Merchants Left High and Dry by Torrance Renewal Work

Torrance shop owner Marge DeKoster feels like she’s living on an island--and it’s no paradise. The store DeKoster co-owns with her husband, Roger, My Doll’s House, is caught in the center of a project to redevelop old downtown Torrance. Like other downtown entrepreneurs, she says the construction has virtually cut her off from her customers.

“Last Saturday and Sunday I had no new business,� said DeKoster, whose shop sells dollhouse kits and tiny furnishings for them. “A walk-in customer isn’t going to put up with this--that’s what’s scary.�

Prompting the consternation is the start of a $44-million project to rebuild downtown Torrance’s run-down commercial and residential district. Overall, the project calls for 179 Mediterranean-style condominiums, 28,000 square feet of new retail space and 529 parking spaces in surface and underground lots.

The redevelopment, targeting three downtown sites totaling 3.5 acres, is expected to be completed in December, 1993.

Retailers say that with large sections of Sartori and El Prado streets already dug up, a key problem is parking. Alternate parking spaces are too few and too far away, they say, complaining that business has suffered as a result.

Tina Laplante of Sew Fantastic, which sells sewing supplies and gives sewing classes, estimates that walk-in traffic has dwindled to five or six customers a day, down from 20 to 40 before construction.

Laplante says her students have trouble lugging their sewing machines to class from the nearest parking lot provided by the developer, Gascon Mar Ltd. of San Diego. The lot is a block and a half away.

“It’s driving us out of business,� she said. “The traffic has dropped off tremendously.�

To deal with complaints, the city, Gascon Mar and Benchmark Construction Co. of Santa Monica--the company doing the construction work--are holding weekly meetings with residents and shop owners. The talks have led to several steps aimed at resolving problems caused by the redevelopment work.

After the first such meeting earlier this month, for instance, the city agreed to beef up enforcement of two-hour parking during business hours to help keep open downtown spaces that have not been torn up by work crews.

Gascon Mar and Benchmark have installed temporary street lighting as a safety measure and posted signs to let people know that downtown businesses remain open during construction. The two companies have also promised residents and merchants that they will provide more temporary parking.

Phase One of the redevelopment project began last month, when construction crews dug up all of El Prado north of Sartori, a section of the north side of Sartori and an alley that parallels Sartori on the north.

Rose Takushi, one of the owners of Elaine and Rose’s Boutique, said she had no idea that the redevelopment work would be so disruptive. To compensate, she said, she has been telephoning her regular customers to tell them the business is open.

“It’s going to be very nice after they finish, but . . . until then we are going to suffer,� she said.

As the redevelopment work began, yellow tape edged the construction site. But when pedestrians ignored the tape and crossed open ditches, Benchmark Construction Co. erected chain-link fences separating the stores from the street. The move improved public safety but created confusion.

For instance, Mikael O’Neal and Laura Oates were on their way to the bank last week when they found their way into DeKoster’s store.

“I thought everything was closed until I figured out you could walk behind the fences and things,� O’Neal said. “I thought they were tearing it all down.�

DeKoster says she has seen people standing on the opposite side of the street trying to figure out how to get to her shop. One Saturday, she said, customers complained of having to duck around the swinging bucket of a backhoe on their way to the shop.

“Don’t get me wrong, I know they’re working hard to get this done, but why did they have to tear all of that up?� DeKoster said.

Small business owners aren’t the only ones grousing.

Complaints are also coming from Knickerbocker & Associates, the real estate company that owns the Knickerbocker building at El Prado and Sartori and the El Prado apartment building across the street.

“Our biggest concern now is losing tenants,� said Helen Sloss, a building manager for Knickerbocker.

Sloss says one resident of El Prado told her that the noise and disruption from the redevelopment work were forcing him to move. Five of the company’s commercial tenants, including Laplante and DeKoster, sent the company a petition asking Knickerbocker to “suspend or reduce rent payments during the construction of the streets and sidewalks adjacent to our building,� she said.

Sloss said El Prado tenants have parking problems too. After their regular lot became part of the construction site, she says, the developer provided alternate spaces that are too far away.

“The parking lots that Gascon Mar made available are at least two blocks away from our building. . . . For some women who go out or on a date and come home at night, it’s a concern,� she said.

Hector Barcenas, manager of the 30-unit El Prado, said that 20 tenants complained to him about the construction and parking problems, and that he doesn’t have any answers.

“It’s pretty ugly right now,� he said. “We haven’t gotten much information about the construction. They are supposed to send a memo to the building owners and we haven’t got anything like that.�

Gascon Mar spokeswoman Mary Garrity said the company knows that its work has caused problems for retailers in the Knickerbocker Building.

“They’re absolutely surrounded by construction--it’s like a moat. But they will be the first back together,� she said, adding that El Prado and Sartori should be reopened by the end of August.

City Councilman Don Lee, who has a corner office on the first floor of the Knickerbocker building, acknowledges that “it’s tough down here for retail people.�

The construction doesn’t affect his insurance business, he says, because his firm doesn’t rely on walk-in business. But Lee says that, for him, the project presents another hazard.

“The hardest thing is not to watch--it’s really interesting,� he said.