CASE STUDY: Manhattan Village

Manhattan Beach, California

We remerchandised and redeveloped an outdated enclosed mall in the increasingly affluent community of Manhattan Beach, California.  Manhattan Village was transformed into a successful retail destination with new retailers, a new outdoor promenade and far greater physical appeal.

The Opportunity

In 1999 our local leasing team began noticing that retailers were closing at Manhattan Village, a 550,000 square foot community center in Los Angles County’s increasingly affluent Manhattan Beach community.  While it served an underserved market, its dated physical appearance and reputation could not be overlooked by local residents.  They would often travel great distances to shop because Manhattan Village was not meeting their needs.

The Vision

Our vision was to significantly reconfigure and remerchandise the center.   We planned to update the look and feel of the center by rehabilitating the interior with new floors and architectural elements.  However, the our primary focus was to create new life outside of the center by creating an outdoor promenade and creating exterior-facing retail.  We also planned to convert a pad site into a larger building with more retail.  We wanted to breathe new life into this aging center.

The Challenges

Our major challenge was to show retailers that Manhattan Village was changing.  At the time, many retailers were defecting to other centers and we had to persuade them that Manhattan Village was going to become the area’s premier destination.

The Result

Madison Marquette quickly revitalized Manhattan Village with a new southern California inspired look and feel, and leased several unoccupied spaces with prominent national retailers including Tommy Bahamas, Corner Bakery, Ann Taylor Loft and Williams-Sonoma.  Occupancy rates rose to over 95 percent and the community began to respond with increased patronage and vocal support.  Sales at the center have remained strong and it is widely considered to be the community’s shopping destination of choice.