BROADWAY — A proposal for a seven-story mixed-use building on the corner of Fifth Street and Broadway, where Fred Segal is currently located, is moving along and some of the businesses will have to move out by the end of the month.
DK Broadway LLC purchased the 500 Broadway plot in 2012 and brought in the Thomas Properties Group to develop the site. Fred Segal houses several different boutique businesses on the site and also across the street at 420 Broadway, which won't be impacted by the development.
Sandow, a New York City-based media company, bought the Fred Segal brand back in 2012 but does not own the existing store locations in Santa Monica and West Hollywood, said Jessica Kleiman, Sandow's executive vice president of communications.
Leases for businesses in the 500 Broadway building are not being renewed, she said.
"Some of the tenants from 500 Broadway may be relocating to 420 Broadway," she said. "DK Broadway, the landlord and developer, is currently working with those tenants on transition plans."
"I don't think those discussions have been very serious," said Stacey Robinson, of Ron Robinson, a boutique that's been located in the building for 18 years. "There have been no plans for how that would actually happen."
Calls to DK Broadway were not returned by press time.
Ron Robinson has three stores and about 15 employees in the 500 Broadway building, Robinson said.
"We're pretty disappointed that after 18 years we were given 30 days to exit the property and 30 days to take care of our employees," she said.
There are no set plans for reopening in Santa Monica, Robinson said. They will maintain their stores in the Fred Segal building on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles.
Robinson said that a majority of the tenants have been given 30 days to move out.
In the 500 building, some of the shops are already empty. Workers at Ron Robinson acknowledged with long faces that they'd heard they'd have to be out at the end of the month.
A worker at another boutique in the building said that the store's owner had planned to move out by the end of May. With the development looming, many boutiques have already left giving the building a sad, empty feeling, she said.
The Architectural Review Board (ARB) discussed the new project back in February. The developer is proposing an 84-foot-tall building with 250 residential units.
A representative from the developer told the ARB that they'd like a grocery store, like a Whole Foods or Trader Joe's, to go in on the ground floor, along with a fitness club, restaurant, coffee shop, and some retail. A wine bar could be added in the alley. The current proposal includes nearly 40,000 square feet of commercial space.
Most of the ARB members lauded the early designs with one member declining to weigh-in, noting that she had a problem with the size of the building.
The developer will return to the ARB with more specific designs later this year.
"The redevelopment of 500 Broadway does not have any impact on the Fred Segal West Hollywood location, and the Fred Segal location at 420 Broadway will operate uninterrupted," Kleiman said.
Fred Segal will open new locations in Las Vegas in the summer and Tokyo in 2015.
dave@www.smdp.com
