Ernst & Young Plazae

LOS ANGELES-Target Stores has signed a 20-year lease to occupy more than 100,000 square feet at the 7th & Fig retail center, which is part of the Ernst & Young Plaza in Downtown L.A. The retailer will fill space that once housed Macy’s and Bullocks department stores but has been vacant since Macy’s left in early 2009. It is described by property owner Brookfield Properties as the largest retail lease in two decades in Downtown Los Angeles. Target expects to open the store in 2012.

The retail center, called 7th & Fig at Ernst & Young Plaza, is a three-level, 330,000-square-foot open-air shopping center set within a 2.5-acre plaza in the heart of the Los Angeles financial district. Brookfield is in the advanced planning stage of a major repositioning of the center, which originally opened in 1986.

Talk of Target leasing space at 7th & Fig has circulated for some time. An article in the Los Angeles Downtown News nearly a year ago said that Target was negotiating with Brookfield for space at the retail center, but neither Target nor Brookfield would comment at the time.

Signatories: Target VP Carmen Moch, Brookfield SVP
Bert Dezzutti, L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa

Bringing in new retailers to Downtown L.A. was a continuing topic of discussion during the building boom earlier this decade as developers created thousands of apartments and condominiums Downtown, creating more demand for retail stores to serve new Downtown residents. That demand resulted in the opening in 2007 of a Ralphs supermarket at 645 W. Ninth St. According to Ralphs, Downtown L.A. had been without a full-service supermarket for more than 50 years before that.

In the Target lease, Brookfield Office Properties was represented by Edward Hogan, national director of retail leasing; Target was represented by Richard Rizika of CB Richard Ellis. Financial terms of the lease were not disclosed.