Surf City’s Up

Even at peak hours, it feels like a ghost town, or as one store owner called it, a cemetery.

Once a vibrant shopping mecca where visitors had trouble finding a parking space, the Huntington Beach Mall now sits alone in the middle of a vast, nearly empty lot. Inside, the light is dim, as if to hide the signs of its age--linoleum floors, rows of candy machines and photo booths.

But the first enclosed mall in California--and among the oldest in the nation--is about to give way to something new. And like so much in Huntington Beach these days, it’s going upscale.

A local builder is negotiating with city officials to level the structure and make way for a new shopping center, complete with boutiques, movie theaters and outdoor dining, all under the sun.

The demise marks the passing of an era, not only for the center but also for Huntington Beach, a city that’s experiencing what many called a remarkable economic renaissance.

Within the last five years, corporations such as Sharp, Konica and Quicksilver have relocated their headquarters to Surf City, some taking over buildings that had been empty for years. Million-dollar homes are rising along the ocean bluffs. Sales tax revenue, the pulse of the city’s financial health, climbed from $16 million in 1995 to a projected $21 million in 2000, a 31% increase.

Not bad for a city that several years ago was reeling from defense cutbacks, the Orange County bankruptcy and a reputation for destructive Fourth of July melees.

“For many years, the city was looked upon as an economic hole in the doughnut of Southern California,” said Steve Bone, president of the Robert Mayer Corp., which developed the Waterfront Hilton Beach Resort and is breaking ground on another 520-room hotel.

“As people regained optimism in the economy, they’re more willing to invest, and they’re seeing the economic potential [in Huntington Beach] for themselves,” Bone said. “It’s a snowball of economic reinforcement.”

*

But the changes have been anything but a smooth ride. For in this enclave along nearly nine miles of beach, the surf culture is as much a part of life as an old pair of blue jeans. And some longtime residents feel it’s at odds with the newer trendy hangouts like star restaurateur David Wilhelm’s Chimayo at the Beach.

Some longtime residents say city officials are selling out their way of life.

They point to the city’s embrace of Coca-Cola products as “the preferred drink of Surf City” in exchange for $300,000 a year.

Mom-and-pop stores, such as Papa Joe’s Pizza, are being squeezed out by big-name developers like Westwood-based CIM Group, a developer of retail shops in Old Pasadena and on Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade.

So after city officials approved plans for a new Wal-Mart, a citizens group submitted 22,000 signatures opposing the decision. About 15,000 signatures are needed to put the matter on a special election ballot.

“This place has done a 180 . . . maybe too fast, way too fast,” said Sam Nevarov, a retired Orange County Transportation Authority employee who lives in the Pacific Mobile Home Park off Huntington Street.

Nevarov said that when the old Huntington Beach Inn was demolished recently, he couldn’t bear to watch.

“I would have cried,” he said. “I used to have coffee there every morning. I knew the people who worked there.”

*

Huntington Beach, long famous for the bohemian slant of its citizens, is where “Proper Attire Required” may be nothing but a T-shirt, a pair of shorts and maybe some flip-flops. It is where retirees have surfboards jutting out of their car trunks. It is perhaps one of the last places along the California coast where someone earning the minimum wage might be able to afford to live in a trailer near the beach.

But Nevarov and others believe those days are numbered.

The Driftwood Mobile Home Park was razed to make way for the Hilton Ocean Grand Resort project, which includes a Mediterranean-style hotel and conference center and up to 250 condominiums off Pacific Coast Highway near Beach Boulevard.

As approved by the city 11 years ago, the project had included four hotels. But the abysmal economy of the early 1990s stalled the development, plunging Bone’s company into bankruptcy proceedings from 1993 through 1995. Optimism prevails today, with occupancy rates of about 90% and talk of a third hotel.

*

Closer to Main Street, CIM Group has proposed a 135,000-square-feet shopping and entertainment center, along with a 120-room hotel. And within blocks of the pier, Plaza Almeria, another retail and housing project, is set to be completed this year, according to city officials. Elsewhere, the aging Seacliff Village at Yorktown Avenue and Goldenwest Street will double its size after a renovation project anchored by a Lucky/Sav-on store and Orchard Supply Hardware.

