Santa Monica Place Reopening Further Delayed

Santa Monica Place, the unfortunate early-Gehry-designed covered shopping mall that anchors the southern end of the Third Street Promenade, has delayed its reopening even further into 2010. The Macerich Company is the developer on the remodel, and announced this week an "official" opening date of August 6, 2010 - significantly later than the earlier planned Spring 2010 and 2009 before that.

The company, which purchased the property in 1999, originally planned to raze the existing mall and replace it with a multi-use complex of condos, offices, and retail. This 2004 plan was met with strong opposition from locals however, who felt the megalomaniacal development would be out of scale with the surrounding neighborhood and worsen already bad beach and promenade traffic. In 2007, they modified the proposal to a simple reconfiguration of the existing mall, which was ardently supported by the community.

While construction on the site looks horrendous, the project really is just a glamorized remodel. The interior walkways have been gutted and will be replaced by open-air walkways. Also new will be an indoor/outdoor rooftop dining terrace a la Westfield Century City but more upscale. Locals and visitors will be happy to see what was once a depressing, placeless mall turned into a welcoming promenade-like shopping center more in tune with Santa Monica weather and culture. And through adaptive reuse to boot. Expect to pay for it though - anchor tenants Macy's and Robinson's May have been replaced with Bloomingdale's and Nordstrom.