Housewares store to reopen in Marketplace

DOWNTOWN GLENDALE — For nearly four years, the national home furnishing store Linens 'N Things has occupied space in the Glendale Marketplace, but it's been closed for business — until now.

The store closed its doors to Glendale in the summer of 2003, but its parent company held on to its lease, said Scott Silver, co-owner of the Eagle Group, LLC, which manages the Marketplace.

Now, in anticipation of the Americana at Brand — currently under construction and slated to open in the spring of 2008 — the store is back in business. The doors opened on April 20 and the store will host a grand re-opening bash on Sunday.

"The main reason we're re-opening is the Americana is a new business that's opening up and we feel that we're going to benefit from that as a company and as a store here," said Jaime Mejia, assistant store manager.

The Americana at Brand, dreamed up by Los Angeles developer Caruso Affiliated, who also built "The Grove" in Los Angeles, promises 475,000 square feet of retail, restaurant and entertainment uses just a block from the Marketplace.

"It is competition, but by advertising through our home office, it'll get our name out there and back … we're ready for [the Americana]," Mejia said.

Linens 'N Things closed in the summer of 2003 because ownership decided there was more opportunity in Pasadena, Mejia said.

But the Americana — and all the added foot-traffic it could bring to downtown Glendale — represents the kind of opportunity that the city lacked four years ago, he said.

Planned apartment and condominiums at the Americana should also help Linens 'N Things, which is geared toward high-end home furnishings, said Kris Ellenberg, a company spokesperson.

"I just think there's a lot of new condo development going on downtown and that's going to create a new residential community, with people walking a lot downtown and we cater to that," Ellenberg said.

The Americana is slated to add 238 apartment units and 100 condominiums, but there are at least eight more downtown residential projects in the pipeline that could add as many as 1,018 residential units, said Dave Ahern, deputy director of the City's Development Services.

"The Americana is doing exactly what redevelopment is supposed to do," Ahern said. "It gets the ball rolling. This is textbook redevelopment and exactly what we hoped for."

In addition to Linens 'N Things, the Marketplace is anticipating a string of new tenants, including Outback Steakhouse — expected to replace Bennigan's Grill & Tavern by the end of 2007 — and Walgreens, which is slated to fill the space vacated by Tower Records in late summer, Silver said.

"Each time we've had a tenant go dark, such as Linens, Tower and CompUSA, we've had a lot of interest from strong national credit tenants," Silver said.

The commercial center — which also includes Mann Theater — will offer a cheaper alternative to the Americana, Silver said.

"I think we're in a great place to complement the coming of the Americana," Silver said. "They're going to have their white-tablecloth sit-down restaurants, and we have our less expensive fast-service restaurants in our Paseo Food Court."