Simon says: Bomel Construction awarded $21.2-million contract to build new parking structure at Del Amo Fashion Center

The Torrance project is part of a $200-million upgrade that includes a new Nordstrom and additional stores to open next year. Bomel has been building parking structures for Simon Property Group since the 1990s. Last November, Bomel completed a 1,800-stall garage near Palm Springs for the same developer.

TORRANCE, Calif., July 7, 2014 –– Continuing its decades-long prominence in the retail construction industry, Anaheim Hills, Calif.-based Bomel Construction Co. recently broke ground on a critical component of a $200-million expansion of one of the largest shopping malls in Southern California.

The design-build general contractor has started construction of a 1,950-stall parking structure in Torrance for Simon Property Group, the Indianapolis-based owner of the 2.2-million-square-foot Del Amo Fashion Center. The $21.2-million garage is a key cog in the second phase of an ambitious modernization plan that will include a new 140,000-square-foot Nordstrom store scheduled to open next fall. Phase two also includes a new 400,000-square-foot, two-level enclosed mall attached to Nordstrom, which is relocating from the South Bay Galleria in Redondo Beach, about three miles from Del Amo Fashion Center.

Business is normally brisk these days at outlet malls throughout Southern California primarily due to a rise in international travelers seeking brand names at bargain prices and local shoppers continuing thrifty buying patterns adopted during the Great Recession. Many traditional enclosed malls like the Del Amo Fashion Center are doing sweeping renovations and expansions to provide a different product mix in order to attract new shoppers and entertainment-seekers, as well as maintain their loyal customer base.

The new Del Amo Fashion Center will include “more high-end retailers than what we’ve had historically,” Lindsay Hermance, the mall’s director of marketing and business development, explained in the June 23-29, 2014, issue of the Los Angeles Business Journal.Tom Brewer, a Torrance councilman, told the same newspaper that the expansion is “going to help reinvigorate Hawthorne Boulevard.”

Bomel Construction, widely considered the dean of parking structures in the West, has been a longtime contractor for Simon Property Group. In fact, this is the third straight year that Bomel will be working on a parking structure in Southern California for Simon. In 2012, Bomel started construction of a 1,800-stall, four-level garage at the upscale Desert Hills Premium Outlets mall in Cabazon. The project, which was part of a $100-million expansion, was completed in November 2013. Other projects completed by Bomel for Simon include a 1,750-stall parking structure at Del Amo in 2006 and a 2,550-stall parking structure at the Shops at Mission Viejo finished 15 years ago when that mall was undergoing a significant expansion.

Del Amo’s second parking structure, to be built extremely close to a busy, functioning mall and other large-scale construction activity, will feature a number of logistical challenges.

“This project has multiple roadway levels, high clearances and is in the middle of a large construction site. There’s no elbowroom outside our footprint,” said Bomel Project Manager Kasey Shay, who also oversaw construction of the parking garage at Desert Hills Premium Outlets.

“As far as our neighbors, our structure will literally be three inches away from the mall and Nordstrom, and six feet away from the existing parking structure. In fact, the new garage will share common footings and walls with the new mall addition,” Shay added.

Whiting Tuner, the general contractor for the Del Amo expansion, and Bomel are working together on common footings and walls. Whiting Turner is currently managing a major utility relocation––a 12,000kv line that serves two transformers––that will be routed through the new parking structure.

The new garage will have one level at grade and three above grade. The heights of the floors will vary; the first floor is 18 feet, the second floor is 14 feet and the third floor is eight feet.

“There will be semis driving through the ground level of the new structure to reach the loading dock,” said Shay, explaining the need for an 18-foot clearance. The second floor will be 14 feet in order to line up with the heights of the existing parking structure and future mall levels. One pedestrian bridge will extend from the new garage to Nordstrom and two other bridges will serve the new mall.

Bomel crews are now pouring footings and columns. The pouring of concrete decks should start by September, Shay said.

Walker Parking Consultants is the architect for the new parking structure. “There is a very intense architectural package that involves three sides of the structure,” Shay said. It includes a green screen, plaster panels and bright walls––huge, Vegas-style signage that will promote the mall and its tenants in a variety of ways.”

Completion of the new parking structure is scheduled for Aug. 31, 2015.

About Del Amo Fashion Center: Located in the South Bay of Los Angeles County, the mall has more than 200 stores, restaurants and an 18-screen AMC movie complex. It serves Torrance, Palos Verdes, Lomita, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Redondo Beach and Gardena. Stores include stores Macy’s, H&M, Anthropologie, Barnes & Noble and Coach.

About Bomel Construction Co.: Established in 1970, Anaheim Hills, Calif.-based Bomel Construction is a family-owned business that generated $135 million in total revenue in 2013. In addition to many retail projects, the design-build concrete contractor has completed major parking structures and performed extensive structural concrete work for municipalities, casinos, stadiums and large-scale commercial and institutional projects throughout the western U.S. Bomel has regional offices in Carlsbad, Calif., and Las Vegas.

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