Discount shopping center

West Hollywood Gateway is an example of what retail may look like in high-density urban areas in the foreseeable future: large projects on small sites, oriented toward pedestrians as much as cars.

Prior to the completion of the project last May, few people had thought it possible to fit a full-sized Target outlet into an existing city block, much less one surrounded by shopping and apartments.

The 250,000-square-foot shopping center provides some striking architectural statements at one of Los Angeles' busiest intersections. The project features a large outdoor plaza that functions as a vibrant civic square, inviting pedestrians to enjoy outdoor eating areas, fountains, public art, retail kiosks and plentiful landscaping. Wide sidewalks, street-level display windows and sidewalk cafes further enliven this new urban village.

"People in high-density urban areas want the same type of high-quality retail that suburban dwellers have long enjoyed," said J.H. Snyder Company Partner Milt Swimmer. "West Hollywood Gateway shows that large-scale, volume-discount retailers can function well on a tight site, and perhaps even better than some of their suburban outlets, because demand is so high," he added.

The ingenuity of the West Hollywood Gateway was to provide a center that was architecturally attractive, while providing the guilty pleasures of shopping in suburban-style "power centers."

While plentiful shopping is avail able in Hollywood, Beverly Hills and West Los Angeles, none of those communities has much in the way of suburban-style, "big-box" retail like Target. That is no surprise: The enormous land parcels that retailers like Target require are becoming increasingly scarce to find in present-day Southern California.

Discount retailers in suburban sites often consume eight acres or more, typically consisting of an enormous blacktop parking lot surrounding a stand-alone building. West Hollywood Gateway, in contrast, consists of only four acres and contains a much larger "foot print" of construction than its suburban counterpart, as well as a two-level subterranean garage with 1,000 parking stalls.

"West Hollywood Gateway is an important milestone for the redevelopment of the East Side of the city," Swimmer said. "The project stimulates investment, creates jobs, provides revenue and introduces new neighborhood services and retail amenities not previously available to residents," he added.