by Kevin Cody
Jason Muller celebrated the opening of his Local Collaborative, a 4,500 sq. ft. creative work space in the former Bijou movie theater, Wednesday evening. Guests included neighboring business owners, Hermosa Beach city officials, and employees of Marlin Equity, which has leased the entire space. Beer from Hermosa Brewing Company, across the street on Hermosa Avenue, flowed from the kitchen’s built-in keg.
Local Collaborative faces 13th Street, across from the city parking structure. The space was originally the Bijou’s stage and front of the auditorium. Chase Bank, which faces Hermosa Avenue, leases the theater’s former lobby and back of the auditorium.
The ornamental proscenium arch that formerly framed the movie screen now frames eight glass-walled offices. Between the offices are 50 “hot desks,” set up along five, rough hewn tables, each milled as single sheets from Oregon walnut trees. The space is lit by a 26-foot high, circular skylight.
The metal beam, earthquake retrofitting is exposed and unfinished.
“My dad had a machine shop in Wilmington, so I like the old, industrial look,” said Muller, who grew up in Lomita and attended Torrance High, and El Camino College and studied architecture at the University of Southern California.
After USC, he worked as an architectural designer, and then in real estate development before founding Beach City Capital six years ago.
The Bijou renovation cost $2 million.
“People told me I’d never get it financed. When I found a bank that would do it, I thought I was home free. I projected being cash positive on day one,” Muller said.
COVID hit shortly after Muller received funding for the Bijou project. Like other commercial developers, he was hopeful the pandemic would be short-lived.
With this February’s completion date approaching and the pandemic still surging, Muller relieved his financial stress by playing guitar in a cover band. The band includes Mike Longacre, owner of Mike’s Guitar Parlor, on Pier Avenue; and Frank Buckley, director of real estate at Marlin Equity.
About the time Muller began remodeling the former Bijou, Marlin Equity undertook a massive remodeling of the former Abigaile Restaurant and Brewery, next door to the financial company’s Manhattan Avenue office.
Muller approached Buckley about leasing some of his space until Abigaile’s remodel was completed. Buckley said yes, to all of it.
But that assumed construction was completed in time for a March move in, an assumption thrown in doubt by the discovery of a hip bone, and then a collar bone under the stage floor during excavation.
“We called the police, like you’re supposed to, even though I knew if they were human bones, construction would be delayed. And if they were Indian bones we might never finish the project,” Muller said.
He talked to city manager Suja Lowenthal, but there was nothing the city could do to expedite the site review if the bones were human.
Muller waited anxiously for a week for the results. Then he called the police department, which had taken the bones away in a ziplock bag.
“They told me they hadn’t called back with the results because they didn’t think I’d care. The bones were from a dog,” he said.
Muller’s next project is Catalina Village, on Catalina Avenue in Redondo Beach. It also involves readapting, rather than replacing, old buildings. The site includes the former Catalina Coffee. It closed in 2018, after a summer-long, SCE electrical vault replacement cut off customer access. A former blacksmith’s shop is also part of the development. It will become a brew pub.
Behind the old buildings, Muller is building 60 new apartments. ER
