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Down and In in Los AngelesSpead the word... May 11,2007 by shab 
Correction Appended LOS ANGELES - In a downtown not known for its foot traffic, Santee Alley - some 300 stores stretching over two blocks in the garment district - is crowded even on weekdays, largely with Hispanic shoppers in search of flea-market-style bargains. Stacks of shoes, socks, underwear and jewelry spill out of the narrow stores. Skip to next paragraph J. Emilio Flores for The New York TimesShoppers fill Santee Alley in downtown Los Angeles. Transactions J. Emilio Flores for The New York TimesA merchant shows fabrics at the corner of Maple and 9th Streets. Santee Alley, where the rents are said to exceed those on Santa Monica's bustling Third Street Promenade, lies in the heart of a once-industrial downtown district that, like New York's garment center, has been undergoing a transformation in recent years. Many of the manufacturing jobs have vanished, and the streets are increasingly lined with retail shops feeding off the popularity of Santee Alley. Wholesalers who cater to smaller shops are being pushed to the east, where many find themselves squeezed by rising land values and higher rents, according to Dai-Ho Choi, president of the Korean Apparel Manufacturers Association, the dominant trade group. Spurred in part by labor laws, much of the apparel manufacturing has moved offshore. From 1997, the industry's peak, to 2004, Los Angeles County lost 35,500 manufacturing jobs, according to the California Department of Employment Development. David Zoraster, a vice president of CB Appraisal, a division of CB Richard Ellis, said, "There's still a considerable amount of manufacturing, though there's no way to know how much." So despite the sewing and cutting that still takes place out of sight on upper floors, the garment district has been trying to reposition itself as the Los Angeles fashion district. Situated to the south and west of the financial district and to the north of the Santa Monica Freeway, it is home to more than 2,400 ground-floor retail stores and wholesale showrooms, nearly 500 of them added since 2001, according to the local business improvement district. Since 2000, at least 0 million has been invested in district projects, said Kent Smith, the BID president. Spread over 90 blocks of mostly low-slung buildings painted in aqua, yellow, orange and other vivid colors, the district encompasses subdistricts devoted to men's clothing, children's clothing and textiles, and even flowers, but its specialty is up-to-the minute fashions for teenage girls and young women, Mr. Smith said. Like the rest of downtown Los Angeles, which has been undergoing a construction boom, the fashion district is awash with construction. Land in the district that cost 0 a square foot five years ago now goes for 0, Mr. Zoraster said. A few of the developments are residential conversions, and several are new commercial buildings. Two are designed to meet a growing demand for commercial condo space among the largely Korean businesspeople who make up the lower end of the wholesale apparel market. These wholesalers include many Korean-born immigrants who stopped first in South America before fleeing the political instability of the 1980's. They say they are being forced to pay ever higher rents as well as tens of thousands of dollars in key money when a lease is renewed. This practice is illegal unless the amount is stated in the lease, but such payments are often demanded anyway, said Richard Songuk Kim, a lawyer who represents wholesalers. "They either pay under the table or they lose the opportunity" to keep the space, Mr. Kim said. This part of the wholesale industry has little to do with manufacturers of the trendy labels like BCBG and Laundry that occupy showrooms in the 1.8-million-square-foot California Market Center. That three-building behemoth, as well as three other buildings, make up a cluster known as the Intersection or the Four Corners, at Ninth and Los Angeles Streets, at the opposite end of the district. The upper tier of the industry has faced its own challenges. The long-troubled California Market Center was sold in April for 5 million to Jamison Properties, a company owned by David Lee, a Korean-born physician who began buying office buildings here in the mid-1990's, and many real estate specialists are skeptical about its prospects. "Big wholesale marts are not as dominant as they used to be," Mr. Zoraster said. Dr. Lee, whose company owns 66 buildings in the Los Angeles area, according to the Co-Star Group, a Bethesda, Md., research company, did not return several telephone calls. 12Next Page >More Topics: Shavonne Dealer of fashion and costume jewelry, cubic zirconia rings, and replica watches. 115 times read
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