Mirror image: Departure of stores offers chance for Hermosa Beach to reckon with evolving identity
Roy Dunbar, of Dunbar’s Waterbeds, Berl Pierce and Hermosa Beach Police Officer Don Finley in front of Hair, Pierce’s Hermosa Avenue barbershop, in the early 1970s. Photo
Three women pick through crowded racks of clothing. They pause every so often, their mirthful laughter suggesting finds somewhere between outrageous and hilarious.
“Imagine this on Chuck!” said Mary Stansbury Wilson, holding up a multi-colored silk affair, reds and blacks cascading down the shirt’s long sleeves in nothing resembling a pattern.
It was the afternoon of New Year’s Eve, and the three friends were among the customers to pass through the doors of the last day of business for Granny Takes a Trip, a vintage clothing store on Hermosa Avenue that shuttered recently after 30 years in Hermosa Beach. The store, along with each of the other businesses on the block, closed following a change in the building’s ownership.
Developer and real estate agent Raju Chhabria purchased the parcel on the west side of Hermosa Avenue stretching from 14th Street to 15th Court in January of last year. Chhabria, who also owns the land on the other side 15th Court where the H20 Hermosa Hotel is now under construction, plans to remodel the block. He offered existing tenants a chance to stay, but at increased rent. Two of the six spaces were already vacant, including the site of a former restaurant on the south end that was empty when Chhabria purchased the property; the four tenants remaining — Granny Takes a Trip, Lopa Lopa, Tyler’s Vintage and Berl’s Barber Shop — chose to depart.
Their exit illustrates the changes and challenges facing an evolving Hermosa Beach. Its downtown commercial corridors were once geared to a clientele of bikers and bohemians, and these not-so-halcyon days still loom over Hermosa’s sense of self like a guilty conscience. (Descriptors like “eclectic” and “small beach town” echo through a draft of PLAN Hermosa, the city’s soon-to-be-finalized General Plan.) But the increasingly upscale face of Hermosa Avenue may well be a more faithful reflection of a town where the median home price is north of $1.7 million.
Inside Granny Takes a Trip, the three friends discussed the causes and consequences of the stores’ exit.
Stansbury-Wilson, a South Bay Realtor, was upbeat. She said she was looking forward to new businesses and a renovated storefront, and was skeptical that anything done could be to stop it anyway.
“It’s going to happen no matter what. You can’t change change,” she said.
Hannah Small, sorting through Christmas sweaters, was more circumspect.
“But I think you can make change without taking away the essence of the town,” Small said.
Darlene Guerrero leaned against a rack of jackets and sighed.
“We’ve become a high-end beach city. It’s not really for the locals anymore, it’s for the tourists,” Guerrero said.
But as the city and its streets continue to change, who exactly is a local anymore?
The right size
A view of the vacant storefronts on 14th Street and Hermosa Avenue. Square Cat Skates, at left, had been vacant for several months. Photo
Years ago, after being named Best Barber in an annual reader’s poll, Berl Pierce told the Easy Reader that he planned to stick around forever.
“I’ll move when the bulldozer comes or a customer calls 911 for me,” Pierce said at the time.
Pierce was prophetic if not perfectly accurate. He is older, but was still healthy enough to pack up the remaining contents of his barber shop as the year drew to a close. And there were no bulldozers in sight as he and a friend removed black butcher paper that had been covering the shop windows. But though his and other stores will not be demolished, they will be fundamentally transformed.
Chhabria purchased the property at 1401 Hermosa Ave. for $4.4 million a year ago. He let all of the tenants, who were on month-to-month leases, remain at their existing rental rate but told them that the deal would end in 2017, when he would begin preparations for construction. (In an interview Monday, Chhabria said he hopes to begin work before spring.)
Though the planned renovations are technically considered a remodel and will not require a hearing before the Planning Commission, the work will be extensive. The new construction will have to conform to updated building, plumbing and electrical codes. And there will also be five new bathrooms compliant with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act. Chhabria estimates that he will spend $1.5 million in the process.
As currently laid out, the building is divided into six spaces, some of which are barely 200 square feet. The small unit size, tenants said, had made it possible to stay in business even under a higher square-footage rate. But according to plans for the project filed with the city’s building department, the remodel will eliminate two existing walls, bringing the future development down to four establishments.
Tiffanie Maher, owner of Granny Takes a Trip and Tyler’s Vintage, said that the businesses along the strip were viable, but that the combination of larger floor area and higher rent made it impossible for them to remain.
“He’s priced everyone out of it,” Maher said of Chhabria. “He’s making rent so high, and he’s not keeping it small so some of us could stay.”
