Store says center is a flop

COSTA MESA — What if a major new shopping center opened in town and nobody came?

Katherine Logan-Brown, the co-owner of Waterfront Furnishings in the South Coast Home Furnishings Centre, has asked herself that question more than once in the last four months.

She and her son, co-owner Don Logan, have been served with an eviction notice and plan to appear in court today; Logan has accused the center’s management of poorly advertising tenants and targeting him for his outspokenness. In the meantime, the store they opened in August hasn’t seen a great deal of foot traffic.

“From the beginning of December, I’ve done a study on the amount of people who come into the store, and it’s not unusual on Monday or Tuesday for two people to walk in,” Logan-Brown said. “If we have four people walk into the store on any given weekday, that’s a big day.”

The South Coast Home Furnishings Centre, which resides at 3323 Hyland Ave., by the north entrance of the 405 Freeway, celebrated its grand opening last month after rolling out tenants over the last year. The complex features more than 30 furniture and home decoration stores, from well-known chains such as Wickes and La-Z-Boy to smaller specialty boutiques.

All that’s missing, for the most part, are the crowds. On an average day, a smattering of cars fills the vast parking lot; some shop owners wait hours for customers to pass by their doors, let alone enter; the bubbling fountain provides the only sound in the vacant courtyard.

According to Logan, who has subpoenaed a number of fellow shop owners to testify on his behalf today, the lack of attendance at the center is the result of incompetent publicity by its owners and management. The center held a grand opening Nov. 17 and 18 and has placed ads in the media, but Logan said those efforts only came after pressure from him and other tenants.

Christopher Louis, the president of the center’s management team, did not return repeated calls seeking comment for this story, but he previously told the Daily Pilot the center planned a second grand opening in February.

Not all the tenants feel gloomy about the center’s prospects. Jay Lee, the assistant manager at Linder’s Furniture, said his store — one of the largest and most visible in the complex — had done steady business during the holiday months. Chris Mulhall, whose smaller Visions store opened in November, said he expected the center to thrive within a year.

“It’s like any new center,” he said. “It takes time to grow and become a viable entity in the community.”

Saturday morning, only a few customers milled around the complex, but all of them said they were impressed by it.

Debbie Iverson of Fountain Valley noticed the Wickes sign on the freeway the night before and returned to buy furniture and lamps. Ty Jacobsen of Seal Beach heard about the center from a co-worker and stopped in for a sofa and futon.

“It looks like a perfect place,” he said. “Everything’s here all together.”

MICHAEL MILLER may be reached at (714) 966-4617 or at [email protected].