BALDWIN HILLS : Mall Clothier’s Fortunes Unravel

Juan Armando Minniefield was the perfect small-business success story: a man who went from selling ties out of the trunk of his car to owning three exclusive men’s fashion boutiques before age 30.

The third Armando Clothing Collections, which opened at the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza in 1989, was one of the first black-owned high-fashion clothing stores in a major American mall.

But Minniefield’s business fortunes have taken a turn for the worse. His last store will soon close. “I never thought this would happen,” said Minniefield, who has been running his store alone for the last two months.

Minniefield was recently ordered by a Superior Court judge to pay the Alexander Haagen Co., owners of Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza, about $30,000 for failing to make $29,895 in lease payments this year, and move out of the mall.

The man who once sold custom suits for as much as $4,000 is selling T-shirts in his marble-lined boutique because he cannot afford any more inventory. And he fears every day might be the day when county marshals evict him. Mall officials had told him to vacate by Oct. 18.

Minniefield cites several reasons for his dilemma. Early this year, a $9,000 bank error and a $7,000 dispute with a credit card company forced him to begin selling casual wear, he said. Also, Minniefield said he had been assured by Haagen Co. before he signed a 10-year lease in 1988 that a movie theater complex would be built inside the mall, thereby attracting more potential customers.

“Why (else) would I put a store like this next to Sears?” said Minniefield, pointing to one of only three other stores in the upper south corner of the mall.

Andrew Natker of the Haagen Co. said Minniefield’s claim about a theater complex is “totally without basis.” Natker also dismissed Minniefield’s charge that he is being discriminated against because he is a single proprietor and black.

“We have more minority-owned businesses than anyone in the nation,” said Natker. “There’s only one color in our business, and that’s green. . . . We have tried to work with the man. We negotiated a deal trying to get him to pay his current rent of $500 a week. He paid us one week and stopped.”

Ruby Innis, owner of Radiance Boutique, a women’s clothing store, was one of the mall’s first five tenants. She said that despite the lack of a theater complex, the mall is getting better. Her store was originally near Armando Clothing Collections, and she said she had financial problems while “holding up the weak end of the mall,” but was able to survive.

“The Haagens aren’t the easiest people to deal with,” said Innis, also a black single proprietor. “But as long as you make an effort to pay them, they are not bad.”

Local business-minded teen-agers are bound to miss Minniefield, who said he hired about 50 over the years.

“Armando is very important to the community,” said Femi Samuel, 23, of Leimert Park, who worked for Minniefield two years and now works for a larger clothing store. “He took a risk with me. Now I can work anywhere.”

Alexander Toussaint, 20, Minniefield’s mall store manager a few years ago, credits Minniefield for giving him the opportunity to learn about business: “He let us see what it’s like to handle money. We learned a great deal.”