According to a listing of the property on CityFeet.com, property in the new parcel will go for $5 to $6 per square-foot per month. The smallest space in the remodeled building will occupy 626 square feet, and will go for $3,130 per month. Additionally, all spaces will have “triple net” leases, a real estate term in which the tenant, on top of paying rent and utilities, is also responsible building insurance, maintenance and property taxes.
Chhabria owns several other pieces of commercial property downtown, including 1242 Hermosa Ave. just across the street. He said that these rates and conditions are now standard in the area.
Pierce, who counts Chhabria as a friend, has been cutting hair in Hermosa since the late 1960s; when he opened his rent was $70 a month. Though it has increased since then, low costs in his tiny space have allowed Pierce to offer relatively affordable haircuts at a time of rising prices at salons, he said.
But even more influential was the perspective that business owners brought to the shops, Pierce said. They were defined by a connection to the area, rather than profitability.
“Hermosa was not a big-money town. You weren’t going to get rich, but you could make a living,” he said.
A beach where it never ends
A rendering of the future face of 1401 Hermosa Ave. The mix of businesses has yet to be determined, but new owner Raju Chhabria says he is in talks with restaurants, nail salons, office tenants and a juice bar. Image courtesy Luis de Moraes
The syncopated twang of folk rocker Donovan’s “Sunshine Superman” crackled through the speakers of Granny Takes a Trip and onto Hermosa Avenue. Carts loaded with clothes that looked to be about as old as the British Invasion-era tune moved in and out. Though there were few customers around, employees were busy folding, stacking and sorting.
“Everybody’s hustlin’ just to have a little scene/When I said we’ll be cool I think that you know what I mean,” Donovan drawled.
Next door at Lopa Lopa, which closed Dec. 27, a crew of devoted patrons looked over the remaining clothing and records. Brock van Pelt, a former Hermosa resident who now lives in Redondo Beach, said that he often came to Lopa Lopa, and found a sense of community to go along with the one-of-a-kind merchandise
“The clothes are cool, the records are great. This place…I’ve never been anywhere like it. They always have events. You can’t find places like this that do events anymore,” van Pelt said.
The store made creative use of its small space, and frequently hosted events and musical performances by local acts. Last month, as the store’s closure loomed, Lopa Lopa rented out a warehouse in Culver City and brought together many of the acts who had played over the years.
Among those was Tyler Bozeman, bassist for several local acts including Black Lagoon and Funt. Bozeman grew up in Hermosa and said that the store had long been a gathering spot for him and his friends. It also sold records by bands he was in. He recalled that during Funt’s set at the Lopa Lopa closing party, the sentiment of the crowd quickly turned to the changes overcoming his hometown.
“One of the things we chanted at the beginning of set was ‘Lopa Lopa is leaving town, that’s a shame/Hermosa Beach is getting lame,’” he recalled.
Whether new tenants will be able to fill a similar community niche remains to be seen. Chhabria also owns the land just across the street at 1242 Hermosa Ave. That stretch includes Soho Yoga, Bionic Body, Sexy Beach Tennis, and Paradise Bowls. Since opening, some of these businesses have become extremely popular with Hermosa residents. But they are also undoubtedly geared to the more well-heeled customer. And while the retail mix for 1401 Hermosa Avenue is not finalized, it seems unlikely to undo this trend. Chhabria said that he was in discussions with, among other businesses, a spa and a juice bar to fill the upcoming vacancies.
He acknowledged that he was skeptical that keeping a vintage store in the space would be able to draw wealthy customers.
“If you have that old clothing store, you’re not going to attract people with money,” Chhabria said.
Outside the store as Lopa Lopa prepared to close its doors for a final time, co-owner Adrian Buffalo said he was excited that he had given local artists an opportunity in the time the store was open, and though he was sad to be leaving, he understood that times change. (The store will reopen in Hawthorne.)
“It was something people would look out for,” Buffalo said. “It’s been nice to have the support, but things don’t last forever.”
As he shut the door, the words of “Sunshine Superman” seemed even more relevant: “We stood on a beach at sunset, do you remember when? I know a beach where baby, ah — it never ends.”
Surrounded
Tiffanie Maher, left, owner of Granny Takes a Trip, stands with employees Blaine Maher and Ryan Scrooc outside the store on one of its last days. Photo
The notion of a renovated building for changing times does not entirely satisfy existing tenants. Maher, of Granny Takes a Trip, said she tried to pitch Chhabria on the benefits of a set of small, eclectic stores right next door to the forthcoming H20 Hermosa, and that the synergy it could create might be worth leaving the building as is. The existing collection of vintage stores, she said, was the only one of its kind between the Los Angeles’ Melrose Avenue and downtown Long Beach.
“How attractive would it be to say your hotel is right next to ‘Retro Row’? But he never appreciated that he had these special businesses right next door,” Maher said.
Chhabria maintains that the hotel is a completely separate consideration. More broadly, he said that the spruced up storefront will be welcomed by Hermosa.
