Pustilnikov buys AES
The AES Redondo Generating Station found a buyer in 2018 after two years on the open market, and more than a decade of plans to redevelop the site. Plans for the site are unclear, but city officials are hoping to deal for half of the 51 acres to be parkland and open space.
Los Angeles-based real estate developer Leo Pustilnikov, previously associated with redevelopments of projects such as the Sears, Roebuck & Co. building in Boyle Heights, and the Alexandria Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles, was confirmed as the principal buyer on Oct. 30, after weeks of chatter. His LLC has been purchasing property, parcel by parcel, since mid-October.
Redondo Beach’s Power Plant Subcommittee and multiple residents and community activists met with Pustilnikov as early as August, and in early October, Mayor Bill Brand held an educational forum to discuss concepts, including public-private partnerships, for the plant property.
Development activist and Redondo Beach Harbor Commissioner Jim Light met with Pustilnikov in early fall, and was cautiously impressed.
“I genuinely sensed that he wants to build something iconic,” Light said. “As we were walking out, you could tell…he just looks passionately at the power plant, and you could see he had a vision.”
“I like projects with some kind of complexity to it,” Pustilnikov said in an interview. “It’s about figuring out something that, for two decades, has remained a puzzle…I don’t acquire generic properties.”
Galleria’s appeal returns
The South Bay Galleria’s redevelopment plan will soon meet its next — and possibly final — test in January after more than a year of discussion.
Initial plans approved at the April 19 meeting of the Redondo Beach Planning Commission included 300 apartment units, more than 217,000 square feet of retail development, and up to 150,000 square feet of commercial office space.
Within a week of that meeting, four appeals were filed against the project. One appeal was dismissed as invalid, while two others — by UNITE HERE Local 11 and the City of Lawndale — were withdrawn after reaching agreements with Galleria parent company QIC. The fourth appeal, by resident Doug Boswell, was heard on Oct. 6 in a City Council meeting that lasted until after 1 a.m. before being continued to late October, and then January.
Boswell and his fellow activists argue that housing development would significantly increase traffic and housing density within the city. The Galleria owners have indicated they are bringing revised designs to the meeting planned for Jan. 15.
Fireworks fiasco
Redondo Beach’s plan to rest its police and firefighters between Independence Day events proved short-lived after massive outrage and confusion from residents.
Last December, the City Council moved the city’s fireworks show from July 4 to July 1, allowing public safety officers to rest after monitoring the city’s annual Fourth of July 5K/10K run. Officials also expected the Torrance-area privately-funded RAT Beach fireworks show to fill the July 4 void.
But the Briles family discontinued the practice after matriarch Jackie Briles died in 2016, and a spiritual successor organized by a second group wasn’t able to draw public safety resources from the City of Torrance, and by late June, Redondo police and fire brass felt there wasn’t adequate time to ensure safety plans were up to snuff. As a result, there were no major fireworks displays along the Beach Cities coastline on July 4.
Redondo’s July 1 fireworks show went off beautifully, but most metrics showed fewer paid attendees at Seaside Lagoon and smaller crowds at popular viewing spots.
Folks can expect the fireworks to return on Independence Day in 2019, as Mayor Brand promised he’d never again approve of that “boneheaded move.”
Green Line looks ahead
The LA Metro Green Line will soon see a series of changes as the regional transit authority pushed forward its plans for the future.
First, the Metro board approved studies on a pair of routes to extend the light rail line between its current Redondo Beach terminus and Torrance’s planned transportation hub, near Crenshaw and Del Amo boulevards. Metro staff will examine one route heading south down Hawthorne Boulevard, and a second going down a freight train right-of-way that Metro owns rights to. Both raise issues, but many Redondo residents struggled with the idea of a train frequently running through their backyards. Environmental studies will begin in early 2019.
Second, Metro acquiesced to a push by South Bay officials, including County Supervisor Janice Hahn, to keep the Green Line traveling east, as opposed to establishing a shuttle line between Redondo station and the LAX/Crenshaw Line connection. Proponents argued that would ease commutes for workers traveling westbound from Norwalk and other inland stations.
One more change will also come down the line, approved by the Metro Board this month: the Green Line’s name will be changed as part of a system-wide naming convention switch coming during the 2020 opening of the LAX/Crenshaw Line.
Opportunity on the Boulevard
Artesia’s Kurt Hardware went up for sale this year, a sample of the change and reinvestment coming to the once-beleaguered Artesia Boulevard.
The 20,000 square foot lot, home to both Kurt Hardware and Yanagi Japanese Bistro, is listed at $4.1 million, and tagged as an “investment opportunity” for willing buyers. The site has had interest according to its listing agent Mo Sharifi, but no sale yet.
The City of Redondo Beach has done its own investing on the Boulevard, both with redevelopment and renovation of the medians and street fixtures, and in establishing a grant fund to reimburse business owners for restoring and remodeling their storefronts.
Leland Hyde, owner of both Kurt Hardware and the store’s site, said it was time for him and his family to part with the business, but that he’s excited for the right owners — whoever they may be — to come along.
“If you make some good improvements, businesses become more profitable, and that helps everybody,” Hyde said.
White supremacists await trial
A series of raids on alleged white supremacists woke up sleepy Redondo Beach neighborhoods on Oct. 2.
