Cynthia Dornsife loved shopping on Costa Mesa’s 17th Street so much she opened her first business there, boutique Clothes for the Soul.
“I just loved the street,” Dornsife said.
Dornsife compares 17th Street, which has swanky Newport Beach on one side and homey Costa Mesa on the other, to a smaller version of Robertson Boulevard in Los Angeles. It’s hip,yet classic, fun and unusual, she said.
At first glance, 17th Street looks like strip malls you’d find across Orange County. Scratch beneath the surface, and you’ll find eclectic boutiques, service businesses and a sprinkling of chain stores.
In the backyard of South Coast Plaza and Fashion Island, 17th Street has made a name for itself as a trendy, offbeat place to shop.
“Basically, you can find anything on 17th Street,” said Lainie Queen, who runs bakery Cookies in Bloom from the 17th Street Promenade shopping center.
After looking at several other spots in the area, Queen and husband Michael opened Cookies in Bloom at 17th Street Promenade three years ago.
“I sat in parking lots and watched traffic,” she said. “I get a lot of business from people who say, ‘I saw your store driving by.'”
More cars on the street hasn’t gone unnoticed by Costa Mesa officials, who are drawing up designs to improve traffic and spiff up the street.
Landlords also have been on a roll, remodeling storefronts.
Fashion Island Recruits
The big players have taken notice.
The Irvine Company recently recruited one of 17th Street’s stars, Lola Rouge, to open a second store at Fashion Island. Flirty Lola Rouge sells designer denim, jewelry, unique accessories and other items in the Promenade center.
Another 17th Street store, toy seller Toy Boat, also has another shop at Fashion Island.
It’s the mix that gives 17th Street its flavor.
There are restaurants, such as Plums Caf & #233; & Catering, Mi Casa and Shirley’s Bagels, along with several coffeehouses.
Boutiques are plentiful, including Clothes for the Soul, Lola Rouge, Erin Cole, Xpecting maternity wear, and Crush, a discount retailer with a pink and black awning.
Then there are one of a kind stores such as The First Page children’s bookstore, Where’s the Party and Two Wheels One Planet, a bike shop.
Pierce Street Annex and La Cave, a steakhouse and nightclub, are hangouts.
Service businesses abound,Dog Spaw for doggie pampering, banks, tutoring and hair and nail salons galore.
Marcial Gallardo and wife Judy said they knew they wanted to open their restaurant on 17th Street,they live nearby. It was just a matter of where.
Two years ago, the Gallardos opened California Wraps & Grill at 17th Street Promenade, which had just been remodeled and had plenty of parking.
The street is a women’s shopping haven, Gallardo said. He chalks up the bulk of his corporate catering to referrals from the wives of businessmen.
Dianne French, owner of French’s Cupcake Bakery across from the Promenade, said 17th Street always has been an eclectic place to shop. She and husband Jerry have owned the bakery there for 30 years.
French’s recently reopened after a fire closed the bakery and other stores for about a year.
“We’re gradually getting our customer base back,” she said. “It was hard.”
Fellow business owners lent a hand,”whatever they could do to help us,” she said.
The Frenches tapped their savings and credit cards to reopen. They live exactly one mile away.
“We love 17th Street,” she said.
Retail Camaraderie
Camaraderie is strong among 17th Street business owners, said Queen of bakery Cookies in Bloom.
“We’re all small business owners and we all want to see each other succeed,” she said.
The owners refer business to one another, she said.
“We all seem to have really good relationships with each other,” Queen said.
Irvine-based real estate owner and manager Wohl Investment Co. would own more on 17th if it could, said Peter Desforges, the company’s president.
Wohl owns 17th Street Promenade, Newport 17th Plaza, Westport Square and Westport Plaza.
About two months ago, Wohl also bought a 17th Street building that houses a Marie Callender’s Restaurant & Bakery.
“We buy them and rehab them and hold onto them,” Desforges said.
Wohl is giving Westport Square a face-lift. The strip mall is home to Tea & Sympathy, Delilahs, Blue Springs Home and others.
Adjacent Westport Plaza,home to Fleur de Lys, Newport Needlepoint, Shopgirls and others,recently was made over.
The street is about to get showier.
The city’s designs call for decorative lamps, maybe some colored cement in crosswalks if funding allows. Costa Mesa plans street upgrades in late fall or early winter, after the summer tourists are gone.
The intersections of 17th and Orange, Santa Ana and Westminster avenues are set to get left turn signals and a right turn lane, said William Morris, public services director for Costa Mesa.
Seventeenth Street itself is set to be widened and repaved with new sidewalks, Morris said. Businesses won’t need to close, he said.
The first phase of the estimated $4 million project should be done a year from now with repaving after that, he said.
Pricey Rent
With all the attention comes the inevitable. Higher rents.
“It’s a very expensive street,” said Dornsife of Clothes for the Soul.
At Wohl’s centers, rents are $3 to $4 a square foot, higher than at other strip malls.
“We’d like to think the money that we spent rehabbing attracts higher-end tenants,” Desforges said.
Rents are even higher,$4.25 a square a foot,at Newport Mesa Plaza at 17th and Irvine, a corner shopping center.
“The economy is strong,” said Dale Falasco, owner of Newport West Properties, which manages Newport Mesa Plaza, home to Bruegger’s Bagels and newly opened Andiamo Caffe.
Businesses want to be there because they make money, Falasco said.
“It’s always been a real strong street to merchants,” he said.
Cookies in Bloom in the 17th Street Promenade pays the highest rent of all Cookies in Bloom franchises, according to Queen. But it’s still not as expensive as other areas in Orange County, such as Mission Viejo, she said.
“California’s just expensive. Period,” Queen said.
The Wohl centers are full, with one exception. One space is available in Newport 17th Plaza, where a Dollar store went out of business.
Desforges said he looks for local, specialty tenants and shies away from national chains.
“We think that’s what creates the charm on that street,” he said.
Clothes for the Soul’s Dornsife said she’s already had offers to sell or move her business, which she says is thriving. But she’s not going anywhere.
“I like where I am,” she said.