Whether this is true depends in large part on what, or who, you mean by “Hermosa.” Interviews with more than a dozen nearby residents and businesses revealed eagerness for boosted property values and an enhanced customer base, but also concern about the effects that the change would have on those with lower incomes.
Elias Shepard, who runs the Mint Hair Salon just west of the Chhabria property, said he supported the change. Shepard said the area has “been an eyesore for a while” and that until recently the string of older, low-slung buildings “looked like Tijuana.”
“It’s good for the city. It’s a bummer to see Berl and the old people leaving. But with all these hotels going in around here, it’s smart to have nice retail here. Raju is becoming like the Mike Zislis of Hermosa Beach,” referring to the owner of Shade Hotel, Rock N’ Brews, and several other upscale South Bay eateries.
Elizabeth Ashmun lives on 15th Street. She resented the long-vacant lot where the H20 Hermosa is now under construction, and eagerly watched the hotel’s slow pace of development. The experience made her attuned to the area’s once blighted look, and she believes the continued streetfront improvements will further boost residential property values.
“I’m sorry to see the businesses go, and I don’t want to it to lose the beach feel. But I think it’s a great opportunity,” Ashmun said.
But many of the surrounding residences are apartments or houses occupied by renters who won’t stand to benefit from higher home prices. Thomas Gifford and his girlfriend rent a unit on Palm Drive. He said that they occasionally shopped at some of the departing stores, but was mostly saddened by what their departure symbolized.
“It kind of gets rid of that sense of community. You’re losing that feel of Old Hermosa, and it doesn’t seem like there’s much of that left anymore. There was a rich tapestry, and now everything is kind of the same,” he said.
Gifford said that the prospect of having a nicer-looking block was not much of an enticement to renters like himself, or those with lower incomes.
“You spruce things up, but it prices out people who’ve been here forever, and people like ourselves who are renting here,” Gifford said.
Sentimental journeys
After closing its doors, Lopa Lopa put up a list of the people, places and bands that had touched the store over the years, including some businesses that had closed. Photo
Sherly Main lives on Palm Drive, and is also concerned about the project at 1401 Hermosa Ave. But Main, who has previously criticized Chhabria developments, said that her worries aren’t rooted in nostalgia for what Hermosa used to be. Rather, she is concerned that future development won’t serve the needs of the majority of residents.
“The bookstore used to be great,” Main said, referring to Either/Or Bookstore, an eclectic bookstore that left Pier Avenue in the late 1990s. “But we need to focus on what’s going to be great. There are 19,000 people here, with money and access. We appreciate stuff.”
Chhabria bristles at the notion that he is imposing unwanted changes on a community. He argues that he often finds projects that sat empty for long stretches, such as the old Alta Dena Dairy where his office now sits, and finds solutions where others could not.
“I’m bringing nothing but good stuff to the beach. I sometimes think people don’t realize that I love Hermosa too,” Chhabria said. “The kind of tenants I have have gotten have helped the city clean up, provided services to residents, and provided revenue through taxes.”
Main’s concern about a mismatch between what landlords are providing and the needs of surrounding residents are not unique to Hermosa. Tom Eitler, senior vice president for advisory services at the Urban Land Institute (ULI), a nonpartisan think tank focused on land use, said that the issue is “unfortunately common,” and has inspired a wide variety of responses.
Eitler pointed to the example of Nantucket, Mass., for which ULI designed a plan in 2008. Development there, Eitler said, had gotten to the point where in the city’s downtown “you could get a Swarovski crystal but you couldn’t get a gallon of milk.”
“There was such a huge gap between property owners, and the people who worked there. Property values had gotten so expensive that people who worked in the town would fly in from Boston to commute,” he said.
Amidst these conditions, a nonprofit named ReMain Nantucket helped prop up businesses, like a bakery and a bookstore, that were struggling to keep up with the skyrocketing rents. Bankrolled largely by Wendy Schmidt, wife of former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, ReMain helped maintain some of the rustic charm of the former whaling village. (According to a 2012 New York Times story, it also opened Schmidt to criticism that she was imposing her will on the town.)
Hermosa still has a long way to go before bartenders and dishwashers have to arrive at Pier Plaza by seaplane. But according to the draft of PLAN Hermosa, 90 percent of those who work in Hermosa already live outside its borders. And the consequences of continuing to shed businesses offering cheaper goods and thrills remain unclear. Buildings can benefit from architectural preservation regulations, but preserving a cherished — or in the minds of some residents, needed — business amidst changing times has proven a far harder task. Reckoning with the answer requires residents to ask hard questions about what kind of city Hermosa wants to be.
“How do you protect the things you value, and get the goods and services you want?” Eitler said. “The local community has to make a decision: are they prevention-oriented, or do they let the market set the course?”