Redondo Beach residents Benjamin Daley and Thomas Gillen were arrested that morning in separate raids by federal agents in connection to the August 2017 Charlottesville white supremacy march.
Daley, Gillen and two others arrested in other raids were believed to be members or associates of a militant organization, and are believed to have traveled to Charlottesville with the intent to commit violence and rioting.
Daley, Gillen, and co-defendant Michael Miselis are set to see trial in June, in Charlottesville.
Redondo flips off Bird
The Redondo Beach City Council has planned a ban of Bird scooters, and other similar shared-mobility bike and scooter companies, after a pop-up demonstration drew the ire of residents in early December.
Scooters were dropped along Pacific Coast Highway and other major roadways in South Redondo the weekend of Dec. 7, on a Friday when City Hall was closed, without notice to city officials.
Many residents were confused, wondering when the city had given Bird approval to run in Redondo. However, as with many other cities across California and the United States, Bird dropped in first, asking forgiveness rather than permission.
Despite a Bird representative’s contrition, the City Council wasn’t gracious at its next public meeting.
The council had previously opted against creating restrictive ordinances, planning to wait and develop laws with regional partners. But Bird’s “scooter dump” forced their hand.
“You caused a disruption, ruined everybody’s weekends up here…and basically took advantage of our good will,” said Councilman Todd Loewenstein. “You jumped in line in front of everyone else. I’m sorry for the folks who really wanted this, but you’ve ruined it for them, as far as I’m concerned.”
Staff will come back with an ordinance to ban shared mobility scooter and bicycle services at the council’s Jan. 8 meeting.
Measure C crowned,
CenterCal cast out
The future of the Redondo Beach waterfront is still in question, but two things appear true: Measure C is the law of the land, and CenterCal Properties will not be part of Redondo’s waterfront next iteration.
The City of Redondo Beach and CenterCal, a pair of estranged development partners, both withdrew their permit applications to build the Waterfront redevelopment in July at the request of the California Coastal Commission. That followed a ruling from Superior Court Judge James Chalfant that found portions of the project’s Environmental Impact Report deficient.
One month later, the Coastal Commission approved Measure C, a harbor-area rezoning law passed by voters in March 2017. Though Measure C’s proponents say it simply clarified the existing zoning, it was widely seen as a referendum against the CenterCal project that would prevent it from being built.
That day’s meeting lasted 13 hours, and Redondo’s item was pushed to the very last of that day’s agenda, raising an uproar among more than 100 people waiting to speak.
“I’ve been coming to public meetings like this for 20 years, since before I worked at Coastal Commission, and I’ve never seen anything like this. It’s the intensity,” said Sarah Christie, the Coastal Commission’s Legislative Director.
Ultimately, Measure C prevailed.
“Fully vindicated all the way through, by judges, the Coastal Commission, by third parties – the community has been right the entire time,” said Measure C proponent and Redondo Councilmember Nils Nehrenheim.
Residents helped by BCHD,
future campus faces tweaks
Surveys showed that the Beach Cities Health District has continued to positively affect the residents of the Beach Cities. While that work has continued, the health district itself is planning the future of its facility at the former South Bay Hospital.
Childhood obesity continued its sharp decline amongst Redondo Beach’s elementary school-aged population this year to 6.4 percent, down from around 20 percent in 2006.
The Beach Cities also starred in the Gallup-Sharecare Well-Being Index, which tracks five elements of well-being, higher than almost any other major metropolitan area in the country.
Smoking rates have dropped, exercise and produce consumption have increased and depression rates are lower than the national average.
The health district has also partnered with doctors Dean and Ayesha Sherzai on a Healthy Mind initiative, to research the effects of Blue Zones living on cognitive decline among elderly residents.
But BCHD is also facing the challenge of resident buy-in for its new Healthy Living Campus at the former hospital, which would include older-adult residential units.
Finding support for new housing is a big ask in currently development-averse Redondo Beach, but changes made in conjunction with BCHD’s working group for the project have earned praise even among those typically bearish of residential development, such as activist Jim Light.
“What I’ve seen, and what’s different between them and CenterCal or AES, is that they listen and make changes,” Light said.
The project is still undergoing refinement and will be presented to the public in 2019 before the district moves forward in the permitting process.
Festival tidings
As South Bay entrepreneur Allen Sanford bid farewell to the Hermosa Beach Summer Concerts series, he began to rev up interest in the BeachLife Festival, a three-day music, art, and food festival planned to take place twice annually at Seaside Lagoon, starting this May.
Sanford’s festival has billed itself as the biggest event to come to the beaches of the LA area. One headliner, Willie Nelson, has already been announced for the festival, with the rest of the lineup scheduled to be released in mid-January.
The city is betting big on the concert as well, inking a 10-year deal with Sanford.
He’s not the only promoter in the harbor making waves though, as former Gasser Lounge owner Mike Bouchard hit twice with his Brew Lagoon and Lobster Rock events. The latter filled a need created when the Redondo Beach Chamber of Commerce pulled out of its long-running Lobster Festival event amid leadership transitions.
“It’s all about good local bands and good local breweries, and growing it all the old-school way,” Bouchard said the last chords were played at Brew Lagoon.
