Several longtime Malibu businesses have closed their doors; other changes in the commercial and retail scene are in the works, including new stores at Cross Creek and near Las Flores.
By Olivia Damavandi / Assistant Editor
As the news that the Malibu Lumber Yard mall owners needed their rent deferred to compensate for difficulty renting retail spaces rumbled through the local business scene, a number of other changes have since occurred, or already have taken place, in Malibu’s real estate landscape.
Due to heightened rent prices, retail store Philippe Derey on Monday officially vacated its 11-year location in the Malibu Colony Plaza; and Point Dume Chinese Restaurant last week left the Point Dume Village. Colin McEwen High School in June vacated the second floor of Malibu Country Mart due to low student enrollment that made rent unaffordable, property owner Michael Koss said in a telephone interview last week; and Sunglass Safari left its space on Pacific Coast Highway near the bottom of Rambla Pacifico due to financial hardship that resulted after the death of Edgar A. Brekke. Brekke and his wife Doris Rivas-Brekke had opened the store more than 20 years ago.
“Our rent has gone up exorbitantly,” Philippe Derey, owner of the self-titled store, said Monday in a telephone interview, adding that common area maintenance charges were a contributing factor.
“The rent-to-sales ratio in this business should be 10 percent, but now it’s about 25 to 30 percent,” Derey said. “Tenants don’t have sales to compensate the rent. There’s nothing left to pay employees, insurance or other expenses.”
Though Derey, who is planning on relocating the store to Beverly Hills, could not predict what type of business would replace it, he said, “I’m 80 to 90 percent sure it won’t be a retail store. I think Malibu is changing for [the] worse. People live in Malibu because they like that country vibe with small businesses; they like knowing who they’re dealing with… but it’s all becoming chain stores. They’re not in Malibu to make money, they’re here for advertising their name.”
While Pacific Coast Glass has already replaced Sunglass Safari, replacement tenants are not yet confirmed for the departed businesses in the other shopping centers. However, Subway is currently in the process of obtaining city permits for its additional location in Point Dume Village; True Religion is slated to set up shop at Cross Creek Plaza in the space that housed Fast Frames shop; and Missoni will eventually inhabit the former Ben and Jerry’s location in the same shopping center .
“It’s just nice the retail market is getting healthier,” Pouya Abdi, Cross Creek Plaza co-owner, said Friday in a telephone interview. “It still hasn’t recovered but it’s getting better. We’re actually talking to smaller tenants and one independent gelato company. I’m hoping a few leases will be signed in the upcoming months.”
In regard to the plaza’s pending renovation, Abdi said he is working with new architects on the design and that he hopes to have the remodel plans finalized in the next month or two.
Renovations are also in the works for the Villas at Carbon Beach, located at 22065 Pacific Coast Highway, which went into foreclosure last year after original owners Carbon Beach Partners LLC and the Ross Family Trust failed to make more than $13 million in loan payments and more than $1 million in accrued interest and late fees.
The receiver, Rob Evans and Associates LLC has submitted two permit applications to the city Planning Commission: one to allow interior modifications and the other to allow external remodeling.
The development will retain its eight 3,200-square-foot units and individual roof decks, but remodel plans call for a new paint job, new window treatments, some façade changes and the improvement of fire access ways to the roof decks. Exterior renovations call for new landscaping, driveway improvements and a trash enclosure, according to Assistant Planner Joseph Smith.
Calls to Rob Evans and Associates LLC were not returned.
In other real estate news, the City of Malibu has been engaged in ongoing real estate negotiations with six potential tenants vying to lease the city-owned Coldwell Banker building at the intersection of Webb Way and Pacific Coast Highway.
Malibu Urgent Care, Richard Weintraub, Super Care Pharmacy, Anawalt Lumber Company, Ace Hardware and Room at the Beach have all been continuously negotiating with city officials during closed session meetings, the next one scheduled to take place Monday next week.
City officials declined to comment on the potential tenants, as the matter is still under negotiation.