The (Who?) Are Coming? 

The Australian owners of the Fox Hills Mall — whose considerable holdings span dozens of other shopping malls of varying degrees of prestige — have turned into a gallery of Paul Reveres in the last year. Like sentries on fire, their advance people have galloped up and down the streets of Culver City and surrounding communities, trumpeting how the Westfield corporation is going to turn the long-drab, widely-avoided mall into a serious shopping destination. They have played it cagey with their community marketing. They have appeared to encourage guessing games among neighbors. Will the new anchor tenant — replacing Robinson’s May — be someone fashionable, such as Nordstrom’s? And then they back away. Can’t say yet, they quip coyly, adding, tantalizingly: but you are going to be thrilled. Based on last night’s acrid, industrial-strength testimony, all the air and fun have fizzed out of the guessing game. Apparently, Westfield is months away from a decision that may not be nearly as dramatic as it has been cast. With the onset of monopolization in the department store industry, the choices grow narrower by the hour. Some already have been eliminated. What Greater Culver City shoppers should know is that the anchor tenant will not be Nordstorm’s and will not be Bloomingdale’s. Both already have told Westfield no. In a statement dated yesterday by John Goodwin, Westfield’s Vice President for Development, he sounded as if he may be taking a cue from another war in the Middle East. He is seeking to arrange a cease fire. “We have heard the comments made by members of the Fox Hills Neighborhood Assn.,” he said. “We are anxious to meet with them again in the coming days to discuss these issues.” In an attempt to salve the wounded hearts of protesting Fox Hills residents, Mr. Goodwin said that “Westfield Fox Hills (as they call the mall in corporate circles) is well on its way to becoming what everyone wants, a family-friendly shopping destination that includes new restaurants, new retail stores and an exciting new shopping atmosphere.”

A Tight Position

Westfield finds itself in an awkward position this afternoon. Every indication is that the well-guarded negotiations for an anchor tenant center on Target, which could devolve into a public relations disaster. Westfield has the fewest number of anchor tenant options in modern times. This could be the Neighborhood Association’s opportunity to demonstrate its unproven clout by making it prickly, if not impossible, for Westfield to sign up Target.

There Goes the Neighborhood

Explaining that she was subbing for more familiar Fox Hills faces, Ms. Shorlowsky brought the distressing news that Art Garcia, one of the venerable citizens of Fox Hills, was absent because of heart surgery. Then she raised the stickiest issue of the evening. Facing the four members of the Redevelopment Agency — Mayor Gary Silbiger was away on holiday — Ms. Shorlowsky presented her case. She implored the members, who double as the City Council, to “help insure positive progress for Culver City, not lateral and not backward,” in placing what is perceived to be the right kind of anchor tenant in the mall. However, by this stage of the mall’s development, sources told thefrontpageonline.com, the Council is powerless to veto an undesirable tenant. The Association might be better positioned to influence the ultimate decision. Mr. Beaver turned the most colorful phrase among the three speakers. Scorning the mincing of words, he said, plainly, that if the Fox Hills Mall does get saddled with another Target, it is doomed to become “a shlocky mall that looks like a swap meet.” Among shoppers, this is the equivalent of hammering a sock to the jaw. “Westfield has duped me,” Ms. Algaba charged. “They promised trendy stores, upgrades, a total (shopping) experience.” She branded the Target rumor “a slap in the face” that melted Westfield’s earlier promises into “a snow job. I am pleading with the City Council not to let it happen.” In Mr. Beaver’s view, Greater Culver City shoppers target any mall but Fox Hills when they are seeking a pleasant retail adventure.

Postscript

Attempting to quell the burgeoning uprising, Steve Rose, chair of the Redevelopment Agency, reached back to draw on his own experience in the world of commerce, as president of the Chamber of Commerce. In this environment, he said, “retail and rumor are a synonymous term.” To place a bow on his packaged response, Mr. Rose said that City Hall has not been notified, “officially or unofficially,” that Target has won the anchor tenant derby. Westfield has not finalized anything,” he said in his last stab at mollifying the unhappy residents.