A Cuban-style restaurant from nightclub entrepreneur Rande Gerber, as well as MILK, an ice cream shop, will be one of several food-serving venues at the mall.
By Laura Tate / Associate Publisher/Editor
After more than a year and half, and millions of dollars spent on renovation and the installation of a state-of-the-art wastewater treatment facility, as well as a half year of delayed planned openings, the Malibu Lumber Yard mall will have a ribbon cutting March 27, and a grand opening April 18.
Developers and Malibu residents Richard Weintraub, CEO of Weintraub Financial Services, and Richard Sperber, CEO of landscaping firm ValleyCrest Co., under the umbrella of Malibu Lumber LLC, had contracted to lease the site of the former Malibu Lumberyard from the City of Malibu for 39 years, with the option of extending it to 54 years. They will pay $925,000 per year and the city will also receive 30 percent of the mall’s annual profits when they exceed $2.2 million.
The mall will house approximately 15 retail and food establishments, including the Havana Café, a Cuban-style restaurant by Malibu resident and nightclub entrepreneur Rande Gerber, and MILK, a café, ice cream and bake shop (the original, owned by Bret Thompson, is in Beverly Hills). In addition, a family-style restaurant is planned for upstairs, in a corner with big glass windows that overlook Pacific Coast Highway with a clear view of the Malibu Lagoon and, ironically, the golf course of the man who sold the land that houses the mall to the city, Jerry Perenchio. A wine, cheese and cold cuts shop will occupy a corner by the planned restaurant. Maxfield, Tory Burch, Intermix, Kitson Men, James Perse, alice + olivia, J.Crew, Planet Blue Kids, Theory and bakeshop Crumbs are other stores that will cater to shoppers.
While many Malibu residents have worried about the “Rodeo-ization” of their town, with smaller mom and pop shops being pushed out in favor of larger, chain retail stores, in a walk through of the not-yet-finished mall last week, the developers talked about their goal in providing a community-like center, where people can come with their children and “hang out.” Part of their agreement with the city requires them to also provide at least 10 percent, approximately 3,000 square feet, of retail space to local businesses at a rent lower than the other businesses. Weintraub said this rent could be as low as $5 per square foot. The average tenant will be paying $18 to $20 per square foot.
However, several local shops that had planned to move in have dropped out, including Bernie Safire Hairstyling, McLean Gallery and Tops Gallery, which moved to a location near Rambla Pacifico and Pacific Coast Highway and is now called Tops Secret. The cost of moving to and building a new store may have been a factor in why a few local businesses decided not to relocate to the mall. The owner of Insurrection Hair Design, one of several local stores that had been scheduled to move to the mall, has not made a decision yet. The store is currently located at the Point Dume Village Shopping Plaza.
On Friday, Weintraub said two local stores that are definitely moving in are Dance Star, a children’s dance studio owned by Charissa Seaman who currently teaches for the city, and Andrianna Shamaris, a furniture and home living store.
The community-oriented feel of the mall will also be carried out with a central gathering area, similar to that of the Country Mart sand lot, except instead of sand and play equipment, Ipe (a sustainable Brazilian hardwood) deck walkways and three eight-foot-tall fish tanks will be utilized. In this central, first level of the mall, there now sits a small round green area encircled by a low concrete wall, with granite rocks sticking out in the middle; however, Sperber said he was not happy with the outcome of the design, and plans to replace it.
The plan also includes furniture that “you can sink into” arranged on both levels of the mall’s decks, Sperber said. Weintraub said the idea is to have an “open beach deck” feel. Wireless Internet connection will be available to mall visitors.
No expense was spared in the design of the two-level mall. In addition to all the hardwood decking and other amenities, 70-year-old Kentia King palm trees frame the buildings and a large, 100-year-old aloe tree sits in one corner. Baby and large Elephant Ear plants fill planters along the sides of store buildings, and exotic succulents are found throughout the grounds.
And, a “fish hospital” is located in a small “building” to the side of the central mall area where the fish from the mall tanks can be treated if needed.
Sperber, who has three children, two twin daughters, ages seven, and a son age 4, said one of the reasons he wanted to build a place like the Lumber Yard mall is because of his children. A Malibu resident since 1978, he said he wants to provide a place where his children and community members can hang out, and he envisions his children working at the mall stores when they’re teenagers.
Weintraub, with wife Liane, also has two young children.
The idea to build the mall came about when Sperber met Weintraub at a party and talked to him about building a garden center for Malibu. That idea did not pan out, but grew to evolve into the open-air mall.
While because it was technically a remodel and did not take years to build, the process of making the mall a reality has been an arduous one for the two Richards.
The permitting process was tangled up with wastewater requirements, which eventually ended up with Malibu LLC having to build a $3 million wastewater treatment facility. An underground system of pipes, pumps, holding tanks and other equipment will treat up to 12,000 gallons of wastewater per day. All this is monitored by a sophisticated computer system housed in its own small building on the mall lot.
Originals plans included a “green” roof, with native plants and succulents that Sperber said were fire safe. However, Fire Department officials did not agree, and required a normal roof.
There was also a great deal of criticism about the city not ensuring that Malibu would have a lumberyard to replace the one that left. However, Weintraub said there just isn’t enough space and local business to sustain one.
Weintraub said there has been a great deal of divisiveness within the city and among the community over the project, and said he feels all that energy spent on opposing the project could be spent to “do something amazing together.”
“It is not a financial home run,” Weintraub said of building the mall. “It’s a labor of love.”