Carson Planners Approve $30-Million Face Lift : Renovation: Proposal now goes to Redevelopment Agency. Questions linger about who will pay for it. Talks continue with Ikea, which hopes to open a new store.

By ANTHONY MILLICAN

Oct. 25, 1991 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

These days, Carson Mall seems as au courant as, say, bell bottoms, platform shoes and Nehru jackets. With its drab, oatmeal-colored exterior and its interior marked by bright orange and yellow floor tiles, the mall has the hue of a bygone era.

But this shopping center of the ‘70s may soon be getting a new look. Carson’s Planning Commission this week approved a $30-million renovation and expansion of the mall that would add a 60-foot-high vaulted glass ceiling, dining areas, domed skylights and extensive landscaping throughout the commercial center.

Final approval rests with the city’s Redevelopment Agency, which will consider the matter at its Nov. 5 meeting.

The mall’s renovation is being pushed by home-furnishings retailer Ikea, which for several months has been negotiating with the city and the mall’s ownership group to replace The Broadway department store with an Ikea warehouse store.

However, who will pay for the mall renovations and in what proportion is still up in the air.

Ikea, wooed by several South Bay cities eyeing a potential windfall in sales tax revenue, says it will open its store elsewhere in the area if the ownership group or Carson’s Redevelopment Agency does not pick up the tab for the improvements.

“The ball is in their court at this point,” said Ikea spokeswoman Cynthia Nieman.

The mall owners say they cannot pay for all of the center’s face lift and want the Redevelopment Agency to loan it $10 million to complete the project.

But the center’s future hinges on the Ikea deal, according to John Winthrop, managing partner of Carson Mall Partners. Carson Mall has posted annual net losses since 1987, when the current ownership group purchased the mall.

The Broadway, one of three anchor stores, closes its doors next month. The other two anchors, Sears and J.C. Penney, are awaiting the outcome of the Ikea negotiations before determining whether to renew their leases, which expire in 1993, Winthrop said.

“What it (the Ikea deal) means to the mall is survival,” Winthrop said.

The mall generates $800,000 annually in sales tax revenue and $400,000 in property tax increment revenue, Winthrop said. Over the next 30 years, if the Ikea project is approved, the city could receive up to $20-million in revenue, he said.

However, some city officials contend that the deal is a losing proposition because the revenue that the Redevelopment Agency would receive from the project would be used instead to repay the loan. The agency “would be in a position of paying off the loan that it originated with its own fund,” according to Rosenow Spevacek Group consultants.

Others say that the mall renovation is less risky than doing nothing at all. They note that the mall, which opened in 1973, has historically struggled to remain profitable.

For the third quarter of 1990, the latest reporting period, Carson Mall posted $21.3-million in retail taxable sales--40th out of 59 regional shopping centers in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and Ventura counties, according to mall officials.

“The mall started off badly and it snowballed,” Winthrop said. “It started being treated as a stepchild by retailers. A regional shopping center is like a big ship: It’s hard to turn either way. The ship started turning in the wrong direction from the very beginning.”

Complicating matters is Ikea’s self-imposed November, 1992, deadline for opening a South Bay store. The Swedish-based retailer has been rapidly expanding its U.S. operations.

“We bring out special teams to work on new stores,” Nieman said. “If we don’t meet this timetable, we risk losing these people to another project internally.”

The design plans for renovation of the 962,509-square-foot mall met with little discussion from planning commissioners, who unanimously approved the project Tuesday. The plans include adding three new buildings totaling 37,000 square feet and installing a floodlight to illuminate the vaulted glass ceiling. At night, the ceiling would be visible to commuters on the nearby San Diego Freeway.

“Right now we’ve got a very old, tired-looking mall,” said Sharron King, a mall spokeswoman. “The center is not a fun place to shop. It doesn’t put you into the spirit of walking and looking around.”

Ikea would renovate the exterior and interior of the existing Broadway building and remove The Broadway auto service center. Ikea would also add a 57,000-square-foot warehouse and office as well as construct a glass atrium-enclosed escalator. Ikea would pay for the renovation of The Broadway building, estimated at $20 million.

“What we have here is a crisis, which is the bankruptcy of Carter Hawley Hale (The Broadway’s parent firm), and their departure from the mall,” Winthrop said. “But the opportunity is there for us to go into a store that has not been successful . . . and replace it with one of the premier retailers in the world.”