Santa Monica Place has poached another high-profile tenant with plans for a Tesla dealership to move to the mall.
While the move itself doesn’t require any regulatory approval, the proposal includes exclusive use of 10 spaces in the Mall’s parking lot. As the lots are actually city property, Council will be asked to approve the exclusive use of the spaces as part of the consent calendar at their Feb. 13 meeting.
Under the current lease agreement between the mall’s owner (Macerich) and the City, the mall provides 1,852 spaces to the public and can purchase some spaces for reserved or valet uses.
“Macerich is seeking a modification to the Lease Agreement that would allow Macerich to sublease 10 of the public parking spaces in Parking Structure 7 to Tesla, a proposed tenant of Santa Monica Place, to park vehicles to be used for test driving,” said the staff report.
According to the report, the company parking spaces would be connected to Tesla taking retail space on the first and second levels of the mall, near the entrance at the intersection of Broadway and the Promenade.
“Tesla will be engaged in sales of electric vehicles similar to how it operates in other shopping malls, using the 10 parking spaces for parking and charging of the tenant’s test drive vehicles and for parking by its customers,” said the report.
City Hall and Macerich split the revenues for the lots with Macerich responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the facilities. According to the staff report, the price for dedicated spaces is based on the maximum daily rate of $17.50.
“This would be an annual revenue of $6,387.50 for each space for a total annual revenue of $63,875 for all 10 parking spaces; revenues that would otherwise not be collected based on current occupancies. These revenues will be included in gross revenues and subject to the revenue sharing provisions of the Lease Agreement, less applicable Parking Facilities Tax, consistent with all other parking 4 of 6 revenues generated in Parking Structure 7,” said the report.
The Tesla move follows plans for the Zimmer Children’s Museum to leave Museum Row in Los Angeles. When it opens late 2018, the museum is expected to attract 250,000 visitors a year to the third floor of Santa Monica Place. The museum had considered moving to the city-owned development called The Plaza at 4th and Arizona. However, officials said the museum needed to leave their current location faster than the private/public project was moving forward.
The museum will move to the northeast corner of Santa Monica Place opposite the existing movie theater.
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