LOS ANGELES — Century City mall is ready for the 21st century with a $150 million redevelopment and expansion.
The center, once the back lot of the 20th Century Fox studio here, added 60,000 square feet of retail space and a two-level, 15-screen movie theater with an all-glass facade. The makeover features 18 new retailers such as Solstice, Frederick’s of Hollywood, Apple, Hand & Mind, The Art of Shaving and Aerosoles and an alfresco-style dining terrace on its new second floor.
Westfield, the Australian-based operator of the mall, unveiled the changes at the world premiere of the Mel Brooks’ musical comedy, “The Producers,” in the refurbished AMC theater. Executives said the fresh look is a model for how Westfield hopes to evolve its centers.
“Once it’s successful, we can adapt it to other markets,” said Peter Lowy, chief executive officer of Westfield’s U.S. operations. “We think the customer [at Century City] is totally underserved right now, and this is a unique place to execute these sorts of ideas.”
The mall competes with The Grove, Beverly Center and Westside Pavilion, as well as shopping thoroughfares in nearby Beverly Hills such as Beverly Drive. It is part of the larger Century City development, which includes office space, hotels and the headquarters of Fox Studios.
Lowy acknowledged that the center needed a facelift. Although sales per square foot are about $714, Century City “undertrades in its market,” he said. Lowy didn’t reveal projected sales per square foot, but the company said the center is projected to generate $420 million in annual sales.
The center is looking to attract about 15 million shoppers annually, and Lowy said Westfield is particularly interested in courting the estimated 50,000 office workers in the area.
“When we looked at the office demographics, we realized we should be drawing many more office people throughout the day — especially for food,” he said.
To help entice them, Westfield morphed its traditional, eat-and-run-style food court into a more contemporary, sophisticated setting. The result is the dining terrace, which features twice the amount of seating as the previous food court and looks out onto the Century City skyline. In addition, real china and cutlery have replaced plastic diningware.
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National and local chains such as Panda Express and Baja Fresh, Seik-Shi Sushi and Hana Grill look sleek and updated. Next year, Parisian-style Bistro French 75 and Brazilian wine bar Ummba Grill will join the mix.
Westfield also is renovating upscale supermarket Gelson’s and adding a valet service area for it. But the theater, which anchors the new wing, is the crown jewel.
“A statement needed to be made,” Lowy said of the movie complex, which features floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall screens, as well as digital surround sound and stadium seating. “We’d like to work with the studios to use the theaters for more worldwide premieres.”
Chuck Stilley, president of AMC Realty, the real estate division of AMC, said catering to big movie events is at the top of the company’s priority list. And this unveiling showcased its flagship in the West.
“It’s not only on our mind, it’s going to happen,” Stilley said. “The studios want to have premieres and it will happen at Century City.”
Stilly said that, before 1995, Century City was one of the top-grossing U.S. movie houses, but declined because it was not updated with stadium seating — which AMC invented — state-of-the-art sound systems and other technological advances.
While Stilly would not reveal numbers, he said he expects it to be one of the top gross-revenue earners in the company’s 224 theaters.
The upgrades are not a result of a more affluent customer at the mall, Lowy said, but rather an effort to stay ahead of the curve. In recent years, traditional regional malls have had to work hard to compete with the popularity of mushrooming lifestyle centers.
“I think, really, the customer isn’t changing that much,” Lowy said. “But the amount of work we have to do to give the customer the goods and services to keep them coming back is growing.”
Lowy said the company is not only incorporating many lifestyle elements into the mall, but pumping about $1.5 billion to $2 billion into its U.S. portfolio over the next three to four years.
“We are investing massive amounts of capital to invest in our assets,” he said.
Westfield has about $4 billion of construction in progress globally and also will spend an additional $1 billion to $1.5 billion worldwide over the next few years.
Westfield is also in the midst of a major expansion at the San Francisco Center in San Francisco. The company has interest in 129 shopping centers in Australia, New Zealand, the U.K. and the U.S. The U.S. portfolio includes 68 shopping centers.
“We’re trying to provide all the amenities that the customers demand,” Lowy said.