The Bloc Los Angeles

The Bloc (stylized as THE BLOC), formerly Macy's Plaza and Broadway Plaza, is an open-air plaza in downtown Los Angeles at 700 South Flower Street, in the Financial District. Its tenants include the downtown Los Angeles Macy's store, LA Fitness, Nordstrom Local, UNIQLO and the Sheraton Grand Los Angeles hotel. The plaza has its own access to the LA Metro at the 7th Street/Metro Center station.

The Bloc
Location700 S. Flower Street
Los Angeles, California 90017
Coordinates34.048334°N 118.258643°W / 34.048334; -118.258643
Opening date1973 (1973)
OwnerNational Real Estate Advisors
Public transit access7th Street/Metro Center station
Websitewww.theblocla.com

History

The Original Broadway Plaza (1973–2013)

The original Broadway Plaza opened as an enclosed shopping mall in 1973. The structure claimed to be the first enclosed "suburban" type shopping center in a downtown area in the United States.[1] The original enclosed mall included the downtown The Broadway store, the Hyatt Regency Los Angeles, and an Oshman's Sporting Goods, along with an underground food court and several smaller non-chain shops.

The mall was renamed Macy's Plaza in 1996 due to the bankruptcy of The Broadway chain being bought out by Macy's. In 2005, the Hyatt Regency was renamed the Sheraton Los Angeles Downtown. Bally Total Fitness (which occupied the Oshman's space) closed and re-opened as LA Fitness in 2012. In 2013, Macy's Plaza was acquired by Ratkovich, who developed plans to replace the imposing 1973-vintage "monolithic" red brick fortress-like architectural style, with a more open plan.[2]

Renovation (2015)

A majority of the Macy's Plaza closed in early-2015 for the conversion into a new open-air plaza, given the name The Bloc. The renovation forced many long-time tenants, including Bath and Body Works, Express, Lady Foot Locker, Victoria's Secret, and original 1973 opening tenant Carl's Jr. in the underground food court to close. Many of these tenants, including Victoria's Secret and Bath and Body Works, moved to the nearby newly-renovated FIGat7th outdoor mall. Macy's and the Sheraton hotel remained open during the renovations. LA Fitness and the United States Postal Service branch at the mall remained operational but were forced to move to street level. In May 2015, the large "Macy's" sign was taken down and the large glass atrium roof was removed, officially opening the atrium of the once enclosed mall to the sky.[3]

The New Outdoor-Plaza

The Bloc Los Angeles was officially opened in October 2015. By design, the outdoor plaza was the first development in the Los Angeles area to have its own access to the LA Metro (as was planned when the subway line was constructed under Flower Street in 1989). The new plaza will contain Los Angeles' first Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, an Austin-based movie theatre chain, and Starbucks Evenings, a Starbucks store concept that serves alcoholic beverages, along with a Macy's flagship store, GNC, and LA Fitness. Other restaurants include Hatch, Urban Oven, CoffeeWalk YogurTalk, Everytable and District DTLA.[4] In 2016, following a renovation, the Sheraton Los Angeles Downtown was renamed the Sheraton Grand Los Angeles.[5] Due to delays in construction, The Bloc for a while had trouble finding tenants, but once Alamo Drafthouse officially signed their lease, more tenants started signing leases. The Bloc now has 60 percent of the office spaces leased and 76 percent of the retail space leased.[6]

In 2018, a retailer Uniqlo opens it store in Downtown LA.

References

  1. "Macy's Plaza & Hyatt Regency Hotel > Downtown Los Angeles Walking Tour > USC Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences". dornsife.usc.edu. Retrieved 2017-01-21.
  2. "Ratkovich Acquires Downtown LA Macy's Plaza: Will Begin $160 Million Upgrade with New Access to Subway Station | DTLA RISING". DTLA Rising with Brigham Yen. 2013-06-06. Retrieved 2017-01-21.
  3. Vincent, Roger. "Former Macy's Plaza in DTLA getting makeover from roof down". latimes.com. Retrieved 2017-01-21.
  4. "Opening Soon | THE BLOC". www.theblocdowntown.com. Retrieved 2017-01-21.
  5. Resource, Hotel News. "Sheraton Los Angeles Downtown Hotel Designated a Sheraton Grand Property". www.hotelnewsresource.com. Retrieved 2017-12-24.
  6. "Alamo Drafthouse will open at The Bloc in 2018". Curbed LA. Retrieved 2017-12-24.
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