Brentwood Country Mart Marks 75th Anniversary
West Los Angeles retail landmark Brentwood Country Mart, where Hollywood star sightings are almost a given on any day of the week, celebrated its 75th anniversary Tuesday night with a fried chicken supper.
“We want to thank our merchant partners, the tenants who make the Country Mart special. We preserve the buildings but you preserve the way of life. The offerings are so similar to what it’s been for 75 years. We still have a shoe repair, barber shop, a post office, book store, toy store, women’s fashion, men’s fashion; it’s as it was and that’s what people love about it,” said owner James Rosenfield, who hosted the party at the property’s Farmshop restaurant with his wife and Poppy children’s store co-owner Heather Whitney Rosenfield.
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On hand for the celebration were tenants Laura Vinroot Poole (Capitol), jeweler Irene Neuwirth, designer Clare Vivier (Clare V), Katherine Kleveland (Doen), and Poppy co-owner Jenny Belushi.
A native Angeleno and former Sears and Cushman & Wakefield retail real estate executive, Rosenfield started his own investment firm in 1987. He obtained a master lease on the 30,000-square-foot Brentwood Country Mart in 2003, and a few years later completed restoration and leasing to nearly exclusively independent retailers.
“I’ll always bet on a capable, passionate individual over a corporate entity,” Rosenfield said of his leasing strategy, which he has also deployed at his other small, open-air retail villages in high-end California communities — the Montecito Country Mart and the Marin Country Mart.
The original Brentwood Country Mart opened on Nov. 18, 1948. Designed by architect Rowland Crawford, the collection of red barn-like buildings around a central courtyard is steeped in nostalgia.
From the beginning, celebrities helped burnish its image, and the mart is still a home-away-from-home for those living on the Westside, including Gwyneth Paltrow, who has a Goop store on the property, Reese Witherspoon, and more.
By the end of its first year the mart was deemed a success by the local press, and the public was invited to its first birthday celebration with a cake that Rosenfield had recreated for the event Tuesday night.
Over the years, the mart counted among its regulars Joan Crawford, Betty Hutton, Robert and Dorothy Mitchum, Elizabeth Taylor, Burt Lancaster, Shirley Temple Black, and Greta and Gregory Peck, many of whose photos adorned a wall in the courtyard where picnic tables with red-and-white checked tablecloths were set for the dinner.
While greeting guests, Rosenfield proudly showed off a book of historical clippings about the property from the Los Angeles Times and other sources. “There was a men’s store in 1948 called Briar, and now it’s Sid Mashburn…I’m proud we’ve been able to maintain those offerings that are still relevant to the community,” he said.
“With the pandemic, and all that we’ve just gone through, it’s worth patting ourselves on the back…it was without a doubt the hardest thing the property has been through in 75 years,” Rosenfield told guests during a toast, noting earlier that he only lost one tenant during the pandemic: Intermix.
Of course now, L.A. is reeling from simultaneous writers’ and actors’ strikes.
“What people don’t realize is that in L.A., we’re all in the entertainment business because we’re all so connected,” he said. “I do worry about the strike because my friends tell me there is no resolution in sight, and what will the impact be on the economy and the city? We have lived through it before and I have no doubt we will get through it. But I am looking forward to it being resolved.”
Rosenfield declined to share revenues, but said 2022 was his best year yet at the three properties. “I’ve been enormously lucky… I’m not in central business districts, I’m near to wear people live and people are spending more time where they live right now,” he said.
The Marin Country Mart has been a bright spot in the challenged Bay Area retail scene. Recently, “non-conforming tenants” Bed Bath & Beyond and 24 Hour Fitness have moved out, which has allowed Rosenfield to curate higher-end retailers, including Birkenstock, Veronica Beard and The Great, and opening soon La Ligne, Outerknown, Fred Segal, Todd Snyder and Goop. His vision has also always included local eateries; Hog Island is a new addition, and soon Slanted Door chef Charlie Phan will be opening Moonset Noodle Shop.
“It’s exciting, I now have the physical room to let it become what I’ve wanted it to be..so the pandemic had this positive effect. When you buy property, you have to wait for leases to roll until you pick tenants of your choosing,” he said of the center, which he purchased in 2009.
At all three properties, he’s seen increased interest from luxury brands (Christian Louboutin already operates a store at Brentwood Country Mart). “They are no longer content to have one store on Rodeo Drive or Bond Street, it’s a reflection of the one percent,” he said, cautioning though that too many of the usual suspects can make retail boring.
“If you are someone who loves Brentwood, it’s probably because it has retained businesses that have been there for years. The modernization has not taken the whole thing over,” he said. “Our history is not as old as other places, but it’s our history and if we don’t preserve it we won’t get to be 200 or 300 years old. For most places 75 years is not a big deal, but in L.A. it is.”
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