Westwood buzzes with efforts to rejuvenate, revive former glory.

Westwood is being rejuvenated, retail sources say, pointing to a handful of prestigious retailers signing leases there. Yet empty storefronts still dot the streets and weekend foot traffic remains sparse.

A decade ago Westwood was a booming center for teenagers and young adults to go to the movies, eat and shop.

Then came a few well-publicized incidents of violence, some involving racial confrontations, coupled with competition from theaters, restaurants and shops at Santa Monica's Third Street Promenade and the Century City Shopping Center. Westwood suffered and many retailers went out of business or moved elsewhere.

But several Westwood community leaders have been attempting during the past few years to restore the village's reputation and vigor. And in some ways they already are succeeding, while they also hatch ambitious plans for a Third Street-like promenade and a major new development.

Electronics retailer Circuit City is expected to sign a lease soon for 28,000 square feet at 1145 Gayley Ave., said Steve Soboroff, managing partner in Santa Monica-based Soboroff Partners, a retail brokerage firm.

Richmond, Va.-based Circuit City plans to spend $2 million readying the Gayley Center for the store, Soboroff said.

Thrifty Drug Stores is also negotiating to go into a 24,000-square-foot space at 1101 Westwood Blvd., a former Bank of America branch, said Dick Carter, senior retail associate with the Sherman Oaks office of Beitler Commercial Realty Services. If the lease is signed, the drugstore probably would open in summer 1994, he said.

Ike Starkman, owner of the Studio City-based Jerry's Famous Deli chain, bought space at 10925 Weyburn Ave. in spring 1993 and plans to open a 250-seat Jerry's Famous Deli next summer, said Tom Carroll, executive director of Westwood Village Management Corp. Westwood Village Management is made up of Westwood Village property owners, merchants and residents who aim to attract business to Westwood and improve the area.

San Francisco-based Milano's Italian restaurant opened in October in the former Yesterday's space at 1056 Westwood Blvd., said Matthew May, director of retail for the Westside office of Beitler Commercial Real Estate Services.

Furthermore, since the yellow Macho's Mexican restaurant sign was turned off at 939 Broxton Ave., there have been more than 30 proposals for that site, Carroll said.

Among the possible suitors are McDonald's and In-N-Out Burger, May said.

Hooter's, a Texas-based barbecue-style restaurant, has leased space and is expected to open in March on the northwest corner of Glendon and Kinross avenues in a brick and dark-wood building Chart House used to occupy, said Elliot Lewis, owner of the property.

A few retailers commented that the overall foot-traffic situation in the village seems to be improving.

"It's definitely picking up. There are nights when it seems like there are more people in the village," said one retailer who wished to remain anonymous.

There are better restaurants coming in and fewer homeless people, she said. Before, "you'd go three feet and you'd run into a bum. You don't see that so much any more."

Business at Penny Lane record store has been "picking up" during the past year, added Manager Jordan Zevon.

However, on a recent Saturday night, foot traffic in the village was sparse. El Pollo Loco was nearly deserted, and one store was so empty that its managers were playing solitaire.

Westwood is one of the calmest areas in town, observed Karl Johansson, an employee at the outdoor Westwood Village Newsstand. People mostly come to the village to go to the movies or get coffee, he said.

"The students don't even come down here any more," said Amir, the manager at Elysee deli who didn't want his last name used.

Contempo Casuals occupies what sources say is Westwood's premier location at the corner of Westwood Boulevard and Kinross Avenue. Yet, although the weather was lousy during Christmas 1992, the store was busier then than it is now, said Manager Fatima Gribonos.

Customers are choosing to go to stores in the nearby malls instead, she said, observing that other clothing retailers in Westwood, such as Wild Pair and Oaktree, are not doing as well as their mall counterparts either.

The City of L.A. has assessed the village's property owners and merchants $3 million to revitalize the streets of Westwood, Lewis said.

Included are plans to turn Broxton Street between Weyburn and Kinross avenues into a promenade area similar to the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica, with 30-foot-wide sidewalks and outdoor dining, Carroll said. This project's targeted completion date is 1995.

Fourteen smaller retailers have opened in the village during the past three months, according to Lewis. Some of these are Frame & Lens, Flight Deck Bakery, Falaffel King and Sun King Produce.

Prestigious tenants that have renewed their leases recently are Moustache Cafe, Westwood Flower Garden, Footlocker, Ann Taylor and Stratton's Grill, Lewis said.

"For Lease" signs still dot the streets, but Lewis said most of that space either soon will be occupied or is earmarked for the Nansay project, a $100 million hotel, theater and retail development being developed by Nansay USA Inc., a Santa Monica-based developer. The project is still in the financing stages, Lewis said.