New Games in Town : Wholesale Toy Mart Featuring Small Manufacturers Opens in L.A.

Adding another building block to downtown Los Angeles’ burgeoning toy industry, a Taiwanese businessman has opened a wholesale toy mart showcasing small manufacturers.

The three-story building at 11th and Flower streets has 150,000 square feet of space--room for 150 manufacturers to display products. So far about 50 manufacturers have signed on as tenants, including Taiwan-based Gigo, Philadelphia toy train manufacturer Bachman Trains and B Dazzle, a small game and puzzle maker in Redondo Beach.

Last week, workers were still painting the walls and building a showroom fountain, hurrying to open the center in time to catch buyers from two gift shows at the nearby Los Angeles Convention Center.

The L.A.Toy Manufacturer Center is the brainchild of Bruce Wang, whose family owns a toy business overseas. The center plans to help companies design new products with computer systems, and to assist with exporting, warehousing and distribution, said Tony McKnight, the center’s marketing director.

“We’re trying to create a one-stop shop for small manufacturers by offering everything from toy inception to store-door delivery,” McKnight said.

Economist Jack Kyser said the center is another sign of rapid growth in the region’s toy industry, dominated by Mattel Inc. in Torrance, with 1995 sales of $3.6 billion, and Toytown, an eclectic network of Asian American wholesalers and distributors who sold $1 billion worth of imported products out of downtown Los Angeles last year.

More than 6,000 workers are employed in the local toy industry in more than 500 companies, but less than 50 of those companies are manufacturers, according to U.S. Census data.

The new toy center, which plans to sell to buyers in higher-end independent shops, would likely not compete with Toytown, whose customers are largely Latino and Asian store owners from ethnic neighborhoods and Latin American and Mexican retailers, Kyser said.

Meanwhile, there are plans for another wholesale toy mart downtown. Garment industry veteran Stanley Hirsh is trying to create a toy mart in two 13-story, 200,000-square-foot buildings he owns.

Fermin Cuza, president of the 2-year-old Toy Assn. of Southern California, said the centers would help the toy industry here mature and grow. The 35-member group, which includes Mattel, Toytown’s Megatoys and major movie studios, promotes the region’s toy industry.