Oklahoma Firm Purchases Venice Bathhouse Building
An Oklahoma investment firm has purchased the $4-million Bathhouse building on Venice’s Ocean Front Walk and the owners say they expect to have several “upscale” take-out restaurants operating on the bottom floor by summer.
The three-story empty Bathhouse, which has taken more than five years to complete, is the first major addition to the Venice walk in decades. If the venture succeeds, some property owners predict that it will encourage further development along the walk.
H. Bennett Carr, the leasing agent, said the Bathhouse will be used as a retail and office complex. The bottom floor will contain clothing stores and take-out restaurants offering trendy fare such as sushi, croissants and gourmet coffees, according to Carr, and the upper floors will contain about 25 offices.
The red brick building at 909 Ocean Front Walk sits in the middle of Venice’s run-down tourist trail. Some neighbors have criticized the developers for trying to gentrify the well-traveled walk, but Carr contended that young professionals and Bohemians can peacefully coexist.
“We want to service a market that the oceanfront doesn’t cater to at this point,” Carr said. “We think this is one of the strongest potential retail areas in the city.”
The Oklahoma investors--Winchester Sea Breeze Limited--purchased the building from a company headed by Venice property owners Werner Scharff and Donald Haskins. Scharff and Haskins have refused to say why they sold out, but some neighborhood activists say the two were fed up with delays in completing and renting out the building.
The building, which is surrounded by a chain link fence, has been vacant for nearly a year, according to neighbors.
Scharff and Haskins started working on the Bathhouse in 1979. They once considered creating residential or commercial condominiums, but changed their plans after residents protested. They also considered a variety of designs, according to architect Jonathan Stout.
Early plans for a modern design were scrapped in 1982, Stout said, when the two decided to pattern the development after a 1907 Windward Avenue building that was known as “the Bathhouse.”
Stout said the building, with its arches and columns and wooden trellis on top, duplicates Venice’s early architectural style, which is partly Italian.
“If we had just built a box there it would have been cheaper,” Stout said. “But I think this design fits extremely well here. That’s why the (state) Coastal Commission let us do it.
In addition to the Coastal Commission, the building was scrutinized by Venice’s well-organized residents and the City of Los Angeles. One of the major concerns among residents was getting replacement parking for the 100 parking spots that the building eliminated.
Arnola Springer, a member of the Venice Town Council, said it took years to negotiate a settlement on the building.
“We got 100% replacement parking for the residents and an agreement that no condominiums would be built,” Springer said. “Another objective was that there would be no (sit-down) restaurant service in the building, because we didn’t want a lot of night traffic and congestion.
“We figured that we negotiated in good faith and they negotiated in good faith. They did everything they said they were going to do . . . and we got the best deal we could.”
Nancy Cave, the Coastal Commission’s statewide enforcement coordinator, said the ban on sit-down food service was an important part of the agreement.
“We have no problems with a take-out food store,” Cave said. “Our concern is that parking is so scarce. If they were going to have a sit-down restaurant, we wanted adequate parking for such a restaurant.”
Under Coastal Commission regulations, the new owners could appeal the restriction against sit-down service. But Carr said they are satisfied with the agreement, saying the take-out service will appeal to residents as well as tourists.
The rent in the Bathhouse will be comparable to prices found along Santa Monica’s Main Street, Carr said. Retail space is going for $3.50 a square foot, while office space costs $1.75 a square foot.
Carr said he expected the offices to be rented to “arty” people who appreciate the ocean view. “This is not the kind of place where you’ll get the typical type of corporate office user,” Carr said. “What we’ll get is creative types . . . or people who work downtown and who’ll use it as a second office.”
When the building opens, people who have been watching the project may notice one major difference. Carr said that the new owners probably will change the building’s name to the “Sea Breeze” because of concerns that the term “Bathhouse” has a homosexual connotation.
