After All the Fanfare, Segerstrom Hopes Walkway Will Boost Sales
Everybody was swooning at the lavish opening earlier this month of South Coast Plaza’s new Bridge of Gardens, but no one cooed louder than Jerry Sullivan, chief executive of Macy’s West.
“The thing that is most beautiful about this bridge is that it goes from one Macy’s store to another Macy’s store,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan was one of several speakers who addressed a crowd of some 200 people,including local government officials, retailers and shoppers,in a ceremony that culminated with an opulent display of doves and streamers sent out overhead to the sounds of trumpets.
The 600-foot pedestrian bridge across Bear Street links the large main section of the center on the east side with the former Crystal Court, now a section of South Coast Plaza devoted to home design, on the west side. The Garden Terrace features a new French sandwich shop, Pascal Caf & #233;, run by restaurateur Pascal Olhats on the east end, and other new restaurants, including California Pizza Kitchen and Bangkok Four, on the west side.
Macy’s recently opened its first Macy’s Home Store in the former Crystal Court section of the center and a second Macy’s store sits at the base of the bridge’s entrance on the main side.
Sullivan told onlookers that his company expects the new home store has the potential to generate $200 million in annual sales. It was already the company’s No. 1 store in Southern California and ranked in the top 10 nationally prior to its recent year-long, multi-million dollar renovation. Macy’s has spent roughly $125 million on renovations and store construction this past year, including a new store in Westminster, he said.
It took 156 trailer loads of merchandise to fill up the displays inside the 189,000-square-foot three-level Macy’s Home store, Sullivan told the crowd.
But it was Henry Segerstrom who stole the show with his wisecracking comments as the drums sounded just before a flock of doves was released.
“It sounds like the Indians are coming,” said Segerstrom, who then took the arm of the bridge’s designer, Kathryn Gustafson, and headed up the escalators to lead the crowd across the bridge.
In attendance along with Segerstrom was his son Anton, who oversees the former Crystal Court section of the shopping center, and his daughter-in-law, Jennifer Gracey. Also on hand was the senior Segerstrom’s wife, Elizabeth.
After 10 years of discussing possibilities of a link between the centers that included early ideas like a monorail and a moving sidewalk, Segerstrom said he was pleased with bridge.
“At night it’s a fantasy, a vision of lighting,” he said.
But despite all its glamour, the bridge was a practical consideration, Segerstrom said.
“The real reason was to increase sales,I’ve got to admit,” Segerstrom told the crowd.
South Coast Plaza officials won’t say how much it cost to build the pedestrian bridge, but its opening marks the end of nearly two years of renovations that totaled $120 million.
Walking across the bridge as part of a procession that followed Henry Segerstrom, Macy’s Sullivan was asked whether his company contributed to the cost of the bridge.
“Henry didn’t ask, and we didn’t offer,” he said.
