Finally: Glendale Galleria Gets Makeover, Adds Bloomingdales

The Brand entrance to the Glendale Galleria, which has sat depressingly dark (save the annual pop-up Halloween store) for three years, will finally live again. The mall's owners announced today that Bloomingdale's will move into the vacant storefront, as part of a makeover. Via the press release:

The 120,000-square-foot store on two levels will headline an upscale redevelopment of the center being planned by its owner, General Growth Properties. The top two floors of the former Mervyn's location will be entirely remodeled by Bloomingdale's into a sophisticated upscale shopping experience, with construction expected to begin in 2012. The Bloomingdale's store workforce is projected to include 175 associates.

The new Bloomingdale's will open in 2013 -- right around the time that Nordstrom moves from the Galleria to the Americana at Brand. (Leaving another vacant department store front -- but at least Nordstrom is in a less trafficked and noticeable part of the neighborhood.)

I wrote about the Glendale Galleria's epic fail last year and suggested back in 2008 that the Galleria needed to use the location as a new mall entrance.

Epic Fail, Glendale Galleria

California-based Mervyn's shut its doors for good at the end of 2008. Two years later, the Glendale Galleria (and owner General Growth Properties) still hasn't found a new tenant to replace the hulking, empty former Mervyn's location at the corner of Brand and Broadway.

And what a shame. That entrance was a convenient way to get into the rest of the mall; now it sits idle. Back in 2008 I suggested that the Galleria would be smart to turn the empty Mervyn's space into a new mall opening; instead, it remains an imposing hulking ghost.

The Problem With Mervyn's

What went wrong with department store Mervyn's? The department store just filed for bankruptcy, and blogger Party Pauper has a theory why: Shopping there is just not fun:

Outside of cheap bras and Hello Kitty pajamas in adult sizes, there is little joy to be found in Mervyn's. At the very least, there is nothing worthwhile about the Northridge outpost...

The cash registers were obscured by massive piles of wrinkled clothing and sales people were few and far between (it took a while to actually find a competent person to ring up my purchase). Then there were the customers. There is no return rack, let alone an attendant, in the dressing room, so people just toss unwanted items on the ground (including bikini bottoms, which is another issue altogether). Out in the ladies department, I saw one woman drive her kid's stroller into a rack of clothes, knock over some shirts and continue on without so much as a glance back at the mess she made...

Mervyn's is just one big reminder that you can't afford Macy's, let alone Barney's. It's a store without any dignity.

I've hit the Mervyn's at the Glendale Galleria many times, and Party Pauper got it right. The place is a disaster -- merchandise thrown everywhere, screaming kids, poorly designed displays. It's indeed quite depressing.

ADD: LA Biz Observed notes that several Mervyn's locations could be shut as a result of the Chapter 11. For the Glendale Galleria, that could be a good thing. Mervyn's doors represent the Galleria's only entrance on Brand -- and anyone interested in hitting the Galleria from the street has to go through a Mervyn's maze before finally hitting the mall. Now that the Americana has added tons of foot traffic to that part of Brand, the Galleria would be wise to construct a brand new mall opening there, coupled with new, smaller retail space, rather than attempt to find another department store to fill the void.