Video by Jefferson Graham
by Mark McDermott
Kay Nam stood behind the counter at Current Events on Friday afternoon, ringing up lottery tickets and candy bars as a steady stream of customers came through, many stopping to share memories and say goodbye. After 30 years in the same spot, near The Kettle on Highland Avenue, the neighborhood newsstand closed its doors for the final time on January 31.
“It’s time,” Nam said simply. “It’s just time.”
The closing marks the end of an era for a business that opened in 1996 and became a daily gathering spot for downtown regulars picking up newspapers, magazines, lottery tickets, and conversation. Nam and her husband Tom bought Current Events from original owner Richard Augustus in 1999 and ran it for more than two decades as the retail landscape around them transformed.
Recent years brought mounting challenges. Magazine and newspaper sales collapsed as readers moved online. Manhattan Beach outlawed cigarette sales, eliminating what had been a lucrative revenue stream. (“That hurt,” Nam said.) Tom needs heart bypass surgery next month, and Kay wants to be available to help him recover.
To keep the store afloat, Nam took a second job working nights at a U.S. Postal Service processing center downtown and changed Current Events’ hours to open at noon instead of early morning. “I couldn’t pay the bills otherwise,” she said.
She wrestled with the closing decision for several years, fighting against it because customers loved coming in and she didn’t want to disappoint them. What she’ll miss most is watching the neighborhood children grow up over three decades. “The young kids that come in are really her favorite,” said one customer who spoke with Nam during the store’s final week.
Nam said people kept encouraging them to hang on, insisting print would make a comeback. “Everyone was telling them, ‘Just wait, print’s going to come back, people are gonna miss it,'” the customer recalled. “But they waited and it never did.”
Unlike some downtown businesses facing unsustainable rent increases, Current Events had a supportive landlord. Ron Koch, who owns the building, kept their rent stable and made clear he wouldn’t force them out, according to Kelly Stroman, Executive Director of the Downtown Manhattan Beach Business and Professionals Association. The decision to close was the Nams’ own, driven by personal circumstances and changing business realities rather than economic pressure from their landlord.
“For 30 years, Kay and Tom have been a constant in Downtown Manhattan Beach, creating far more than a business,” Stroman said. “Through Current Events, they built a place of connection, routine, and familiarity — a true neighborhood gathering spot known for friendly smiles, the best selection of magazines in town, and always a lollipop waiting for kids.”
Jill Lamkin, President and CEO of the Manhattan Beach Chamber of Commerce, recalled the personal connections that defined the business.
“For me, they were the friendly neighbors who kept a copy of my office key for the days I locked myself out,” Lamkin said. “Tom always sought me out to let me know the lottery was high and I should buy tickets. Kay was always ready with a smile, a friendly hello, and the incredibly high level of service that keeps customers coming back for 30 years.”
The City recently awarded the couple a plaque honoring them for their years of service. It was dated January 20, 2026, eleven days before closing day.
Current Events’ final day coincided with another significant closure: Peet’s Coffee, which had served downtown Manhattan Beach for 27 years, also shut its doors on January 31.
“After 27 years, Peet’s Coffee in Downtown Manhattan Beach is closing its doors,” Stroman wrote on Facebook. “For nearly three decades, this wasn’t just a place to grab your morning coffee — it was a caffeine-fueled gathering spot where locals, visitors, early risers, and beach walkers were always greeted with a friendly smile.”
The Peet’s closure hit the community particularly hard because of Kevin, the longtime general manager who started as a barista and spent years building relationships with regulars. Unlike Current Events, where the landlord kept rent stable, the Peet’s space is now listed at $19,000 per month, according to a prospective tenant who spoke with the listing agent.
The economics of that rent illustrate the challenge facing coffee operators in high-cost retail districts. Tony Corti, president of The Innate Group, a commercial real estate firm with a particular expertise in restaurants, said survival in such spaces requires extraordinary volume.
“As a rule of thumb, for food and beverage in particular, especially restaurants, their revenues need to be at least 10 times the rent every month,” Corti said. At $19,000 monthly rent, that means $190,000 in revenue — roughly 1,300 cups of coffee per day at typical pricing.
Peet’s closed 27 locations nationwide as part of what the company called “a broader effort to align our business with long-term growth priorities and current market conditions.” Corti said such closures typically reflect underperformance relative to other locations, driven by increased competition and rising operational costs across the board.
“People don’t close their doors unless they’re not doing well,” Corti said. “If Peet’s was doing well in the face of all this competition, there’s no way they would [close]. You really have to be underperforming relative to other Peet’s locations to be on that closure list.”
Corti also connected Peet’s closure with the closure of three Starbucks in Hermosa Beach. He said the competition for coffee spots has dramatically increased in recent years.
“It boggles my mind how many different companies are doing coffee here now,” he said. “Just a ton of them. And the corporate ones seem to be the ones that are not winning. It seems to be the smaller independents that typically win the day. I don’t know if that’s just coincidence or it’s just working out that way.”
