— Photo by TJ Sullivan —
Lots of bad news this week, including the announcement that Home Depot is shuttering its Expo Design Centers, like the one pictured above in Westwood Village. Losing this tenant in the village will surely leave a big vacant hole in the middle of what was expected to be a revitalized block of shops, with a new Trader Joe's market already open for business, and a Rite Aid and several eateries set to start business soon.
— TJ Sullivan in LA
I think these Expo Design Centers (which I've never visited) may have been a poorly executed idea in the first place. I happened to notice that a new one in the Cleveland area was the first thing to close in an otherwise booming new suburban lifestyle center. Maybe Home Depot just isn't all that good at trying to serve more upscale niches.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you there, John. I've never visited one either. The one in Westwood Village has been in a very bad location for foot traffic (or car traffic). A developer just finished building a Trader Joe's grocery store and a new Rite Aid and several condos and other shops across the street, but before that, there was no reason to venture in that direction. However, as it's the closest store of its kind to the exclusive community of Bel Air (less than a mile away), you'd think that if any Expo was going to make a go of it, this one would have been it.
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