Tough Sell at the Market

The morning regulars at Farmers Market are a crusty bunch.

They like their coffee black, their rye toast crisp, their bagels fresh. And they like their usual seats at the rickety tables scattered across the open-air patio between the fish counter and the doughnut stand at the Fairfax district landmark.

So naturally there was some eye-rolling skepticism Friday among old-timers as land developers stood in the patio to announce plans for the construction of a sprawling, $100-million shopping and office complex at the 64-year-old market.

The 640,000-square-foot center will include movie theaters, glitzy high-end retail stores and new bistro-like restaurants. The Grove, as it will be called, will feature Spanish-looking two-story buildings constructed around pedestrian walkways.

But not to worry, builder Rick J. Caruso quickly added during his presentation: The aging-but-beloved Farmers Market itself will be preserved.

“Bull!” shouted Anita Finer from her spot in front of Tusquella’s Seafood stand.

“Big business is at it again,” muttered Esther Kaplan from her table outside Bob’s Doughnuts. “They’re talking away the charm.”

Details of the new regional shopping center came by way of intricate architectural renderings and a video played on a big-screen TV placed in the middle of the patio. The hoopla would have been amusing to the market’s regular customers had it not been for the seriousness of the subject.

“Hey, David! Is this video your deal?” retired manufacturer Morrie Ellis of Beverly Hills shouted to the next table, where television executive David Jessen was reading a script--his cellular phone positioned next to his coffee cup.

“I had nothing to do with this!” shouted back Jessen, head of development for Walt Disney Home Video. “If they tear this place down, I’ll move out of state. This market is filled with so much history. It’s the last vestige of old Los Angeles. This is where I come when I want to be creative.”

A few feet away, Priscilla Yablon shook her head with dismay.

“They’re going to kill these little mom-and-pop businesses here,” warned the retirement home activities director from Beverly Hills.

Across the patio, Irv Eskenazi craned his neck to see the video. He didn’t much care for the Grove.

“It will modernize this whole area and destroy the look of Farmers Market. The easygoing, laid-back feel will be lost,” said Eskenazi, who has lived a few blocks from the market for 30 years. “I think it’s going to bring too much traffic to the area. “

Tour bus owner Jan Cervinka watched the video with dismay.

“People want to see the L.A. of the old days. That’s why tourists come here,” said the Norwalk resident, who dropped off 32 Taiwanese passengers at the market Friday morning. “As soon as they build it, tourists will stop coming.”

Tension seemed to be eased when Hank Hilty took the microphone, however.

Hilty is the grandson of Earl Gilmore, who started the market in 1934 by allowing 18 truck farmers from the San Fernando Valley to operate produce stands at the corner of 3rd Street and Fairfax Avenue.

He was emphatic that the look and feel of Farmers Market will be saved.

The development plan calls for construction north and east of the exiting market, said Hilty, president of A.F. Gilmore Co., which owns the 30-acre corner.

Hearing that, tour guide Ellie Gabriel of Tucson--who had escorted a busload of German visitors to the market--predicted that tourists will keep coming. And she predicted that the project will give the market a chance to add something something that is badly needed: more restroom facilities.

Ruth Silo, a West Hollywood actress who has been a Farmers Market customer for 40 years, was confident that the “country atmosphere” of the market can be retained. The new project, she suggested, will upgrade the corner. “It was beginning to look a little seedy,” Silo confided.

Market shopkeeper Ann Gruberman agreed--even though her 18-year-old Crystal Emporium store is in a remote part of Farmers Market that will be razed when construction of the Grove begins.

Seated on a stool next to the Formica-topped Coffee Corner stand, Gruberman acknowledged that she will be unable to compete “with the chain stores and trendy shops” likely to come in.

“But this place needed an update, a remodel . . . business has not been what it used to be,” she said with a shrug as Hilty and Caruso wrapped up their presentations.

From his table outside the doughnut shop, television writer Daniel Palladino of Hancock Park said Caruso’s plan is an improvement over one eight years ago that called for development of more than a million square feet of stores and hotel rooms.

“This is the lesser of the evils the Gilmore family has planned,” Palladino said.

“I come here every morning. I’ll keep coming if they keep this place intact. This is special. It’s magic.”