TOPANGA MALL TRIES ON SPLASH OF BEVERLY HILLS.

Byline: BRENT HOPKINS Staff Writer

CANOGA PARK -- Once ignoring it as the land of sensible shoes and polyester pants, luxury retailers now want to bring an upscale twist to the formerly middlebrow San Fernando Valley.

Crews at the Westfield Topanga mall are laboring to add more than a half-billion dollars worth of upgrades to the 42-year-old site. There's a Neiman Marcus on the way in two years, and Nordstrom Inc. recently showed off hints of what will make up its first new store in the area in 22 years.

``We've been perceived as a standard community, consigned to stuffy chains and franchises,'' said Bob Scott, chairman of the Valley Industry and Commerce Association and a longtime player in urban planning. ``You'd get the plain vanilla version of everything, instead of the stores they'd put in Beverly Hills. Now, we're seeing the Valley with its own appeal and getting more than just the same thing that they'd give everyone else.''

Nordstrom entered the scene at the Topanga site in 1984, performing solidly, but the store never differentiated itself from its locations in Glendale or West Los Angeles. With the dress-up in the works at the mall, the Seattle-based chain made a conscious effort to push its newly constructed store to something beyond what it had already wrought.

``People don't want to drive to Beverly Hills for this, they want to stay here in the Valley,'' said Deniz Anders, a Nordstrom spokeswoman. ``We want to offer them these options, but not at the expense of anything else.''

After it shuts the doors on the current store and goes through an overnight mad dash to its new one across the parking lot Oct. 6, Nordstrom will have a significantly new look. At close to 200,000 square feet and three levels, it has another 56,000 square feet to play with, staffed by 200 more workers atop its current roster of 600 employees.

The company intends to fill that space with designer boutiques by Valentino, Dolce & Gabbana and Chanel, only the second time the company has tried the option in one of its 99 stores. It boasts five shoe departments, including a ritzy area pushing Jimmy Choo sandals and Manolo Blahnik spikes that sell for as much as a good used car.

Continuing the designer name-dropping, the store will sell Dior, YSL, Vera Wang and Roberto Cavalli wares. It will offer a new spa to accommodate gaggles of well-heeled, rough-nailed girlfriends for manicures and pedicures. It will even have a new restaurant with a brick oven, selling private-label vinegars and Nordstrom-brand dressing.

``The customer base has been there, but it's been missed by the retailers up until now,'' said Brandi Friel, marketing director for Westfield Topanga. ``We know they live here, we just want to keep them here.''

After Nordstrom closes the doors to its old building, Westfield will knock it down and pave the way for Neiman Marcus, which will build a 160,000-square-foot, two-level shop, with Cole Haan and BCBG boutiques lining the way to its doors.

``The retail we're putting outside their doors is high-end and fashion-forward instead of the standard ready-to-wear stuff we have today,'' Friel said. ``We'll still have that, of course, but we're definitely doing things we've never done before.''

brent.hopkins(at)dailynews.com

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CAPTION(S):

2 photos, map

Photo:

(1 -- color) Construction crews work on the southwest side of the Westfield Topanga mall. More than a half-billion dollars is being spent to upgrade the mall and bring in high-end stores.

(2) Construction is visible inside the northeast corner of the Westfield Topanga mall. Crews have been working for months to upgrade the 42-year-old Canoga Park facility.

John McCoy/Staff Photographer

Map:

LAND OWNED BY WESTFIELD