What's Happening in Downtown Manhattan Beach Right Now: A Local Update

Walk east on Manhattan Beach Boulevard past Metlox Plaza and you'll pass a fenced-off dirt lot that's been sitting there since a 1971 parking structure was condemned for seismic reasons two years ago. Keep walking another block and you'll pass at least three storefronts that have changed hands since spring. Both are true at once, and they say something about how this downtown actually works right now.

The Downtown Manhattan Beach Business and Professional Association's executive director, Kelly Stroman, put it plainly this summer: the turnover in downtown storefronts is unprecedented, and everyone downtown is talking about it. Meanwhile, the city has spent more than a year studying what to do with two parcels it owns outright, a former parking structure and a former bank building, and as of this month it still hasn't landed on a final answer for either one.

If you live here, you've probably clocked one of these threads without connecting it to the other. They're the same story told at two different speeds.

The tenant list has turned over faster than the association can track it

Coucou, the French bistro known in Venice and West Hollywood for steak frites and an aperitif-heavy bar program, has taken over the old Nando Trattoria space on Manhattan Avenue. Bacio di Latte opened a gelato shop inside Metlox Plaza. Sogna Toscana got the green light from the Planning Commission to build out the former Lemonade space, patio included, facing the boulevard directly.

On the retail side, Blank Street Coffee signed a lease for the space Peet's used to occupy. Beyond Yoga is moving into the old Gum Tree spot, while Velvet by Graham & Spencer is taking the former Gelato & Angels location. Framebridge is slated to open in the old Kate Lester Home space this fall. A jeweler, Ounce of Salt, opened in what used to be the Rolling Hills Flower Mart storefront on Manhattan Avenue.

Not every move has been additive. Drift Beach Club closed in June. Walstory shut down shortly after. Pressed Juicery closed too, and as of this summer no new tenant had been announced for that space, though the association said multiple parties had expressed interest.

None of this is subtle churn. It's a downtown reshuffling its retail mix within a single business cycle, block by block, while residents watch storefront paper go up and come down on their regular walk to the pier.

Two city-owned lots, one meeting, one decision deferred

The other half of downtown's transformation is slower, more deliberate, and running on a different clock entirely.

The city bought the former U.S. Bank site at 400 Manhattan Beach Boulevard in April 2025 for roughly $13 million, financed through tax-exempt Certificates of Participation. One block away sits Lot 3, the parking structure at 1155 Morningside Drive that the city demolished in 2024 after a seismic evaluation found it unsafe. Since then it's operated as a temporary at-grade lot with 69 spaces, a fraction of what the old structure held.

The city calls the combined effort Project Pulse, and it has run community meetings, design charrettes, and phone surveys since fall 2025 trying to figure out what belongs on each site. The pattern in the voting has been consistent. At an August 2025 study session, residents ranked their preferences for both properties:

Hotel, social club, and visitor center ranked last for both sites, in case anyone downtown was hoping for a boutique hotel where the bank used to be.

On September 15, 2026, the council finally reviewed the latest round of concepts, developed with design consultant Gensler. The plans for 400 MBB describe a two-story "anchor hub" with three food and beverage spaces on the ground floor, opening onto a plaza that would incorporate the little-used Morningside Drive with retractable bollards at either end. The second floor would hold roughly 5,400 square feet of creative office space with a patio facing the boulevard.

For Lot 3, staff presented two competing options. One would put a mixed-use building above underground parking. The other, described as parking-first, would deliver around 200 spaces across three underground and two above-ground levels, with a rooftop community patio but no retail or restaurant space at all.

The council also considered whether an underground tunnel could connect a rebuilt Lot 3 to the existing Metlox garage. Staff priced that option at roughly $15 million and recommended against it, reasoning that the marginal parking gain didn't justify the cost.

What the council actually decided was narrower than a final design. Members voted to prioritize 400 MBB over Lot 3, largely because of the financing timeline tied to the bond issuance, and authorized staff to open a 75 to 90 day window for limited outreach with the owners of the adjacent Vons property, exploring whether a coordinated approach across both parcels makes sense. Staff is expected to return with financing and market analysis by December 1, 2026.

In other words, more than a year into the process, the city has decided which site to work on first and who to talk to next. It hasn't decided what either lot will actually become.

A neighborhood gathering space offers a point of comparison

Residents' top choice for 400 MBB, by a wide margin, was open space or a park, somewhere to sit down that isn't attached to a restaurant tab. El Porto Surf Shop offers an example of an informal gathering spot.

The MB News reported that El Porto Surf Shop has operated at 38th and Highland since 1996 and turns 30 this year. The publication also reported that owner Woodrow "Pack" Landfair bought it in 2017 after a chance conversation with the previous owner, and has spent the years since expanding it well past board rentals. The shop now runs surf lessons, late-night equipment rentals, and a monthly First Thursday event that turns its parking lot into a live music venue.

"We're not just a surf shop," Landfair told The MB News. "We invite all of our customers, all of our renters and all of our neighbors. We bill it as a neighborhood space."

The MB News reported that the July 2026 First Thursday drew more than 100 neighbors, surfers, and visitors for a set by San Diego recording artist Sir Daniel. According to The MB News, neighborhood businesses including Sloopy's, OB's, Pancho's, and Sharkeez now participate.

The comparison isn't a knock on the city's process. Redeveloping a former bank building with bond financing attached is a genuinely different undertaking than a business owner deciding to host a band once a month.

What to actually expect over the next few months

If you live downtown or walk it regularly, here's the practical shape of what's coming. The storefront churn on Manhattan Beach Boulevard and Manhattan Avenue isn't slowing down. Framebridge is expected to open this fall. The Pressed Juicery space remains open for a new tenant. Sogna Toscana still has to complete its buildout before its patio opens onto the boulevard.

On the Lot 3 and 400 MBB front, don't expect a groundbreaking soon. The realistic near-term milestone is the financing and market analysis due back to council by December 1, 2026, and even that is a step toward a decision rather than the decision itself. City staff have said construction on either site likely wouldn't begin before early 2028, and the two projects are expected to be staggered rather than built at the same time.

In the meantime, downtown's 69-space Lot 3 remains the only public parking on that block, and the discontinued 400 MBB lot means anyone used to parking at the old U.S. Bank site has had to find another spot since September 2024. Anyone circling for street parking after 6pm on a First Thursday should probably just walk to Highland and see what the surf shop has going.

If you've been tracking the version of downtown Manhattan Beach you remember from a few years ago against the one you're walking through now, you're not imagining the pace of change. Some of it is happening in real time on a lease-by-lease basis. Some of it is moving through a public process that measures progress in quarters, not months. Both are reshaping the same six blocks, just on entirely different clocks.

If you're curious how any of this touches your own property, whether it's a rental near the surf shop or a place a few doors down from the next storefront to turn over, Billings Beach Homes knows this stretch of Manhattan Beach block by block and is happy to talk through what it means for you.