Huntington Beach Drops Plans for Tourist Center

Huntington Beach officials have abandoned plans to turn the city’s decaying downtown area into a tourist center after several hotel chains rejected the site.

“We talked to five or six hotel developers, and nobody was interested,” City Councilman Tom Mays said Wednesday. The major hotel chains wanted other redevelopment projects to be completed before committing to the project, Mays said.

The original plan called for a 300-room hotel, development of an oceanfront shopping mall with restaurants and visitor-oriented retail shops, and the restoration of several buildings on the north side of Main Street that have been designated as historic landmarks, Mays said.

Several of the buildings on the south side of Main Street will be demolished and rebuilt as retail and office buildings, city administrator Paul Cook said.

Shift in Emphasis

At a joint meeting Tuesday, council members and the Planning Commission agreed that the existing redevelopment plan is impractical and should be revised to include more housing and a village-like shopping area for local residents.

An independent study done for Griffin Realty, one of the developers involved in the redevelopment project, concluded that seasonal tourism would not provide sufficient income to support the downtown area, Cook said.

Instead, the study recommended a village-like commercial district along Main Street that would provide year-round income, he said. Cook said he liked the idea and suggested it to council members and the Planning Commission.

The beachfront Pierside Village shopping mall and adjoining parking structure originally proposed has been approved and construction should begin later this year, Mays said.

The new plan calls for construction of condominiums as well as an entertainment center that will include two or three movie theaters and a nightclub, he said. The entertainment complex will replace the proposed hotel at the corner of Main Street and Pacific Coast Highway, the former site of the Golden Bear Club.

Much of the club’s original facade has been saved and will be used at the entertainment center, Mays said.

City officials said they do not expect the California Coastal Commission to object to revising the project, which is part of the local coastal plan.

Cook said the revised plan meets the city’s zoning requirements and is compatible with the Coastal Commission’s policy to encourage visitors to use the beach. “The proposed changes are minor,” he said.

A plan for parking has not been completed, but Mays said fewer parking spaces will be required than originally thought. City planners expect to resolve the issue by next week.

Mays said he is anxious to get the downtown development started. “We have to get something done quickly,” he said of the deteriorating downtown area.