Discontinued: Little Tokyo's Mitsuwa Marketplace

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[photograph courtesy Mark Bolster/LA Times]

We all knew it was coming, but that doesn't make yesterday's end of Mitsuwa Marketplace, the landmark, 24-years-young Little Tokyo supermarket. The LA Times reports on the pain the closing is causing regulars (don't miss the heart-wrenching photogallery), and has the latest word for what the folks who bought the complex have in store next in the space.

Reports Teresa Watanabe:

The new store, to be called the Little Tokyo Galleria Market, will primarily feature Korean and Japanese products but also include Chinese, American and even Mexican items, such as marinated carne asada, Cho said. It will reopen Feb. 15 with 90% of its stock on the shelves but hold its grand opening in May.

[Co-owner Young S. Cho] Cho, a business graduate from Cal Poly Pomona and a U.S. Army veteran, said his group hoped to bring new business to the area with the revamped market and plans for what he billed as the largest Korean-style spa outside New York.

The 50,000-square-foot space on the mall's third floor would offer body scrubs, massages, saunas, exercise equipment, resting stations, a nail and hair salon and several eateries, including a coffee shop and ice cream parlor. Once launched in 18 to 24 months, he said, the spa would be open from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. and possibly 24 hours a day on weekends, drawing potentially 1,000 people to Little Tokyo daily.

A moment of silence, please.
· Little Tokyo Market, Onetime Rising Sun, Is Poised to Set [LATimes]
· Malled: Little Tokyo Mall Makeover [Racked]