EPICANTHUS

Rumors had been spreading through the Japanese American community for the past six months that Little Tokyo’s Mitsuwa Market would be closing in 2009, and now it has been confirmed that the L.A. Nihonmachi’s landmark supermarket will close its doors for the last time on Jan. 25.

Although Mitsuwa’s corporate website still hasn’t been updated to reflect news of the closing, L.A. netizens reported the Japanese supermarket’s imminent demise before Christmas.

From JDorama.com:

(Posted Dec. 13, 2008)

• gaijinmark: This really sucks I was over at the Little Tokyo Mitsuwa and one of the cashiers told me they’re closing it on Jan. 15th (Editor: Jan. 25) and it’s going to reopen as a Korean Supermarket asked her what she’s going to do, and she said she’s trying to get on at either the Santa Monica or Torrance stores but everything’s still up in the air. This really sucks.
• tu-triky: Remember I reported that was going to happen because a Korean concern bought the whole building..and they are going to make a Korean market the anchor of the new development. EDIT: Just wanted to say, yeah it does SUCK. I shopped there frequently. I have fond memories of that place. Well ever since the Japanese bubble economy burst over a decade ago…that Yaohan Plaza was pretty much going down hill.

Originally developed in 1985 as Little Tokyo Square by Albert Taira, a second-generation Japanese American, and Obayashi USA, the U.S. arm of Japanese real estate giant Obayashi Fudosan, Little Tokyo Square, a 250,000 sq. ft. complex, housed a Japanese supermarket (Yaohan), a department store, a movie theater, a bookstore and a bowling alley as well as many shops and restaurants in its heyday.

Taira Investment Corp. sold LTS (for an estimated $40 million) to Yaohan Group in 1989, which renamed it Yaohan Plaza. Yaohan operated the shopping center into the ’90s when its parent company fell victim to the free fall of Japan’s post-bubble economy. After the L.A. riots, the mall changed hands again and was renamed Mitsuwa Marketplace.

But a continuing dispersal of the local Japanese American community combined with the mass exodus of Japan, Inc. from Little Tokyo resulted in another sale, this time for a bargain basement price of $13 million in May, 2000 to real estate developer Richard Meruelo, who in turn sold it Three Alameda Plaza LLC in May.

The buyers are reported to be six Korean-Americans who made their money as manufacturers in the Fashion District. They paid an estimated $35 million for the mall. Ryan Oh, who brokered the deal for Coldwell-Banker, declined to further identify the new owners.

However, Oh told Los Angeles Business Journal that plans call for a renovation of the shopping center to accommodate new tenants in three anchor spaces: a Korean market (H Mart) that’s about 30 percent larger than its counterparts in Koreatown; a full-service Korean spa with various herbal steam rooms; and an electronics retailer.

Although the Japanese American community will continue to influence their traditional ethnic core for years to come—the city recently granted a Nikkei group rights to develop a large, multi-use community recreation center at E. 1st street and Alameda—more outside developers are investing in the area.

The distinctive Japanese Village Plaza was bought by American Commercial Equities. Jamison Services Inc., a local Korean-American commercial developer, picked up three properties in Little Tokyo.

Last fall, Iranian investors took over what was formerly the New Otani Hotel, now Kyoto Grand Hotel and Gardens. In November, they sold the third-floor restaurant area, including the 30-year-old Thousand Cranes Restaurant, to a Korean restaurant operator.

Linkage:

• Little Seoul Mall: New Owners to Evict Japanese Businesses? angelenic.com
  
• Sushi to Kimchi, L.A. Business Journal
• Large Korean Grocer to Replace Little Tokyo’s Mitsuwa, angelenic.com
• Korean Tenants to Replace Japanese at Little Tokyo Center, LABJ
  
• Sale of Little Tokyo Mall Stirs Apprehension: A Little Korean Irony Seeps Through the Static
• Nikkei Center Could Help Revive Little Tokyo, Nichi Bei Times
• Remembering Albert Taira: The Man Who Built Little Tokyo Square/Yaohan Plaza, alberttaira.com
• Bronzeville: Change Nothing New to Little Tokyo.