By Tony Aiello
The current franchisee of the La Mirada Chick-fil-A will be relinquishing their operations in La Mirada and will be taking over the Lakewood location where that franchisee is retiring.
A source tells the La Mirada Blog that the La Mirada location will be without a franchisee and will be run by the corporation until a new operator can be found.
It is extremely rare for La Mirada to land any established, trendy dining hotspots, and this Chick-fil-A (CFA) was probably the last to fit that bill when it opened on May 23, 2019, constructed at the location of the beloved Elephant Bar Restaurant on North Firestone Boulevard adjacent to Interstate 5.
And then it met the La Mirada Curse, which resides and haunts the grounds of the old La Mirada Shopping Center/Mall still upset about the Ohrbach’s opening in Cerritos in 1974. That opening sent the La Mirada Orbach’s (built in 1962) into a death spiral and La Mirada essentially, has never recovered.
From the get-go CFA faced a challenge-it was in the Gateway Center anchored by the Holiday Inn.
The center, despite being located next to one of the busiest freeways in the world and just up the street from Knott’s and Disneyland, has always suffered from awkward design, accessibility issues and lack of vision and foresight.
It really had the potential to be a mini city-walk entertainment hub in the 90’s when the theatre house was still there, but there was no fortitude or conviction or interest, frankly, in making that happen. In-N-Out and Northwoods Inn have essentially kept that area semi-relevant over the years.
Also, the center is adjacent to part of La Mirada’s industrial sector which has become a magnet for vagrants.
Shortly after the CFA opening in 2019, the Covid-19 pandemic began, in early 2020.
Almost simultaneously, the years-long construction at the Valley View Avenue/Interstate 5 interchange was winding down. The original clover-leaf style existing Valley View off-ramp from the northbound 5, would be redesigned and relocated from directly adjacent to CFA on the east side of Valley View, to the west side of Valley View in Santa Fe Springs.
So, essentially, CFA lost all of that off-ramp exit traffic. Huge. It is unclear if the franchisee, at the time of the agreement, was told of these eventual plans.
Then another blow, which has lasted for years to this day.
When they closed the off-ramp, they also closed the left turn lane from Firestone Boulevard at Gateway Drive. Just coned it off. Formerly, this lane enabled westbound Firestone motorists to execute a U-turn and then turn into CFA.
Now, with that lane inaccessible, westbound travelers on Firestone must turn into Northwood’s parking lot and then scurry across the lot to CFA.
But a lot of people don’t know that. And if you don’t know, you’re out of luck.
The only other chance you have coming from the east is to try to execute a U-turn at the office-building driveway just a few more yards to the west.
But the lanes make it difficult to negotiate a U-turn, so you must enter the office building parking lot and come out to access eastbound Firestone and then CFA. Sure seems like a lot of work.
All these years later, that left turn lane remains closed. It’s there, but blocked off, half-heartedly. Also, the closed off-ramp remains as is, still undeveloped, which has created blight.
Whether it’s Caltrans, the city, the county, the state or collectively all of them, who’s responsible? It’s just inexcusable.
The La Mirada Curse strikes again.
