By Tanya Mannes 
CHULA VISTA – From herb-scented candles to hardwood

chests, Michelle Larson’s furniture store offers thousands of luxury goods to outfit a home.

If only more customers could find the store.
Larson and her husband, Michael, recently opened their store, Foliage, in the Eastlake Design District, a new, furniture-only shopping center. They liked the center’s focus on home decorating.

But nearly a year after it opened, the shopping center isn’t getting the foot traffic it anticipated – in part because of its out-of-the-way location. It sits high on a hill at Otay Lakes Road and Fenton Street, six miles and more than a dozen stoplights from the nearest freeway, Interstate 805.

“We get calls every day from people on Telegraph Canyon Road who are sure they’ve missed it,” Larson said.

The district opened with a few stores Dec. 26 and held its grand-opening celebration in September with 16 stores, including Lane Home Furnishings, Ashley Furniture, Bassett Furniture Direct, Dunn-Edwards Paints, Patiosource and Caldera Spas.

Many people still haven’t made the trip to see it.

Michael Vogt of IRE Development, which built the center, believes that a few strategic changes will bring more customers up the hill.

Last month, the City Council approved one of Vogt’s initiatives: temporary directional signs that will help motorists find the shopping center from the freeway.

Those signs will be taken down once the South Bay Expressway – a toll road that will be the southern extension of state Route 125 – opens in June, bringing motorists directly to east Chula Vista.

Vogt also wants to expand the variety of stores beyond the large furniture retailers to include a garden center, high-end home accessories such as Pier 1 Imports, and home electronics.

He also hopes to add some sit-down restaurants to make the shopping center more of a “destination,” he said. Two local businessmen are talking about opening restaurants in the design district, including a brew pub.

“We’re finding that unless people have already decided they want to buy furniture, they’re not coming,” Vogt said. “We need other reasons for people to come up here.”

Recently, during a late weekday afternoon, fewer than two dozen cars were parked in the shopping center’s lot.

One customer, Eli Kabban, was looking for “something interesting” to furnish his Del Cerro home.

Kabban said he was disappointed with the predominance of retail-chain furniture stores. He said expanding the mix to include other home-related businesses would be “an excellent idea.”

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“Unfortunately, they haven’t attracted the small specialty shops that would have something a bit more interesting, more specialized,” Kabban said.

The Larsons took a risk in April by expanding from a much smaller Chula Vista store to their larger space in the Eastlake Design District. They have had some success with their stylish product mix – ranging from a $4 coconut-lime-verbena candle to a $2,500 sectional sofa upholstered in one of 600 fabrics – but not enough to make good on their investment.

“Our business has gone up from our previous store, but it’s not where it needs to be,” Larson said.

Foliage isn’t the only store that’s suffering. Two of the 16 original businesses – a gel-mattress dealer and a discount-fabric store – have canceled their leases. Meanwhile, a second phase of construction has been postponed.

Vogt said he now realizes it was a mistake to limit the shopping center to furniture stores, although he wants to keep the “home design” focus.

Before he can bring in other shops and restaurants, he needs city approval to change the terms of his shopping-center permit.

The city requires an analysis of how the changes would affect traffic, parking, hours of operation and other businesses in the area before Vogt’s requests will be considered.

The city has formed a team of senior staff members to fast-track Vogt’s proposed changes through the review process, said Denny Stone, acting assistant director of community development.

“It’s a beautiful center, and we want to see it succeed,” Stone said. “Time is one of those elements that is important, so we’re doing everything we can to help.”

IRE Development projects that the shopping center, if it becomes successful, will generate $1.3 million in annual sales tax revenue and support up to 600 permanent jobs once the second phase is built.

Vogt said he is “very, very encouraged” by the support from city planners.