BRIDGET O'BRIEN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff The vacant Macy's building on Weyburn Avenue will be used for new stores such as Ralphs Fresh Fare and EXPO Design Center.
By Kimberley Ma
Daily Bruin Contributor
Since Macy’s Westwood closed its doors in 1999, the building on Weyburn Avenue has remained vacant, but will soon house new retailers.
The announcement that Ralphs Fresh Fare grocery store and EXPO Design Center will be moving into the village next year was made Thursday morning in front of the empty Macy’s building. Councilman Michael Feuer and several Westwood homeowners and businessmen attended the presentation.
“Both Ralphs and EXPO will be instructive to the future of Westwood. It will revitalize Westwood the right way and turn the village into a neighborhood-serving oriented place,” Feuer said.
Madison Marquette, a Cincinnati-based developer and retail property manager, gained control of the building earlier this March from Federated Department Stores, Inc.
The company expects to open a 55,000 square-foot Ralphs Fresh Fare on the second floor and EXPO Design Center, which will occupy 93,000 square feet, on the first floor in October 2001.
Ralphs Fresh Fare is a specialized format of the Ralphs Grocery Store, with a wider selection of gourmet products, fresh meats and produce.
But some students are concerned prices may be too high, since the grocery store will cater to consumers who shop for gourmet foods.
“I’d rather have a regular Ralphs because students are already on a tight budget,” said Quan Phuong, a fourth-year biochemistry student.
Since Westwood’s birth in 1929, five grocery stores have opened in the village. Ralphs was the first grocery store that opened in 1929 and closed in 1962 because it was too small and didn’t meet the needs of the community, according to UCLA alumnus and Westwood historian Steve Sann.
The other four grocery stores eventually closed as well. Out of the five closed stores in Westwood, three were replaced by movie theaters.
“This will be the first full-service supermarket in Westwood in over a quarter of a century,” Sann said. “Not having a full-service market was really a burden to the community.”
“We are thrilled to be coming back to the village,” said Patrick Barber, senior vice president of real estate for Ralphs Fresh Fare. “It has been a long time, but well worth the wait. It was the village who really cared and who let the developers know that they wanted us here.”
EXPO Design Center, a division of The Home Depot, is a full-service interior design store.
“EXPO is highly talked about,” said Dennis Cornwell, president of the Westwood Business Improvement District, an organization aimed at promoting businesses in the village.
“I’ve heard about people who have driven all the way to Monrovia to go there,” he continued.
Barber said sales of the new stores are projected to triple the income Macy’s brought in before it closed. Members of the Westwood community expect the stores to attract new tenants into vacant spaces as well.
Ralphs Fresh Fare and EXPO are aimed at three principal targets: neighbors that live in the Westwood area, UCLA students and faculty and office workers around the area.
“I think it’s going to be wonderful,” said Eileen Sage, a Westwood resident. “It’ll be more convenient and we won’t have to go such a long way to shop.”