1. By CHAMPAIGN WILLIAMS Staff Reporter
F
red Segal has been an iconic Melrose
Avenue luxury retailer for more than
half a century, and the company hadn’t
ventured far from those roots for years until a
recent expansion.
Now, the daughters of the retailer’s name-
sake founder are bringing a little bit of that
Westside touch to the Conejo Valley and the
upscale Promenade at Westlake Village.
The sisters are expanding their boutique,
The Closet, into the mall after spending nearly
20 years operating Fred Segal shops. But don’t
expect to see the Fred Segal name, or its distinc-
tive blue-and-red lettering surrounded by ivy.
“This has everything to do with Fred
Segal because he’s our dad, but it has nothing
to do with Fred Segal the store,” said Nina
Segal, 44, as she and her elder sister, Sharon
Segal, 47, sat in their Westlake Village office
and discussed their venture.
“The plan is to take what we’ve learned
and our successes that we had at Fred Segal
and to build upon those,” Sharon added.
The 2,600-square-foot mall store is owned
by the elder sister and will sell clothing lines
from nearly a dozen designers and brands,
such as Raquel Allegra and NSF Clothing.
Prices will range from under $50 to $275 for
such basics as tops, jeans and shoes. It is
expected to open by the end of the month.
Nina, a jewelry designer, will run its jew-
elry atrium. Together, the sisters have put
their mark on its design, with white oak
shelving and marble countertops, accented by
dark grey walls and copper-toned fixtures.
There are three Fred Segal locations with-
in California, including the original on
Melrose Avenue in Hollywood, a 1985 expan-
sion in Santa Monica and a newer outlet at
Los Angeles International Airport. In 2012,
their father sold worldwide licensing rights to
Sandow, a Boca Raton, Fla. company that
completed the LAX expansion, and took the
retailer to Las Vegas and Tokyo.
Fred Segal was not available for comment
as he is recuperating from a 2014 stroke. His
daughters declined to comment on his physi-
cal condition, other than to say he is undergo-
ing intense physical therapy.
While the Promenade at Westlake Village
may not have as high a hipster quotient as
either of the first two Fred Segal locations,
the area does boast an appealing demographic
the sisters have plenty of experience serving.
“The Westlake Village area certainly has a
lot of money,” said retail specialist Michael
Schiff, executive vice president of NAI
Capital, and manager of the brokerage’s
Westlake Village office. “People are willing to
spend for what they want.”
Retail roots
Fred Segal wasn’t a typical retailer. The
founder got his start selling jeans in 1960, but
in 1965 he established his store-within-a-store
concept on Melrose. Fred Segal provided a
place where jeans buyers could gather, but
each boutique on the property was operated
by a different retailer.
By 1985, Fred Segal had opened another
store in Santa Monica which grew to include
more than a dozen retail shops and restau-
rants. The locations are now a one-stop desti-
nation for celebrities and Hollywood-types
looking to shop, eat and socialize.
Nina opened her first shop at Fred Segal in
Santa Monica when she was 24 after her
father asked her to take over a 1,500-square-
foot vacated bead shop. Though her business
experience was minimal, the younger Segal
had an interest in designing and making jew-
elry, so she accepted.
“I was at a point in my life where I was try-
ing to figure out what I was going to do (pro-
fessionally),” she recalled. “I didn’t know any-
thing about starting a business at the time so I
learned very quickly. I did it because I wanted
to provide a space of creativity for people to
share – and 20 years later here I am.”
Over the next two decades, she and her
sister operated nearly 10 shops at Fred Segal
Santa Monica, two of which are still operat-
ing. Nina sells jewelry, including her own and
that by well-known designers such as Terry
Snider and Ariel Gordon, at her shop Nina
at Fred Segal. It also sells hats, scarves, sun-
glasses and other accessories.
Sharon has one shop at Fred Segal in
Santa Monica as well. Fred Segal Girl is an
upscale boutique featuring designer jeans,
blouses and accessories for young women.
Sharon first opened The Closet at Fred
Segal in 2013, but she decided to relocate to
Montana Avenue in Santa Monica. It was dur-
ing her move to Montana Avenue that she
began researching an expansion into the San
Fernando Valley.
It didn’t hurt that Rick Caruso was a fam-
ily friend and a phone call away. Sharon con-
tacted the mall developer during the holidays
in 2013 telling him of her interest to expand
over the hill.
