MALIBU, Calif. — The sun is shining on Malibu retail again, after a long winter of treacherous rains that pummeled Southern California, caused deadly mudslides, killed at least 20 people and forced road closures around Los Angeles, including the Pacific Coast Highway — Malibu’s main artery.
While the Malibu retail scene is small — confined primarily to the specialty boutiques at the Malibu Country Mart and a couple of strip malls also off the Pacific Coast Highway — it is highly concentrated, with outposts of some of the hottest L.A. boutiques that cater to the area’s many famous and wealthy residents who are there to soak up the sunshine and salty air.
The Malibu Country Mart, which is the primary retail mecca, is packed with stores such as Planet Blue, Ron Herman, Lisa Kline, Madison and the forthcoming James Perse — which will open this summer — mingling with an outpost of the well known restaurant Nobu, a Shabby Chic store, a Ben & Jerry’s, a quaint movie theater and more.
Up the road at the Malibu Colony Plaza sits Theodore Beach and Theodore Man, along with a smattering of other boutiques, coffee houses and a Ralph’s high-end grocery store.
“The road closure hurt us, but business as of two weeks ago has been booming,” said Jen Rossi, women’s buyer for the Planet Blue stores. “The sun is out, the people are out and it’s spring break.”
Rossi said the locals were able to shop, but that the store didn’t get a lot of tourists during that time.
“It definitely affected business for a couple of weeks,” said Rossi, who had to have several orders pushed back. “But now we’re getting shipments since it’s sunny and beautiful.”
Planet Blue, which originated in Malibu and operates four locations in L.A., has operated its 2,000-square-foot Malibu store for almost 10 years. The store caters to everyone from 13-year-olds to beach babes and women in their late 50s.
“The women look so good here, they could be 70 years old and look 40,” Rossi said.
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And, she reports, young and old alike are snapping up everything from L.A.-based T-shirt line Andrea S at $53 a pop — it’s been the store’s hottest-selling T-shirt line — to straw cowboy hats by Gorrin Bros., which retail for $18 to $24. On one day, the store sold 28 hats, she said. Long, hippie skirts and wooden jewelry also have been hot sellers.
According to experts familiar with real estate in the area, rents are $7 to $8 a foot, which is comparable with Montana Avenue in Santa Monica but less than Robertosn Boulevard, which is $10 a square foot.
Ron Herman opened its location here at the Malibu Country Mart less than a year ago and has been far exceeding expectations for that location, said John Eshaya, vice president and women’s buyer for Ron Herman.
The Malibu Country Mart used to be a sleepy old motel with bungalows before Fred Segal purchased it about 20 years ago. He later sold it to a private buyer, who has owned it for more than a decade. But it’s really been in the past few years that the Country Mart has turned into the shopping mecca it is.
“It’s one of my most fun locations,” said Eshaya. “It’s a great neighborhood to be in for us and our customer because there are so many good retailers there already.”
Because of the saturation of contemporary boutiques in the area, Eshaya said he wanted to give Malibu customers lines they couldn’t find elsewhere locally, such as Jet, Stitches, RH Vintage, Chloé and Grass Jeans. The store also carries beach items, such as Pucci towels and Missoni beach bags, in addition to books and music.
More importantly, said Eshaya, he wanted to bring the vibe of the Melrose location to Malibu.
“It’s kind of a Mini-Me concept,” he said. “Malibu customers don’t want to drive out [to L.A.] to buy these lines, so we brought [them] to them — and when you’re stuck and can’t get out of the canyons, what else are you going to do? Go shopping.”
The lack of price resistance in the area’s retail market also mirrors the hot commercial real estate market. Thirty-year Malibu resident and Coldwell Banker agent Rick Wallace shrugged off the effect of the rains on the real estate market, citing the median home price of $2 million — which looks poised to creep up to at least $2.3 million this year.
“The last three months have been really strong,” said Wallace. “In general, the market has been strong since 1997.”
Fueling these rising prices are high demand and little inventory, particularly for beachfront properties, which agents report are few and far between. What is available is selling for anywhere from $6 million to $7 million.
Said Wallace: “It’s a very tight market and it’s still strong, with plentiful buyers.”
And the area’s many famous home owners, including Dustin Hoffman, Barbra Streisand, Bruce Willis and Pamela Anderson, add to the area’s prestige. It’s this cachet that has made stores such as Theodore Beach, the Malibu outpost of the Theodore boutiques, so successful.
“It’s like a movie set here,” said Herbert Fink, owner of Theodore, which carries hot denim lines such as True Religion and designer pieces from Roberto Cavalli. “It’s like walking around the studio, and it’s not just the stars living here, it’s all the people behind the movie stars.”
Theodore Beach opened at Malibu Colony Plaza in April 1992. When he opened there, the store was next to Wolfgang Puck’s restaurant, which is no longer there.
“[The Malibu location] has been sensational,” said Fink. “It’s the Rodeo Drive of the beach. Malibu is not a typical beach, like Santa Monica or Venice.”
Fink describes Malibu’s residents as “on the beach,” but not “of the beach,” which helps the area maintain its exclusivity. He said all eight locations had a sensational 2004 and “we’re already way ahead of plan this year — including the Malibu store.”
“What’s been selling well at the beach store is what sells at the Beverly Hills store,” said Fink, who echoed the refrain that the rains didn’t affect them at all. “When the weather is rough, the locals just go shopping