Downtown Manhattan Beach Is Changing Lease by Lease, and City Hall Holds Only Two Addresses

"The turnover in downtown Manhattan Beach is unprecedented right now and we are all talking about it." Kelly Stroman, executive director of the Downtown Manhattan Beach Business and Professionals Association, said that to MB News in July. Two months later she was at the City Council lectern objecting to a 4,100-square-foot retail space in a building that hasn't been designed yet. "I mean, are you joking?" she asked. "You're inviting big business."

Both remarks describe the same downtown, but they're aimed at two different processes. Most of the change you can see on Manhattan Beach Boulevard, Manhattan Avenue and Highland this year happened through ordinary private leases, one storefront at a time. The arguments about "small-town feel" at City Hall concern the two parcels the city actually owns: the former U.S. Bank site at 400 Manhattan Beach Boulevard and Lot 3. As of early October, neither one has construction funding.

What has opened on the blocks the city doesn't own

Here is the turnover as local outlets have reported it, split into openings that have been confirmed and tenants that so far have only been announced.

The second list is longer. MB News reported in July that Blank Street Coffee had signed a lease for the former Peet's Coffee space on Manhattan Beach Boulevard. Alfred Coffee had signed for the Ocean View Cafe space on Highland, and Parakeet Cafe was delayed in the former Cafe Altamura space with no opening date. The same report had Framebridge expected in the former Kate Lester Home space on Manhattan Avenue "in the fall." Sogno Toscano, which MB News spells "Sogna Toscana," received Planning Commission approval to build out the former Lemonade space at Metlox, with a small patio facing Manhattan Beach Boulevard. WhatNow lists that space as 451 Manhattan Beach Blvd. #B102. As of October 4, none of these five has a published opening.

Several spaces are still waiting on a name. When MB News reported in July, the former Pressed Juicery space on Manhattan Beach Boulevard and the former Harry's Cleaners space on Highland had no tenant identified. Neither did the former Beehive/Forma pop-up space at Metlox, or the renovated space on Manhattan Avenue that combined the former Bardot Salon and Corpo Bonito. Drift Beach Club closed in June, and its Metlox space hosted a Local Muse pop-up only through July 12.

How one lease set off the rest

Gum Tree's move shows how this kind of change happens. The gift and home shop had been in its downtown spot for nearly a decade when it lost the lease. It moved a block away to 1140 Highland Avenue on Aug. 1. Its flagship shop and cafe are still in Hermosa Beach, and it has a newer location in Redondo Beach.

Twelve days later, Beyond Yoga opened in the space Gum Tree left at 324 Manhattan Beach Boulevard. La Vista, the Mira Costa student paper, reports it's the Los Angeles-based activewear brand's sixteenth U.S. store and fourth in L.A. Two doors down, Velvet by Graham & Spencer celebrated its grand opening at 308 Manhattan Beach Boulevard on Aug. 27. The brand opened its first California location in 1997.

None of this needed a council vote. The lease ended, the landlord re-let the space, and the block changed. Local operators are part of the mix too: Ounce of Salt is jeweler Jen Baick's shop, and it was set to open in the former Rolling Hills Flower Mart space. One of the most talked-about downtown food events this fall wasn't a new restaurant at all. Fonz's came back for a five-night pop-up at Fête by Slay from Sept. 23 to 27.

The 4,100 square feet the city can actually shape

The city does decide what happens at 400 Manhattan Beach Boulevard, the former U.S. Bank site it bought for $13 million. It also controls Lot 3, a block away. Both face Metlox Plaza from different sides, and Easy Reader calls the pair "the most significant makeover in the downtown area since the Metlox redevelopment two decades ago."

On Sept. 15 the council reviewed Gensler's preliminary concept for the bank site. It shows a two-story building on Manhattan Beach Boulevard with about 6,500 rentable square feet of retail or restaurant space on the ground floor, split into three spaces. A 5,100-square-foot creative office with a patio would sit upstairs, with 16 parking spaces behind the building as a buffer for the homes on 11th Place. The largest ground-floor space, at 4,100 square feet, drew the most objections. "At that size we're really attracting a national brand," said Councilmember Amy Howorth.

