Ungainly strip to get new look with gateway project's arrival. (Spotlight on West Hollywood).

JUST as the two-year reconstruction of Santa Monica Boulevard wrapped up in 2001, the retail strip at the eastern end of West Hollywood got hit with another blow.

The economy went south, pushing several neighborhood businesses over the edge. Now, there are more than a dozen "For Lease" signs along the one-mile strip east of Fairfax Avenue.

"When the boulevard was finished, we thought that with this nice clean street, business would get better," said Alexander Konopov, who manages the Spaulding Pharmacy at Spaulding and Santa Monica. "But then came Sept. 11 and business hasn't recovered since."

Joan English, director of transportation and public works for the City of West Hollywood, said there appear to be more vacancies now than at the height of the construction, when traffic delays stifled business.

Relief is at least one year away, in the form of a 245,000-square foot retail and restaurant center at the intersection of Santa Monica Boulevard and La Brea Avenue.

Target and Best Buy stores will be anchors for the 4-acre, $80 million project, which is being developed by J.H. Snyder Co. and slated to open in March 2004.

"We hope this serves as a catalyst," said Allyne Windennan, West Hollywood's director of housing and rent stabilization. "Already we have developers expressing interest in projects at the other corners of Santa Monica and La Brea."

Dining plans

The center at La Brea will have eight eating establishments, including Baja Fresh, Starbucks and Ben & Jerry's, said Milton Swimmer, a partner at J.H. Snyder. There will also be a Payless Shoes outlet, a couple of beauty stores and a specialty wine and liquor store called Beverages and More.

The blueprint calls for regional mall projects at each end of the Santa Monica redevelopment zone -- at Fairfax and La Brea avenues -- with a number of smaller mixed-use projects in between, Winderman said.

"We want to improve the character of the area, but we don't want to change the neighborhood feel," she said, noting that proposals are being solicited for other developments at the intersection of Santa Monica and La Brea.

At the southeast corners of both Spaulding and Sierra Bonita avenues, the city has acquired properties for smaller mixed-use projects. Negotiations also are under way to buy properties at two more streets intersecting Santa Monica Boulevard, at Orange Grove and Vista, Winderman said.

For years, the eastern end of Santa Monica in West Hollywood, with its auto body shops, pawnshops and convenience stores, has been the neglected stepchild of ritzier locales to the west and on Sunset Strip. Retail rents east of Fairfax run about half the going rate near Robertson Boulevard.

In the last several years, redevelopment funds have been used to freshen up the facades of some of its older buildings, although the building stock remains noticeably older than the tonier west end of the boulevard.

Also, the city has ordered the handful of auto body shops in the redevelopment zone to enclose their repair operations or move out.

Henry Mardy, owner of Euro-Design Auto Craft Inc., said he originally was ordered to enclose his facility by May. He successfully petitioned the city for a year extension, and plans on asking for another.

"It will cost us about $250,000 to tear down the existing structure and put up a completely new one, and that's money we can't afford right now," Mardy said.

Some argue it will take more than a couple of regional malls and a facelift to turn the area around. "If you're a tenant in that area today, there's almost no parking for your customers. It's the single-biggest problem," said Dick Carter, retail broker at May Realty Advisors.

The immediate solution will be to turn some of the properties the city has required into temporary surface parking lots. "No question, public parking is a big first use," Winderman said. 'That's what's needed in the area"

Longer term, Winderman said the city is looking at other parking solutions, such as incorporating parking structures into some of the new projects coming on line.