“Rick Caruso goes way back with my dad,
and he does what our dad did,” Sharon
explained. “Our dad created a place where
you could go shop, get your hair done and
have lunch. It was an all-day experience. I
think that Rick with all of his properties does
the same thing.”
She said Caruso was more than happy to
offer assistance. The two began looking into
locations in Calabasas and other affluent
neighborhoods, but ultimately decided that
Caruso’s Promenade at Westlake Village
would be the best fit.
“I am very excited for The Closet to open
in Westlake Village,” Caruso said in an email.
“I also greatly admire their father, Fred Segal
– he is legendary.”
Neither Sharon nor Nina would disclose
how much they invested to open the Closet in
Westlake Village, but they acknowledged
being anxious about the opening.
“Fred Segal was an important part of our
history and an important part of our business
life,” Sharon said. “I don’t want people to not
think of Fred Segal when they come to The
Closet. I want them to go, ‘Oh, those are the
girls from Fred Segal! Let’s see what they’re
doing now.’”
By KAREN E. KLEIN Staff Reporter
A proposal by KB Home to build a three-
story, 58-unit condominium development
adjacent to a large nature preserve in
Chatsworth has drawn strong opposition from
West Valley residents.
At a hearing before the L.A. City Planning
Commission last week, more than a dozen
local homeowners turned out to speak against
the proposal.
No one, other than the developer, spoke in
favor of the project, said City Planner
Thomas Glick, who will issue a recommen-
dation to the commission next month on
whether to approve the project.
The L.A. residential developer declined to
comment on its plans, first unveiled last
spring, to put a 126,000-square-foot condo
development on the former home of the West
Valley Christian Church and Canyon Vista
Preschool at 22001 Nordhoff St. The compa-
ny has an option to purchase the property
from the church if it gets the required entitle-
ments to develop it, Glick said.
There is high demand for new housing in
the Valley, both from individuals and from
investors who are purchasing units as rentals,
said Matt Epstein, a broker with Berkshire
Hathaway HomeServices in Sherman Oaks.
“The demand for new construction is very,
very strong. There are lots of buyers and the
interest rates are still fantastic,” he said.
As of April, the median sales price for a
condominium in the San Fernando Valley hit
its highest figure since 2008, at $350,000 – up
12.2 percent year-over-year, according to the
Southland Regional Association of Realtors.
Favorable market conditions likely influ-
enced KB Homes’ plans in Chatsworth, but
the developer first ran into opposition last
summer from the Chatsworth Neighborhood
Council, whose land-use committee objected
to the project’s density even after plans for
the 5-acre site were scaled down from 73
units to 58. Committee members said they
would approve of a single-family home tract
on the property, but KB rejected that idea as
not financially feasible, said Council
President Andre van der Valk.
Councilmembers concerned about parking
issues and the density of the proposed project
voted down the developer’s plan earlier this
month, he said.
“In Chatsworth we have a lot of destina-
tion properties that abut state parks or the
nature preserve and we’re protective of them.
And this is one of them,” he said.
The property is just west of Topanga
Canyon Boulevard and east of the Chatsworth
Nature Preserve, a 1,325-acre protected area
owned and managed by the Los Angeles
Department of Water and Power. It is current-
ly zoned for low-density agricultural use.
KB Homes’ proposal calls for three- and
four-bedroom units ranging from 1,900- to
2,200-square-feet each, with private patios
and two-car garages. A 14,000-square-foot
open space on the southwest corner of the
property would provide a buffer between the
units and the nature preserve.
Glick expects to issue his recommendation
on the plan about a week before it comes up
again before the planning commission on July
23 for a final vote. Their decision can be
appealed to the L.A. City Council by either
the developer or local residents, he said.
Keeping Up
With the Segals
NEWS&ANALYSISJUNE 15, 2015 SAN FERNANDO VALLEY BUSINESS JOURNAL 5
RETAIL: Forget the Kardashians. Daughters of
fashion icon Fred Segal open local boutique.
Condo Plan for Church Site May Not Have Prayer
PHOTO BY THOMAS WASPER
Sisters: Nina, left, and Sharon Segal at entrance of Westlake Village store.
Available: 22001 Nordhoff St. building.