Shop till you drop, eat till you pop. That’s what developers are promising at an ambitious new project in Long Beach.
An outdoor mall heavy on dining and entertainment will replace the former SeaPort Marina Hotel. Being developed by CenterCal Properties and the Lin family, the project, dubbed 2nd & PCH, is set to be anchored by Whole Foods, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The property sits on an 11-acre site on Alamitos Bay near the mouth of the San Gabriel River. More than a third of the mall’s space will be dedicated to food alone. El Segundo-based CenterCal plans to incorporate “deep outdoor roofdecks” and chief executive Fred Bruning told the Times his company wants the mall to be “a place where people can open up their laptops and just ‘be’ instead of being a place you’re only going to shop.”
A rendering of 2nd & PCH (credit: CenterCal Properties)
The SeaPort Marina Hotel was built in the 1960s and closed in February, but talk of demolishing the aging and neglected Googie-style complex had floated around for seven years. In its heyday, the hotel was a magnet for A-listers such as Elvis Presley. Previous owners have criticized its most recent owners and now partners in the 2nd and PCH project, the Lin family, for letting the hotel deteriorate since they purchased it in the 1990s, according to the Orange County Register.
CenterCal and the Lin family agreed to redevelop the property together in 2016 with plans for a $320 million mixed-use complex, but the Long Beach City Council shot the proposal down, according to the Los Angeles Conservancy, which tried in vain to preserve the hotel.
City officials told the Times they hoped the development would be able to attract locals along with visitors from both Los Angeles and Orange counties. The new mall will abut the residential neighborhoods of Naples, Belmont Shore, Belmont Park, and Seal Beach. [LAT] — Dennis Lynch