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MEDIA CITY MAKEOVER

Burbank mall gets name change and a $25M repositioning

By Donna Mitchell

Media City Center in Burbank, Calif., is undergoing a major redevelopment and name change that is expected to help the shopping center live up to its yet-unrealized potential as a successful super-regional mall.

Center Trust, a Manhattan Beach, Calif.-based company owns the mall, and is planning to spend $25 million to stage a drastic makeover. It will convert the shopping center from a three-level structure into a two-level mall integrated with large-format retail stores. The project should be completed by December 2002, by which time it will be reopened under its new name, the Burbank Center.

“The principal focus is the repositioning of the ground level, to better help the mall to be successful in the future,” said Stuart J.S. Gulland, director and COO for Center Trust. Gulland said the goal of the redevelopment is to “establish a better connection with pedestrians in Burbank. We want a more friendly transition and an open one.”

Center Trust is converting Media City Center, Burbank, Calif., into a two-level mall integrated with big-box stores.

According to information that Center Trust compiled from the 1990 census, about 458,000 people live within five miles of Burbank Center, with an average household income of $61,000. As far as Gulland sees it, once the redeveloped Burbank Center emerges under its new name and image, the mall can generate sales of more than $450 per square foot, up from the approximately $200 per square foot that it takes in now. Taken together, the mall shops already produce more than $350 million in annual sales, he said.

Media City Center is a T-shaped enclosed regional mall anchored by Macy’s, IKEA, Sears and Mervyn’s. Upon first sight, it looks like a stark fortress in downtown Burbank, Calif., spanning 1.3 million square feet and featuring stone walls, heavy pillars and dark windows. Those familiar with the project say it is a puzzling structure that doesn’t portray the image of a shopping center that interacts with the community, even though it strives to. Another problem is that it rests on a significant grade, with the lower level on the bottom part of that slope. Most shoppers enter Media City Center through the second level, because it is on the same gradient as the streets of downtown Burbank.

“The main entry into IKEA, Barnes & Noble, and Macy’s is also connected to the second level,” Gulland said. “Inherently the second and third levels become stronger. It did not respond well to the marketplace.”

A lack of foot traffic rendered the ground floor almost vacant, barely contributing sales revenue to the rest of the mall. The Sports Chalet and a more than 100-year-old carousel were exceptions to that trend, said Dan Millman, director of assets and operations for Center Trust.

Access to the ground level will be softened a great deal, thanks to design improvements proposed by the Long Beach, Calif., architectural firm Perkowitz & Ruth.

“Access [to the whole mall] was from the two parking structures, or the two anchor stores,” said Alan Pullman, a senior associate at Perkowitz & Ruth who is supervising the design efforts. But the parking structures do not lead into the lower-level entrances, and there are no direct lower-level entrances from any of the Burbank streets. Shoppers gained access to the lower level by walking through the parking structures, which was prohibitive.

“It made it seem like you were sneaking in the back door,” Pullman said.

In short, the mall shop space was overbuilt for the marketplace, Gulland said. But now Center Trust is keeping an open mind about how to better serve that marketplace. What consumers want, Gulland found, is to shop at both large-format stores and malls. Therefore, why dictate the enclosed mall concept to consumers when both could be integrated in the same site?

Center Trust decided to use the grade change to deliver both elements in one center, while making clear distinctions between both. The common area of Media City Center is shaped like a cylinder. There is an opening in the floors of the second and third levels that creates an atrium leading to the top of the third level. First, Center Trust will close the bottom portion of that opening, cutting off the ground level from the rest of the existing mall and establishing a new floor. Gulland calls it filling in light wells. The result is that the mall’s second and third levels will become a strong two-level mall resting atop a ground level that will be converted into big-box retail space.

The idea was to tap into consumers’ tendencies to shop at malls and power centers, and give them a shopping center that suits both needs. Once the project is done, the mall space will be clearly distinguished from the large-format retail.

Access to Media City Center will be more inviting, thanks to the improvements, according to Pullman. His team is rolling out a new set of welcome mats for the mall. Consumers will still have to enter the lower level through the parking structures, but the new design will make it pleasant and informative, rather than a brisk pass through a bland section of the mall. New elevators, staircases and a concourse will connect the parking structure to the newly created two-level center.

The entrance has also been enhanced. Pullman’s team plans to widen the opening to 60 feet from its current 20 feet. Center Trust will also add colorful signage, new paving, lights in the ground leading up to the entrance and illuminated graphics to the glass above the doorway that will be seen from parking areas.

Inside it will become a new concourse with path lights, colorful graphics, and large, bold tenant signage. There will be new staircases, an elevator and an escalator, all leading to the newly created two-level mall. Pullman’s team is considering placing lighting in the floor, which can project images and words on the ceiling and the area around the new escalator.

The mall’s Magnolia Boulevard entrance will be improved, too. Presently a nondescript access, with a plain stucco tower as a facade, the entrance will get a new one made of glass, and topped off with a pitched roof. Plans also call for a balcony and trellis.

“The trellis will make the balcony an appealing place to be,” Pullman said. The wider sidewalk will become a plaza that will attract shoppers with sculptures, tenant signage and appealing landscaping.

Center Trust is not the only one looking forward to the newer, brighter look. Bud Ovrum, Burbank’s city manager for 16 years, was in office at the time the center was first built, and negotiated the deal when Center Trust’s predecessor, Alexander Haagen Co., built it. The original structure was built nearly 10 years ago, and, as Ovrum put it, the mall was the last of a generation of imposing, inward-looking malls.

“At the time, that was what we all thought of malls,” said Ovrum. “Today, we would not think of a mall in that way at all. It turned a blank wall to the community around it.”

Ironically, Media City Center interacts quite frequently with Burbank, by sponsoring five-kilometer races, and encouraging residents to vote in elections. Ovrum said that although Media City Center is a good shopping center, it clearly has not lived up to its potential.

Sales goals notwithstanding, the new Burbank Center is not expected to threaten the survival of the Glendale Galleria, a 1.3 million-square-foot super-regional center in Glendale, Calif. With $507 in sales per square foot in 2000, Glendale Galleria is considered the dominant mall in the market. But the new Media City Center is expected to close the gap considerably.

Center Trust officials are currently working on approvals from state highway authorities to place mall promotional signs along the Interstate Route 5 Freeway or Golden State Freeway. If completed, the freeway signage would be one of the final steps taken to make the mall more welcoming and cheerful, but the first visible welcome to the Burbank Center.

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