Plaza Sweet

For as long as 15-year-old Chris Ingram has been alive, Huntington Beach has been trying to revamp its Municipal Pier entryway. At Friday’s Pier Plaza grand opening, the spike-haired teen clutched his skateboard and gave his approval--with a caveat.

“I like what they did,” said the Surf City native, tugging his Bullwinkle T-shirt and gazing at the new amphitheater and mile-long promenade. “But at least they could get some good bands out here.”

A friend told him Aerosmith was playing; he arrived to find the Golden West College Jazz Band. But city officials are confident that Chris and others of his generation will join older residents in praising the new $11-million esplanade, whose cost is being split by the city and its restaurant tenants.

“I hope people will respect it. We’ve put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into it,” said Community Services Director Ron Hagan, who spearheaded the project and said Friday he felt as if he’d given birth.

Officials say the plaza symbolizes the rebirth of Huntington Beach. It is the crown of the city’s downtown and beachfront revitalization efforts, which will include an expansion of the beachfront Hilton on Pacific Coast Highway, construction of another hotel and a retail center next to that, a smaller hotel or arts theater across the highway from the pier, and Main Street projects that will house new restaurants and shops.

City leaders want the plaza to serve as a grand entrance to the beach and pier, play host to national events such as August’s U.S. Open of Surfing and tie together all the new restaurants, shops and hotels that will draw residents and out-of-towners.

“This changes Huntington Beach from this charming little surfing town to really a world-class destination,” Councilman Ralph H. Bauer said.

“It’s really a dream come true. It’s kind of a crossroads of the world. Like the Via Veneto in Rome, you sit here at the Pier Plaza and eventually you’ll see everyone you know.”

The plaza increases beach-side parking by 150 spaces to 600, adds bathrooms and automated teller machines and improves disabled and beach access.

With income from ATM and restaurant leases, parking fees and special-event fees, Hagan said, the city expects the plaza to bring in about $600,000 a year--more than the cost of its upkeep and the payment on the bond debt.

The city started looking at plans to revamp the pier area in 1983. A massive Greek-themed shopping complex was the first proposal, but resident surveys pushed the city toward a less-commercial focus.

Lawsuits, funding hitches, plan delays and weather problems plagued the project, but construction began last year to demolish the subpar parking lot and the condemned Maxwell’s restaurant, closed since 1995.

“We’ve created a space that’s not just bricks and mortar,” Hagan said, noting the plaza’s tile mural depicting local history--images range from a Spanish galleon to a bikinied beach-goer--its wavy blue and green sidewalk tiles laid to simulate the surf, vintage light fixtures and numerous towering palm trees.

“We hope that by doing these upscale things the people will respect it and take pride in it and not think it’s cool to trash it,” Hagan said.

The 300-seat amphitheater and the new restaurants reflect similar structures built at the pier 60 years earlier by the Depression-era Works Progress Administration. A two-level building where Maxwell’s stood will feature the upscale restaurants Duke’s and Chimayo’s at the Beach, slated to open in September.

“This is going to be wonderful,” said 27-year resident Betty Koomer, listening to music with her friend Dottie Cirque during Friday’s grand-opening ceremonies. As “Stars and Stripes Forever” played, Koomer said the band shell reminded her of the march and symphonic music she heard at the shore in Long Beach as a child in the ‘20s and ‘30s.

“Doesn’t that give you chills down your back? I just couldn’t hardly stand it,” she said. “And I had that same feeling today.

“We need music out of doors for the young people to hear. This is just marvelous.”