The twin closures of Current Events and Peet’s on January 31 reflect different facets of downtown Manhattan Beach’s ongoing transformation. When Current Events opened in 1996, commercial rents in the area ran roughly $1.50 to $2.50 per square foot. Today, prime Boulevard locations command $7 to $12 per square foot, a roughly fourfold to eightfold increase that significantly outpaces inflation.
“Manhattan Beach is a very high demand area, affluent beachside community. People love it. A lot of businesses want to be located there,” Corti said. “That being said, because of that high demand and limited supply of space, the lease rates increase at a much higher rate than inflation.”
For legacy businesses, the challenge often comes when long-term leases expire. Many benefit from renewal options negotiated years ago, but those contracts typically include language requiring rents to reset at “fair market value.” When that happens, tenants can face jumping from decades-old protected rates to current market prices, an increase that can be existential for businesses with thin margins.
The economics have fundamentally altered downtown’s character. Over the past two decades, Manhattan Beach has transformed from what real estate brokers once called a “beachy local village” into a “trophy retail destination.” National brands like Vuori and Beyond Yoga have displaced surf shops and local services, mirroring broader South Bay gentrification where median home prices climbed from around $600,000 in the late 1990s to more than $3.3 million today.
“We are a trophy location,” Stroman said. “And that’s happening now more than ever.”
Not all landlords chase maximum rents. Koch, who has owned the Current Events building for decades, represents what Stroman called “one of the best landlords in downtown” for his commitment to maintaining relationships with tenants rather than constantly pushing rates to market levels.
But other properties tell different stories. Gum Tree, a local business recently forced out when its landlord chose Beyond Yoga for the space and either raised rent substantially or declined to renew the lease, will move into Current Events’ location. Changes are also occurring elsewhere in downtown MB. On the 400 block of Manhattan Beach Blvd., Pitfire Pizza is being replaced by Great White, an “all day cafe” serving fresh food and offering “Australian cafe culture.” Around the corner on Highland, Un Caffe Altamura is being replaced by Parakeet Cafe, a small San Diego-based chain whose tagline is “redefining healthy food.”
Stroman said changes occur for various reasons in downtown businesses. When a building is sold, new ownership often brings sharp rent increases. She has also seen businesses bought out with “key money,” when an existing lease is bought out by a business willing to pay a premium to take it over. Gelato & Angels, for instance, was bought out and will be replaced by Velvet, a clothing brand.
Adding to tenants’ costs, many newer leases are structured as “triple net,” meaning tenants pay not just base rent but also property taxes, insurance, and maintenance. When properties sell in California, Proposition 13 protections expire and property taxes reset to current values— costs that get passed directly to triple-net tenants.
“The day that all of the small businesses are gone will be a very sad day,” Stroman said. “Those small business owners, bar none, restaurant or boutique, are the ones who are the heart and soul. They’re the ones that give back in the community. They’re the ones who employ the kids. They fight to keep everything preserved and have a lot of pride in it. I don’t think a national brand always feels that sense of pride in the community that a small business owner does.”
Corti said that day is not coming anytime soon. He said that downtown Manhattan Beach has shown remarkable stability compared to other high-rent retail and dining districts. Long-established restaurants like Petros, Nick’s, The Kettle, MB Post, and Fishing with Dynamite continue to thrive. And of course, the iconic Ercoles and Shellback Tavern have outlasted everyone.
“If you think about it, there’s not that much turnover of businesses, not really,” Corti said. “I walk down Manhattan Avenue, I walk down Manhattan Beach Boulevard…there’s a lot of places that have been there a long, long time.”
Corti noted that in the restaurant space, local operators still dominate downtown, although their success has attracted more and more outside restaurateurs — both in Manhattan Beach and increasingly Hermosa Beach.
“Mike Zislis, Mike Simms and David Slay all live in Manhattan Beach, and they control 13 restaurants, I believe, between them,” Corti said.
There are fewer examples of retailers surviving as long, perhaps because their profit margins are thinner. The question facing downtown is whether it can maintain what Stroman called its “unique and charming” character as economic forces push toward higher-end national retailers. The area is still defined by its independent businesses, but some of those increasingly depend on either supportive landlords, long-term leases, or ownership of their own buildings to survive.
“We still have this beautiful town, and the beach will always be there, the pier will always be there,” Stroman said. “But keeping that local feel—those small business owners who participate in community initiatives, who know their customers by name—that takes daily work to preserve.”
Stroman closed her Facebook post about Current Events last week with a wish: “That someone buys a BIG winning lottery ticket before their doors close for good, in these final days, so Kay and Tom can retire with no worries and carry with them the fondest memories of 30 truly amazing years. Their presence will be deeply missed, and we are incredibly grateful for the legacy they leave behind. They are the essence of local love for Manhattan Beach.”
That winning lottery ticket, however, did not materialize.
Jefferson Graham and Laura Garber contributed reporting to this story. ER
Sucks that Gavin’s policies ruined a business.