Down on the Town:
Lakewood Striving to be Tomorrow's City, Two Days From Now

by Mike Plunkett

Knock, knock!

Who's there?

Reinvent!

Reinvent who?

 

Reinvention, in dealing with development, is really a goofy concept. Supposedly, it's more than a little varnish and a twist; it's a new face, possibly a new place. In the case of development, it often means a rebuilding. Tear down the old wood and prop up some new firs. With commercial development, it's the land that's important and that land better reap some revenue. At the same time, the reinventing process has to respect the established identity of the space, as well as the identity and vibrancy of the city. So, what happens when you cross an itch for reinvention with an essential retail zone and a good, old-fashioned city with the by and by flowing in the water?

I present to you the city of Lakewood and the quandary it faces.

Before its 50th anniversary in 2004, Lakewood was known as "Tomorrow's city today." The first planned development project west of the Mississippi in the 1950s, the town takes great pride in ensuring its steps are ordered. That and being known as Sports Town USA, Tree City USA and whatever USA titles are out there and get squeezed on the streetlight banners. With the old-time values that are planted alongside jacaranda trees, Lakewood has carved out its niche as a retail center within Los Angeles County.

In the center of that center is Lakewood Mall. The Mall and its surrounding area long has been a destination zone for shoppers and socializers. While competing with Cerritos Mall and the Long Beach Towne Center, Lakewood Mall has succeeded in attracting customers and thus, sales revenue for the city. So, it came as a bit of an oddity when the city's PR bit, "Lakewood Living," came to my parents' house touting the need for reinvention. Macy's and Robinsons-May, two of the Mall's long-time tenants, merged into one company, leaving 210,000 square feet of shopping barrenness. The Mall recently had redeveloped to include a new Target and a two-story food court, but officials noticed that it wasn't enough.

Conversely, it shouldn't come as a surprise that retail and retail development has dramatically changed. Department stores held top billing in most commercial centers for decades, but company mergers and acquisitions brought on by the inability to cater to newer fashion trends and brands have forced many stores off their perches. In addition, traditional malls have suffered to much hipper town centers that are designed and operated differently. More open space, more standalone store diversity and better paint are the new norms. Therefore, unless you can build a roller coaster inside the mall, you have problems.

That brings us to Lakewood's Mall reinvention. Plans are now in the works to recreate the former Macy's space into a Costco. The new store will be smaller (160,000 square feet) and include fuel islands and outdoor seating. It is expected to open in late 2008. Buoyed by studies that strived to ease concerns over traffic and competition with the Douglas Park development initiative on Lakewood and Carson Boulevards, as stated in a Press-Telegram article, officials are counting on Costco to bring it, economically speaking. Lakewood Living extolled a community survey that found nearly 2/3 of Lakewood residents belong to a membership store and almost 2/3 of those are Costco members.

Such as it is with other cities, Lakewood gets most of its revenue from sales taxes. The Mall has been one of the largest revenue sources. With malls, the mission is still the same: get as many people as possible to show up and buy stuff. Therefore, the reinvention emanates from streams of revenue. What are the new and improved ways to get revenue? Often, the answer lies in what someone else has already done. There's really nothing new under the retail sun and, like Lakewood, development and retail is all about the latest craze.

In an accompanying article in Lakewood Living, City Manager Howard Chambers writes, "With the planned opening of Lakewood's Costco store, the mall's successive 'reinventions' will have spanned more than 30 years: from enclosure to 'de-malling' and from department stores to high-volume discount retailers. But the returns from reinvention are diminishing. And ahead in 2008 is a worsening state budget deficit—now more than $14 billion—and the potential to ignite another crisis of state takeaways of local government revenue."

Malls hold an intriguing dichotomy in cities. They are centers of retail and the commons for products. In the final financial forecast, the analysis might be along the lines of, "where malls go, there will urban development be also." Yet, malls aren't meant to be the public square and probably aren't the best indicator of community identity. Or are they?

More so, it is in Lakewood's DNA to continually try to be beyond the curve and keep up its reputation as the pacemaker of suburban cities. If there's anything Lakewood is most proud of, it is its ability to plan. As suburbia was the city of tomorrow, Lakewood strives to be the shining light on the tract-housing hill. Lakewood Mall is just one component of the mosaic that makes up the town. Like the Mall, Lakewood seems to be in the process of reinvention as well. With residential tracts called "Casa Fea" or whatnot sprouting all over the place, could this be the second coming of the suburban flight? Taking from a well-known memoir by Lakewood's Chief Information Officer D.J. Waldie, Lakewood is a holy land. However, the lingering metaphor still waiting for product placement is if Lakewood still is the Promised Land.

Let's finish the joke.

 

Knock, knock!

Who's there?

Reinvent!

Reinvent who?

MOO!