HUNTINGTON BEACH : Theaters to Open Doors at Pavilion

When the long-anticipated Pierside Pavilion opened across from the pier last summer, it featured a revived Golden Bear nightclub, but a planned six-screen movie theater remained closed.

Nine months later, the Mann movie theaters are finally due to open tonight, 11 days after the Golden Bear shut its doors again, this time for good.

The opening of the theaters was delayed while the building’s developer worked to shore up insulation in the floor of the second-story movie complex. The floor separated the movie theaters from the blare of amplifiers in the downstairs concert hall.

Those attempts having failed, Peppers Golden Bear on May 13 sold its 30-year lease rights for an undisclosed amount to the building’s owner.

The four-story, $45-million Pierside Pavilion on Pacific Coast Highway at Main Street is considered a cornerstone of the city Redevelopment Agency’s ongoing downtown renewal project. The agency has invested almost $9 million in the project, donating land, parking spaces, utility improvements and paying other costs.

Many city officials criticize the developer, Huntington Beach-based California Resorts, for situating the 1,750-seat movie complex above a rock, pop and jazz club that typically generated a 100-decibel blast of music through the ceiling each night.

“Looking at that configuration, a layman with common sense--or less than common sense--would know that is a problem,” Councilwoman Grace Winchell said. “To me . . . that’s sheer stupidity.”

Kirk Kirkland, chairman of the Planning Commission, agrees. “Somebody wasn’t thinking,” he said. “Either that, or nobody ever listened to rock music before. . . . Clearly, the two uses are not compatible in the same building.”

California Resorts officials in recent weeks have not responded to requests for comment on the situation.

City redevelopment specialist Keith Bohr said the agency reviewed the plans before the complex was built. But no city official--including council members, planning commissioners and city planners who approved the project--challenged that building quirk, he said.

Winchell said she believes that the city could have prevented the mishap, but officials were most concerned that the nightclub noise would not bother residents of an adjacent 130-unit condominium complex. “I know my concern was always with the condos,” she said.

Despite the construction blunder, most city officials interviewed said that, with the opening of the theaters, they are now optimistic about the fate of Pierside Pavilion.

Councilman Don MacAllister, among others, said he much prefers having theaters in the building with no nightclub than the other way around. “On the one hand, it’s a setback, but in the long term, I think it will be very healthy,” he said.

Bohr said city officials hope a comedy club will replace the concert hall, which he said would be a more appropriate entertainment venue, and that a restaurant can be found to replace the one next to the Golden Bear.

Aside from the 13,000-square-foot restaurant and club vacancy, every retail and restaurant space in the building is either filled or has a tenant planning to move in soon, Bohr said. “We’re still excited about the project,” he said.

Winchell, however, remains skeptical. “I’m glad to see the theaters open,” she said, “but it’s sad to me that with all we did we weren’t more careful in planning, and in the end we come out partially ripped off.”