Barnes & Noble Returns To 3rd Street Promenade, The Latest Sign In The Strip's Rebound

A familiar retailer is returning to the Third Street Promenade, and Santa Monica leaders hope it will act as a bellwether for the area's transformation.

Barnes & Noble is opening on the popular pedestrian shopping center next summer after a five-year absence. Its return is part of a project to turn the outdoor shopping strip into an entertainment venue, with pickleball courts, tattoo parlors and more.

“I never consider us to be a mall in your traditional sense,” said Andrew Thomas, the CEO of Downtown Santa Monica, a commercial property management group behind the Promenade.

It’s not the first transformation for the three-block pedestrian mall. In the 1960s, it went from a car-friendly district to a pedestrian-only attraction. In the 1980s, some $10 million were spent on improvements to bring back shoppers and diners. In the 1990s, new commercial chains were settling in, turning the strip into a shopping destination.

The 3rd Street Promenade

(

Courtey of Michael Ade Ojo via Downtown Santa Monica, Inc.

)

But boom times ended in the late 2010s, when rising rents kept businesses from renewing leases. Then the pandemic hit, which essentially shut down in-person shopping.

“It was very painful. We really haven't had any significant downturns at all until the last three years,” said Wally Marks, who owns the building where the new Barnes & Noble will move in.

The Promenade’s taxable sales dropped from more than $435 million to just about $200 million between 2017 and 2023, according to Santa Monica Public Information Officer Lauren Howland.

And as one business shuttered after the other, an uptick in unhoused people took root in Santa Monica’s commercial echelons.

Over the summer, angry business owners pushed the city council to address the growing unhoused issue. One owner draped a sign on his shuttered promenade store declaring, “Santa Monica Is Not Safe,” later changing it to “Santa Methica Is Not Safe.”

“That's probably when we put our foot on the gas and realized that we needed to do everything we possibly could to support our business community,” Thomas said.

New zoning ordinances eliminated obstacles so new kinds of businesses can open. A focus on making the city accessible to middle-class families, compared to the adjoined mall’s luxury offerings, was also a priority.

The bookstore's return

In June 2022, Marks cold-called Barnes & Noble. His current lease would be ending and he wanted to know if the bookstore chain had any interest in returning to the Promenade.

To his surprise, the answer was yes.

Barnes & Noble first left the shopping strip in 2018, amid high rent and the onslaught of online book sales. Its Santa Monica return is part of the book retailer's bigger turnaround plan.

“They're trying to give more local control to their store managers, so it's not top down but bottom up, and that's very appealing,” Marks said.

Marks longs to see the building return to the days of book readings and community events nestled within its exposed brick walls and hardwood floors. In the early 1990s, his building was home to the indie bookstore, Midnight Special Books.

He called Barnes & Noble's return “serendipitous.”

“We just really believe in the power of books and the power of magic that it brings to people,” Marks said.

Barnes & Noble will join a number of new businesses in the area. According to Howland, the city has seen 400 new businesses and issued almost 100 outdoor dining permits this year alone.

Earlier this summer, some residents in Santa Monica hung banners in front of a storefront on the 3rd Street Promenade, decrying what they described as safety issues from the city's growing homeless problem.

(

Courtesy of Courtney Lauretano

)

A local emergency

But the city must also find a way to take care of its most vulnerable residents, housing and homeless advocates say.

Santa Monica declared homelessness a local emergency this year as it rose 15% from 2022, but some say resources have not met the uptick.

"That's what Santa Monica does — it's a big tourist community and they care more about money and more about looking good for the tourists that are coming in as opposed to taking care of the people. So it's just a really bad situation," said Joey Trachtman, a local volunteer.

Trachtman has lived in Santa Monica for 25 years, and was part of a group of volunteers who provided food for the unhoused population of 100 or so people who had congregated on the Promenade during the pandemic.

As the Promenade remakes itself post-pandemic, the unhoused problem isn't going away.

“It’s a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week issue. Homelessness does not exist during just business hours, Monday through Friday, and we haven't made a strong enough attempt, especially downtown,” Santa Monica councilmember Phil Brock said.

17 new police officers have been approved to patrol the downtown area. Brock says more social work teams and supportive housing is needed, more than what the city has agreed to provide.

Brock added that people still feel unsafe, justifiably or not, in the area.

“We're still struggling to get back to what residents and visitors feel a lot of times is a really safe, clean, inviting place to shop, to walk, to eat,” Brock said.