“We’re positioned beautifully,” Councilwoman Shirley S. Dettloff said. “We’re near the ports; we’re between three airports; we’re freeway accessible, not to mention all the rest of it that makes people want to come here. We have many things going for us.”

The turnaround didn’t happen overnight, said David C. Biggs, the city’s economic development director. For years, the city was mired in economic shortfall as one crisis came after another. Already battered by defense cutbacks when the Cold War ended, Huntington Beach took another hit with the economic downturn earlier this decade. Orange County also declared bankruptcy, forcing layoffs and major reductions in city services.

“It was such a low point,” Mayor Peter M. Green said. “We couldn’t even afford to sweep our streets twice a week.”

There was a renewed campaign to court corporations, including the formation of “The Red Team,” a group of executives from Huntington Beach who used their networking advantages to help bring other businesses to town.

Overall, Huntington Beach residents tend to go elsewhere to shop, Green said. The city collects an average of $84 in sales tax per person annually, compared with the county average of $123. So city officials have been working to lure in more retail shops for the additional sales tax revenue, adding Expo Design Center, the Home Depot and potentially Wal-Mart.

“You can’t point to a single thing,” he said. “People finally noticed we have very high-income residents and a lot of leakage of dollars out of Huntington Beach. . . . Retailers realized they can position themselves well here and make a buck.”

*

Restaurant owner Wilhelm was among those who saw the potential of the beach, after some skepticism.

“My initial reaction when we were approached was not real positive,” said Wilhelm. But Chimayo at the Beach opened earlier this year at the base of the pier, where the old Maxwell’s by the Sea restaurant was.

“So far, it has worked out terrific,” he said. “Huntington Beach is going through a rebirth and is becoming something it has never been before.”

What it’s becoming, though, isn’t necessarily better, especially for those caught in between the old and the new. People like Bob Sofi.

Sofi, 44, had poured his life savings into a Huntington Beach Mall bakery eight years ago, hoping that he and his wife could retire on the profit. But when J.C. Penney Co. and Broadway left, business spiraled downward at the 33-year-old mall.

Business became so slow that he sometimes took a break from boredom to chat with Emad Toueg, 46, whose furniture store was just as empty. “This place is like a cemetery,” Toueg said. “There’s very few, if any, customers.”

*

Nevertheless, Sofi and Toueg didn’t know whether to greet the imminent new mall with happiness or regret. On the one hand, business most probably will improve after the reconstruction. But on the other hand, they don’t know if they’ll be able to return.

“I already invested all of my money into this place,” Sofi said.

Development has led to one of the most extensive and rancorous disputes to grip the city. The 1,600-acre Bolsa Chica wetlands have pit city officials, builders and environmentalists at odds for more than a decade.

Paul Horgan, president of the Bolsa Chica Land Trust and a Huntington Beach resident, said he finds it ironic that the very characteristic that draws people to Surf City--its natural environment--is constantly being threatened to make room for yet more people.”Habitat is being paved over,” he said.

From the backyard of Nevarov’s mobile home, he can see red-tailed hawks, foxes and kestrels--small falcons with a habit of hovering in the air against the wind.

“I would come and watch the sunset, see the animals,” he said, pointing to a 31-acre site between 1st and Huntington streets. “I’m afraid that once the owner [of the mobile home park] sells it, and the developers move in next door, we’ll all be left out in the cold.”

*

Times staff writers Leslie Earnest, Greg Hernandez and E. Scott Reckard contributed to this report.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

A New Look for Surf City

Some of the major commerical projects-current and proposed-in Huntington Beach.

Source: City of Huntington Beach

--- UNPUBLISHED NOTE --- A correction published February 1, 2003 stating that in fact, the Robert Mayer Corp. did not go bankrupt; it was the Waterfront Hilton Beach Resort, owned by Mayer Corp., that went bankrupt. The correction referred to a January 31, 2003 story, but is repeated here to clear up the facts:

FOR THE RECORD

Hyatt Regency -- An article in the Orange County edition of Friday’s California section about the opening of the Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach Resort & Spa incorrectly stated that its developer, Robert Mayer Corp. in Newport Beach, declared bankruptcy during a recession about 10 years ago. It was the Waterfront Hilton Beach Resort, owned by Mayer Corp., that went bankrupt.

--- END NOTE ---