HUNTINGTON BEACH : City Is Accused of Stalling Renovation

The owner of Jack’s Surfboards and the city are embroiled in a dispute about whether the 68-year-old structure, shut down for safety reasons, can be salvaged.

The two-story brick building at Pacific Coast Highway and Main Street was closed last month after an outdoor wall began bulging. The building owner, Mike Abdelmuti, temporarily moved his surf business to an adjacent building on Main Street that he also owns. Abdelmuti plans to renovate the old Jack’s Surfboards structure so it can withstand an earthquake.

But he accused city officials of deliberately denying him a permit for the last four years to modernize the building. City officials denied the accusation.

Bill Reed, public information officer for the city, said Wednesday that the city simply cannot make a decision on the matter until Abdelmuti has a private engineer study the building and report to the city.

Such a report would indicate whether the building can safely be restored, Reed said.

But Abdelmuti said Wednesday that he has already provided the city with the engineering information.

“Bill Reed doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” Abdelmuti said. “This building will be safe if we fix it up. And we have plans to fix it up.”

Abdelmuti said that renovation may cost him up to a $1 million but that he would rather spend the money than see a modern building in the spot.

“I talk to people in Huntington Beach, and they don’t want buildings like the one across the street,” said Abdelmuti, pointing to the Mediterranean-style new Pierside Pavilion opposite his store. The pavilion, which opened last year, is a keystone in the city’s downtown renovation efforts.

Some key city officials have privately said they would much prefer to see a new Jack’s Surfboards building on the strategic Pacific Coast Highway corner, rather than to have the existing structure renovated.

But they denied that the city has deliberately thwarted Abdelmuti’s plans to salvage the building.

“Safety is the city’s biggest concern,” Reed said Wednesday. “The city staff people are awaiting the owner’s engineer’s report as to the condition of the building before they take additional steps.”

Abdelmuti repeated that he has already provided that information and said: “I’ve told the city that if they don’t let me rebuild my building, I’ll see them in court.”