KEEPING THAT MONTROSE CHARM MERCHANTS IN 'OLD TOWN' FACE CHANGE.

Byline: Alex Dobuzinskis

Staff Writer

MONTROSE -- As she sat surrounded by vintage clothes and Tiffany-style lamps, Renee Davila described her nightmare about the quaint shopping district where she has owned a store for a dozen years.

"Any minute now, it will be Baby Gap over there on the corner," Davila said.

Carol Brookshire, who moved her Revelation Dresses store from Simi Valley to Montrose after a mall opened nearby, also fears a threat from big retailers.

Change is in the air in Montrose, a north-Glendale shopping district that evokes images from a Norman Rockwell painting or TV's fictional Mayberry.

For three decades, Dr. Brad Aguirre had a Montrose podiatry office -- until his rent doubled last year and he had to move.

Rising rents are forcing out longtime businesses and fueling anxiety among merchants that their mom-and-pop stores will lose out to national chains.

That's already happened in recent years in other areas, from Old Town Pasadena to Larchmont Village, said Jack Kyser, chief economist with the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp.

"You can sense the concern of people in the neighborhood because they have something that's rather unique, charming. They get good service," he said.

"And then the chains come in, and it's a completely different lifestyle."

But while Glendale officials consider ways to protect the small-town atmosphere of Montrose, others argue that change is not only inevitable, but also necessary.

Just south of where the streets fan out in the shape of a rose, the Montrose shopping district runs along tree-lined Honolulu Avenue and boasts more than 200 stores. Car traffic is slow, and there are cozy coffee shops and stores specializing in collectibles, pajamas, hats or things made of wood.

Merchants pride themselves on knowing their customers' names and what they might need -- from a certain piece of jewelry to a bit of advice. Merchants also sponsor sports teams and advertise in high school yearbooks.

But nearly 30 businesses have come and gone in the past two years at Montrose, where turnover traditionally had been a half-dozen businesses a year, said Glendale City Councilman John Drayman, who owns a photography studio in Montrose.

Drayman wants to see the city help merchants and preserve the area's small-town feel.

"There's just a sense of sort of middle-American charm there," Drayman said.

"We like to think that Montrose is a place where sort of the aura of Norman Rockwell is floating just above the place," he said. "And we use the history of the area and the traditions of the area literally as hooks to drive business to the businesses."

'The Montrose renaissance'

After hearing from merchants, city officials are considering options for addressing worries that the area will change for the worse.

Drayman said city officials should consider doing more marketing of Montrose, buying rubber-tire trolleys -- as San Fernando officials have decided to do -- or helping merchants spruce up storefront facades.

In recent weeks, the Glendale City Council has been discussing ways to improve Montrose.

"We need to work to continue to have Montrose move forward in the Montrose renaissance," City Councilman Frank Quintero said at a meeting last month.

On Feb. 19, the council voted to designate Montrose as Glendale's official "old town," and city officials have pledged to continue working on ways to help merchants.

Those merchants include Davila, who for a dozen years has owned Pattyes Closet, which sells all things vintage. Her rent doubled a year ago, and without her regular customers -- the ones to whom she gives advice and impromptu therapy -- she says she would have to close.

She keeps vintage jewelry in a glass case at the front of the store, and all kinds of things are kept in the back -- from bright scarves in a travel trunk to a decades-old microscope on a shelf.

"Here, if somebody comes in, they're looking for something special. For the kids, they always have a play or something, ... and they come here, and they always find everything," she said.

Sky-high rents

Merchants say new landlords are raising rents sky-high, forcing out tenants.

Aguirre, the podiatrist who established his office in Montrose in 1977, said he moved last year to another part of Glendale when a new landlord wanted to increase his rent from $4,500 a month to more than $9,000 -- for 2,500 square feet of space.

At properties owned by long-term landlords, stores enjoy below-market rents of $1 per square foot, said Dale Dawson, president of the Montrose Shopping Park Association. But rents are rising, he said.

Robert Yoohanna, 61, has owned a property at Honolulu and Ocean View Boulevard since 1990, and he rents to mom-and-pop stores as well as chains including the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf.

The most he is charging for rent is $2.20 a square foot, but he said some new property owners in Montrose are asking up to $3.50.

"Eventually everything goes up. Eventually they have to realize -- all these tenants that are here -- they have to realize that they have to pay a little bit more," Yoohanna said.

CAPTION(S):

4 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Honolulu Avenue in the Montrose district of Glendale evokes images of the main street in TV's fictional Mayberry.

(2 -- 3 -- color) Once Upon a Time, a family bookstore, above, and Andersen's Pet Shop, right, are two of the shops where customers get personalized service in Montrose.

(4) Critters, another shop on Honolulu Avenue in Montrose, sells stuffed animals, toys and other items.

John McCoy/Staff Photographer