The new shopping mall in Santa Monica is a hit! Visit Santa Monica Place.

The new shopping mall in Santa Monica recently opened its doors on August 6th and the crowds haven't stopped coming since. The shopping mall in Santa Monica has done wonders to revitalize the downtown city center of Santa Monica, with new stores and Santa Monica restaurants that have brought renewed interest to Third Street Promenade, Ocean Ave., and the Santa Monica pier.The new mall in Santa Monica, known as Santa Monica Place and designed by Frank Gehry, is an open-air, modern shopping center that was built with sustainability and green-building principles in mind by:

• Utilizing more natural light and natural air-flow ventilation
• Adding a solar roof to retailer areas, saving enough energy to power 90 homes
• Improving pedestrian access to all sides of downtown, so it’s more convenient to get to nearby attractions and public transportation
• Reducing overall water usage with newly developed technologies and water-efficient landscaping
• Choosing low-emitting paints, carpets and other materials, including those made of recycled content

The stores in the shopping mall in Santa Monica are pretty cool too. Nothing here that you can't find throughout the rest of the L.A., but it's nice that some quality stores are all found at Santa Monica Place, with an ocean view. There are over 50 stores in the new shopping mall in Santa Monica, including:

• Bloomingdale's
• Nordstrom
• Coach
• Kenneth Cole
• Barney's Co-Op
• Fluxus
• Kitson
• True Religion
• Michael Kors
• Tiffany & Co.
• Louis Vuitton
• Nike
  

Santa Monica Place also has some great new Santa Monica restaurants, including a grab-and-go food court as well as some nicer dining establishments, including:

• La Sandia- upscale, modern Mexican concept
• Ozumo- contemporary Japanese and sushi
• Pizza Antica
• Sonoma Wine Garden
• Xino- Classic Chinese cuisine with a twist
• Zengo- Asian/Latin influences

As far as Santa Monica restaurants go, there are some good choices at the Santa Monica Place shopping mall. I recently tried Zengo, whose kitchen and staff weren't 'performance ready' on the night that I dined there. Ozumo, however, has a sophisticated vibe and an amazing black cod dish! La Sandia is packed to the gills, so I suspect it's good.

Finally, there are several options for parking at the shopping mall at Santa Monica Place:

• Parking is free for the first two hours at one of the eight City-owned lots, $1 per half hour thereafter, $5 flat fee after 6 p.m.
• Valet parking is available for $20 to the general public, $12 with a receipt from the Santa Monica Place shopping mall, and $8 with a restaurant validation.
• There is a bike valet through the month of August off of Colorado St., and bike racks available in all the City parking structures.

Please contact me if you'd like more information about the new shopping mall in Santa Monica, the Santa Monica, CA condo market, or the general real estate market in Urban L.A. For a free list of homes for sale, please visit UrbanPulseProperties.com.