Manhattan Beach contemplates Project Pulse, a major downtown overhaul
The Manhattan Beach City Council on Tuesday night had its first look at two coalescing projects that together represent the most significant makeover in the downtown area since the Metlox redevelopment two decades ago. Both are in the heart of downtown, and both are public properties: the former Lot 3 parking structure site, and the former U.S. Bank site, which the City purchased for $13 million last year. City staff have been considering the projects in tandem, under the name Project Pulse, because they are only a block apart. Each faces Metlox Plaza from different sides, and an opportunity seemed to exist to synergistically redevelop the properties in a way that both created new public amenities and addressed downtown’s chronic parking shortage. But the council eventually heeded calls to bifurcate Project Pulse, and in the end placed priority on moving forward with the former bank site at 400 Manhattan Beach Boulevard. Restaurateur and hotelier Mike Zislis, who owns Shade Hotel on Valley Drive, said the two proposed redevelopments were too much to consider all at once. “It’s not fair tonight that we all had to sit here and listen and go through these two projects,” Zislis said…
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