Long Beach : Remodeled Breakers Will Reopen as Senior Housing

The Breakers, formerly a well-known resort hotel in downtown Long Beach, is reopening this weekend as an apartment house for senior citizens after being closed two years for renovation.

Built in 1925, the oceanfront building served as one of the city’s most popular and elegant hotels and remains an important architectural landmark.

The financial failure of the hotel in 1988 raised the fears of historical preservationists that the building, at 249 E. Ocean Blvd., would be demolished. Instead, a company called Senior Living Communities, a Long Beach-based subsidiary of Shamrock Holdings Co., undertook extensive interior and exterior renovations to create what the developer now touts as a “highly specialized environment designed to accommodate the lifestyles of today’s active and independent seniors.”

Among other things, the building--which the developer says has been restored to its original historic condition--features a large lobby with a grand piano, an elegant dining room, library, mail and information center, beauty and barber shop, private guest dining room, ballroom, and areas for meetings, games and crafts.