The money explains why the space is drawn that big. Wil Soholt of Kosmont Companies, the city's economic development consultant, said preliminary analysis puts ground-floor rents "north of $100 per square foot annually." At that rate the 4,100-square-foot space alone would cost a tenant more than $410,000 a year. City Manager Talyn Mirzakhanian said the floor plan is illustrative and tenants set their own footprints. She also pointed out that city code already requires a conditional use permit for downtown retail with more than 1,600 square feet of sales floor.

The second-floor office got pushback as well. Resident Stephen Kampe noted that the former Koffee Kart space downtown was converted to office use and has been empty for a year and a half.

The council didn't take a formal vote. After more than two and a half hours, staff read the council's direction into the record:

1. Split the two sites and put 400 Manhattan Beach Blvd. first.
2. Drop the proposed Metlox tunnel, estimated at roughly $15 million for the tunnel alone.
3. Keep talking with Vons' ownership and report back Dec. 1.
4. Keep ground-floor retail and restaurants, with smaller tenant spaces possible.
5. Rethink the second-floor office.
6. Keep studying the Morningside plaza, with answers on traffic, deliveries and diagonal parking.
7. Open the bank lot as paid parking with kiosks, and ask Vons about its rear lot.
8. Find a private development partner instead of building it as a city project.

What changes before anything gets built

Items six and seven are the ones residents will notice first. For now the bank building stays up. The council decided against spending $216,000 to demolish it for a 41-space lot. It will add payment kiosks and open the 26 existing spaces as paid public parking, which staff estimates will bring in $243,000 to $275,000 a year. That pushes out the merchant permit holders who park there now. Staff suggested moving them to Lot 7 off Valley Drive, and Councilmember Steve Charelian answered, "Lot seven is packed."

The Morningside Drive plaza between Manhattan Beach Boulevard and 11th Place would use retractable bollards for art walks, pop-ups and events and stay open to two-way traffic the rest of the time. That block has eight parking spaces today: five diagonal and three parallel. Under the plaza plan the striping would go and the curb would become a loading zone, though the city traffic engineer said roughly six spaces could stay on most workdays. Howorth called them "the parking spaces that you zip into" for Health Nut and Noah's.

The Lot 3 parking count explains why each space gets this much attention:

• 145 spaces were in the Lot 3 structure demolished in November 2024.
• 69 spaces are in the interim surface lot built on the site.
• About 80 spaces were found on surrounding streets, leaving downtown "about five parking spaces more than we've ever had before," according to City Traffic Engineer Erik Zandvliet.
• 150 to 300 spaces is how far short the city's parking management study finds downtown, counting current business needs and full buildout under code ratios.

The permanent Lot 3 plan has two concepts, both over three levels of underground parking. Concept A puts retail and restaurants on the ground floor, up to two restaurants on the second floor and a community room with a rooftop patio on top, for 129 parking spaces. Concept B uses the first two floors for parking, keeps the rooftop community space and comes to 202 spaces. The council left that choice to the members seated after the November election. In the meantime the interim lot brings in parking revenue and carries no debt.

The dates that decide the bank site's timing

The bank site's schedule is driven by financing. The tax-exempt certificates the city issued to buy the property mature July 1, 2028, and have to be refinanced before construction starts. If private commercial tenants lease the site, the refinancing would need taxable bonds. The city's municipal advisors estimate that would add about $128,000 a year in debt service, to be paid out of lease revenue. The city's five-year capital plan sets aside $2.3 million for design work at both sites and nothing for construction. The 30-foot parapet in the concept is four feet over what coastal zoning currently allows. A code amendment to raise the limit goes back to the Planning Commission this fall.

Staff is scheduled to report back to the council on Dec. 1, 2026, with the financing picture and an update on the Vons talks. The council agenda for Oct. 6 doesn't include a new Project Pulse item. Until then, the next changes downtown will come from private leases, with five announced tenants still to open and a few empty storefronts waiting on a name.

If you own a home within walking distance of Metlox and want to know how a new tenant on your block or a parking change on Morningside could affect what your place is worth, Hirano Homes Group follows downtown Manhattan Beach street by street. Get Your Instant Home Valuation, and we'll walk you through the local context behind the number.