Hitting Its Target
Westfield Topanga is redefining what an upscale mall is by incorporating Nordstrom, Neiman-Marcus and Target into the same center, located in an affluent market.
Randall Shearin

Westfield Topanga, Canoga Park, California.

Shopping Center Business recently visited the center, while it was in the final stages of construction, then spoke to Peter Lowy, CEO of Westfield, and Kenneth Wong, president of Westfield, at the company’s Los Angeles headquarters.

Westfield acquired Topanga when it purchased Centermark in 1994. Demographics in the area have changed quite significantly in the 12 years since Westfield began operating the center. As where the area was once upper middle class, today it is upscale. Median home values in the neighborhood have more than doubled over the last 12 years. Sales at the center’s 130,000-square-foot Nordstrom store increased beyond the store’s capacity over the years.

“The key for us as a developer is to understand the movement in the market, the changes in the market, where the market is going, and then develop or redevelop the mall to meet those changes in the market,” says Lowy.

In nearby Agoura Hills, there was a plan underway to develop a Neiman-Marcus-anchored lifestyle center, and other developers were acquiring sites as well. Instead, Westfield had an idea to reinvent Topanga. It would completely relocate retailers and renovate and expand the center. It has repositioned Nordstrom to a new, 205,000-square-foot store, built a two-story, 160,000-square-foot Target store, and added 140 new in-line retailers to the center. Neiman-Marcus will raze the old Nordstrom and build a 120,000-square-foot store, which will open in the fall of 2008. Timing with the center’s grand opening on October 6th, the Robinson’s-May store will convert to Macy’s.

Westfield is also adding a new café-style dining terrace that offers upscale operators in express formats.

“Neiman-Marcus was a challenge because we knew we were competing for them with other developers’ projects,” says Ken Wong, president of Westfield. “A confluence of events — Nordstrom wanting to expand, Target wanting to join the center and Westfield acquiring the Montgomery Ward store — allowed the timing to be right and the location to be right for Neiman’s. We knew this would be the only location in the Valley that had the ingredients to make this happen.”

A central spine, called The Canyon, runs down the center of the project, from Neiman-Marcus to Nordstrom. The Canyon also houses most of the upscale retailers in the center. A 300-foot long skylight, which looks like a glass ceiling, illuminates The Canyon and gives shoppers an outdoor feel indoors, with luxuriant landscape elements such as river rock, limestone, flowing water features and lush foliage. As an ‘extension’ of The Canyon, Westfield is adding a new café-style dining terrace, similar to its food terrace operation at Westfield Century City. This concept has upscale operators in express formats. A central scullery washes dishes, glass and flatware so customers don’t have to dine with plastic and paper. This will be the fourth dining terrace  that Westfield has installed — after Bondi  Junction in Sydney, Australia, Century City and San Francisco Centre. Westfield is also incorporating the concept into its White City project in the United Kingdom.

“The customers in areas like these are crying out for a better food offerings,” says Lowy. “If we build the food terrace, we are upgrading the retailer as well as the ambiance. That gives us a point of difference from other malls in the marketplace.”

With the grand opening of the first phase of redevelopment — including the new Target and Nordstrom stores —  on October 6th, the center will have a foothold in the San Fernando Valley with upscale retail. When the project opens completely in 2008, the residents of the San Fernando Valley will no longer have to drive to Beverly Hills to shop at Neiman-Marcus or other upscale retailers like Lacoste and MAC Cosmetics. Other new retailers at the center include Aveda, BCBG Max Azria, Skechers, Movado, The Walking Company, and The Art of Shaving.

A view looking down “The Canyon,” a central valley that runs from Neiman-Marcus to Nordstrom. The Canyon, which features a 300-foot-long skylight, houses most of the upscale retailers in the center.

“The fact that we’re able to put Neiman-Marcus, Nordstrom and Target in the same center is unique,” says Lowy. “When you look at the crossover shopping of the Neiman-Marcus customer to the Target customer, it is spectacular.”

Westfield Topanga will also be unique because it is being redeveloped as an enclosed mall. There will be no open-air portion of the center. To create the open-air feeling, Westfield  designed the center to ‘bring the outside in,’ with — high ceilings, natural materials, lush landscapingand plenty of skylights

Westfield’s reinvention of Topanga gives the company a second top-drawer center in the Los Angeles market — it’s first being Century City — and gives it a major market position with merchants and consumers, emerging as a modern shopping oasis mixing luxury and convenience.