Ikea chain gives Carson Mall a big boost.

But it confirms plan to close nearby Del Amo Stor outlet

A $12 million renovation/expansion of the 18-year-old Carson Mall is slated to begin this week. The centerpiece of that project will be the conversion of the mall's former Broadway department store space into an Ikea furniture outlet.

The project start comes just days before the expected Feb. 13 completion of Swedish furniture retailer Ikea AB's $19.7 million buyout of its rival, Stor Furnishings International Inc.

Ikea officials also confirmed last week that they plan to soon shutter the Stor location at the Del Amo Fashion Center in Torrance, assuming the buyout is closed as expected.

Del Amo Fashion Center is less than 10 miles from the Carson Mall and keeping both stores open would be redundant, explained Ikea spokeswoman Cynthia Neiman.

About 130 workers are currently employed at the Stor outlet in Torrance, and all those workers will be considered for jobs at the new Ikea store in Carson, Neiman said.

"There are a lot of experienced people at the Torrance location," she said. "And we expect a certain percentage of them to be moving over (to Carson). But we don't know at this point how many that will actually be."

The loss of a "regional draw" such as Stor at a time when local retail sales are already down considerably is a definite setback for the Del Amo mall, sources said.

But Stor's Del Amo location would have suffered a severe drop-off in business anyway after the new Ikea outlet opened in nearby Carson.

"There's no way Stor could have gone up against Ikea in Carson and survived," said Ted Lawson, senior vice president at CB Commercial Real Estate Group. "Ikea is going to have much more inventory. The Stor outlet in Torrance is only 90,000 square feet, while the new Ikea store is going to have 200,000."

Lawson added that a much greater potential threat to the future health of Del Amo Fashion Center is the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing last week of R.H. Macy & Co.

R.H. Macy is the parent of the Bullock's department store chain, and Bullock's is one of Del Amo's eight anchor stores.

"If Macy ever elected to shut down that (Bullock's) store, it would remove one of Del Amo's true apparel anchors," Lawson said. "Women's and children's apparel is the lifeblood of regional shopping centers."

An R.H. Macy spokeswoman in New York City last week said no plans had yet been made about the future of any particular store in Macy's retail chains.

"It's business as usual for the time being," she said. "There has been some speculation that Macy may close some stores. But it is just too soon after the (bankruptcy) filing to speculate on what might happen to any particular store."

CB exec Lawson said Bullock's Del Amo store is one of the chain's top performers. "They're going to keep that store operating no matter what," he predicted.

Meanwhile, at the nearby Carson Mall, shopping traffic is expected to double once the new Ikea store opens later this year, asserted Mark McGaughey of CB Commercial, who handles leasing at that mall.

It was Ikea's decision to open an outlet at the mall that triggered the mall owners' decision to undertake a renovation of the entire Carson Mall property.

"We think it's important that the mall present the same updated, inviting image that Ikea will present to its customers," said McGaughey, who is also a co-owner of the mall. "This center was developed in the early '70s, so it's a little tired and dated."

The Carson Mall's ownership group is headed by local developer/investor John Winthrop.

The mall will contain about 915,000 square feet of retail space once the renovation project is complete, McGaughey said. That is about 50,000 square feet more than the mall currently contains.

The Carson Mall has four anchor stores -- Ikea, JC Penney, Sears and Toys R Us -- and 98 retail shops. Between 90 and 95 percent of those shops are currently leased, McGaughey reported.

When the new Ikea store opens in Carson, it will be the chain's third outlet in California. Ikea opened its first outlet in this state last year, in a cavernous 240,000-square-foot building in Burbank.

The chain plans to open its second California Ikea store in Fontana next month. And then the Carson outlet would be Ikea's third California entry come this winter.

Ikea spokeswoman Neiman added that at least two of Stor's four locations would be converted to Ikea stores. The Stor locations in Tustin and the City of Industry will definitely be converted, she said. The one in Torrance will be shut down, and no decision has yet been made about the Stor location in Houston.