dramatically with the loss of the Nordstrom department store in 2016 to Del Amo Fashion Center, the Galleria’s nearest rival.
Two years ago, Forest City, the Galleria’s then-owners, began planning to redevelop the aging indoor shopping center. Their plans called for adding as many as 650 apartment units, an additional 224,464 sq. ft. in retail space and a 105 room hotel.
Residents outcry forced them to scrap that plan. As a result, during the upcoming March 15 Planning Commission review of the project’s Environmental Impact Report, the Galleria’s new owners, QIC, plan to present Alternative 4-1. That plan calls for 300 apartment units along Hawthorne Boulevard, on the Galleria’s eastern edge; and commercial office space along Kingsdale Road, facing existing homes on the project’s western edge.
“This project has to be successful. That means different things to different people, but it needs to generate revenue, and it needs to generate sales tax dollars,” District 4 Councilman John Gran said. “We need to know how to get people to want to go there. That’s what I consider success.”
The loss of city revenue caused by the Galleria’s stagnancy has been profound. In the City’s most recent Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, published in December for Fiscal Year 2016-17, sales tax revenue fell by $1.6 million, a decrease of 14.5 percent from the previous year.
Nordstrom was not only one of the City’s biggest sources of sales tax revenue, with a ripple effect that lifted the tide for other stores in the Galleria, but it was once among the city’s larger employers. In 2008, Nordstrom’s 439 employees accounted for 1.22 percent of Redondo’s employment. That figure nearly matches the City of Redondo’s current number of employees, which account for 1.34 percent of the city’s total workforce.
Galleria is planning an experience-based shopping center, similar to The Point, in El Segundo, and the recently renovated Del Amo.
“People are going there to go have dinner, see a movie, and have an experience, but also to buy things. This is what QIC does for a living, and they’re going to tell us what they think is successful,” Gran said.
Project Alternative 4-1 would build a total of about 1.3 million square feet of commercial space on the site, with plans for five major retail stores, a hotel, open-air plaza and new retail stores at the project’s northwestern end.
Approximately 300 residential apartment units would be built on the project’s east boundary, along Hawthorne Boulevard. But the key change to the project is the replacement of 50,000 square feet of retail space with office space, in keeping with some resident desires.
The project also looks to take advantage of new public transit projects, such as Redondo Beach’s planned Regional Transit Center, which will replace the existing bus depot with a facility south of the Target store on Kingsdale Road. The project also figures in the planned LA Metro Green Line rail extension, which may either connect with Redondo’s Transit Center along a railroad right of way or travel down Hawthorne Boulevard.
“I think it’s one of those things where we looked at it and we thought that 4-1 was the best version,” said Geoff Maleman, a public relations specialist working with the Galleria. “I think there are some people who are always going to be concerned about various aspects.”
The Final EIR included 110 letters and statements from 53 government and private entities and individuals. Their statements ranged from concerns about traffic and density to fishing for potential job opportunities.
Some residents, such as Lara Duke, took the opportunity to opine about tangential qualities of the project.
“[I’m] skeptical that the Green Line will be very accessible to residents there, or even whether residents would use it given the social stigma L.A. residents are wired with that says mass transit equals what poor or homeless people ride/use,” Duke said.
Others, like Bruce Szeles, “challenged the validity of the term “no significant impact” regarding the proposed addition of housing units “to an already gridlock condition in the surrounding area.”
The EIR, however, did acknowledge that there were “significant, unavoidable impacts” to multiple intersections in the area. The intersections of Hawthorne and Artesia boulevards, Prairie Avenue and Artesia Boulevard, and the I-405 Northbound Ramp and Artesia Boulevard will face increased traffic during peak travel hours, according to the report’s analysis. Other nearby intersections, such as Inglewood and Artesia Boulevard, will require mitigation to reduce impacts.
Jim Light, a member of the city’s General Plan Advisory Committee and longtime development activist, questioned the report’s methodology and was unsatisfied with the response his request for more information.
“They’re essentially writing a report about how great their model is… I think there are false assumptions,” Light said.
Light, who often expresses concern about traffic, doesn’t believe that the “transit-oriented” goal of the project will bear fruit.
“A low percentage of residents use transit to commute to work, and it’s in the low single digits for residents of transit-oriented development to use [public transit] for anything else,” Light said.
It’s his belief that the project would better serve the city by discarding the housing element and putting in more office space.
“Redondo’s workforce is mainly white collar and engineering,” Light said. “There are not too many jobs for those folks inside Redondo; that’s why 90 percent of workers living in Redondo commute outside the city.”
Mayor Bill Brand, speaking carefully because of legal concerns related to the project coming before the City Council, said, “I appreciate that they’ve been responsive to some of the concerns from the public…I’ve heard a lot of concerns about the level of residential development going into the Galleria, about significant impacts to traffic, and about the fact that they’re expanding their retail square footage in this day and age of the internet,” Brand said. “But I’ve also heard a lot of excitement that the Galleria is going to get revitalized and get a fresh start, which it badly needs.”
Brand, like many in Redondo, doesn’t frequent the Galleria, which he believes “lost its luster” when Nordstrom left.
“But there’s no question, the Galleria has a [strong] location on a regional level, being closer to the freeways than Del Amo. A successful Galleria will be both a local and a regional draw,” Brand said. “It’s got to be something unique, groundbreaking and cool.”
Maleman believes that the Galleria will deliver on that.
“There’s a lot of interest in this site, and we think it’s going to be very high-demand among retailers,” Maleman said.
The Galleria, he said, will be targeting retailers on the “cutting edge” of the retail world, as well as chef-driven restaurants. “We’ll have the opportunity to have something that you don’t find anywhere else in the South Bay.”
If the approval process proceeds without appeals or lawsuits, construction on the New Galleria would begin in 2019 and be complete by 2022.
“The Planning Commission has the authority to accept the project, make modifications, or deny the project. Everything is on the table,” Brand said. “Anyone in the community who is concerned needs to start showing up at the Planning Commission meetings.”
The first Planning Commission hearing regarding the South Bay Galleria project will take place on March 15. The full EIR can be viewed at redondo.org.