Santa Monica’s solution to help Third Street Promenade businesses post-pandemic: public drinking

In an effort to help businesses bounce back from the pandemic, Santa Monica’s City Council approved a motion Tuesday that will convert its Third Street Promenade into an entertainment zone by allowing visitors to buy alcoholic beverages from participating businesses and drink them outside.

The “Entertainment Zone” will be located between Wilshire Boulevard and Broadway across the 1200 and 1400 blocks of the Promenade. The new drinking policy will go into effect in June from 6 p.m. to 2 p.m. every Friday through Sunday.

Participants will have to be 21 years or older, wear a wristband and buy alcoholic drinks from participating and licensed businesses.

Third Street Promenade, a once-thriving commercial district of shops, restaurants and bars, has seen declining foot traffic for years, dropping by more than third since 2019.

At its lowest point during the pandemic around the end of 2020 and into 2021, vacancies among storefronts along the Promenade increased to between 30% and 35%, according to Devin Klein, a property broker with JLL. By 2024, it was between 20% and 25%.

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“We believe that the entertainment zone will have a positive impact in downtown, not only by boosting foot traffic and supporting local businesses but also by encouraging leasing in a one-of-a-kind area like the Third Street Promenade, which is already built out to be an entertainment zone,” Downtown Santa Monica Inc. Chief Executive Andrew Thomas said at the City Council meeting on Tuesday.

“I consider us to be the outdoor patio for our downtown community,” he added.

Businesses in Santa Monica have suffered since the pandemic and the January wildfires. But not all residents were supportive of the new ordinance, with some telling the council that they were concerned that issues such as crime and homelessness could be exacerbated by the new drinking ordinance.

“Most unsafe city in the state,” resident Denise Barton said during the meeting. “If you have no control over the homeless, by not providing the city with enough police, how will this action create more control over those issues?”