Beachcombers and to operate food services at both ends of pier as early as this fall, ending four years of waiting.
By Ward Lauren / Special to The Malibu Times
After almost four years of grand plans and anticipated attractions that promised to return Malibu’s long neglected, state-owned Malibu Pier to life, the California Department of Parks and Recreation announced last week that Malibu Pier(tm) Partners, LLC has signed a subcontract with The Ruby’s Restaurant Group and Beachcomber Restaurants to open two restaurants and a bar on the pier this year.
The Beachcomber Restaurant and Bar’s menu will serve “eclectic coastal dishes” and the décor will be “faithfully restored to vintage atmosphere,” according to a California State Parks announcement. To be located at the beach end of the pier, at the site of the former Alice’s Restaurant, the bar is scheduled to open this summer and the restaurant will open by the fall.
Also planned for this fall is Ruby’s Shake Shack, to be located in one of the classic 1940s buildings at the ocean end of the pier. That restaurant will serve burgers, fries and shakes.
Other amenities will include deep sea fishing, which opened last month, beach equipment rentals, to open this summer, coastal boat tours, scheduled to operate in a month, a bait and tackle shop, a surf museum and a gift shop, all scheduled to open this fall.
The new food services agreement apparently signifies an end to what has been regarded as a dysfunctional relationship in Malibu Pier Partners, which was contracted to act as the pier’s master concessionaire for the state.
Principals in the partnership are Jefferson Wagner, longtime Malibu entrepreneur and owner of Zuma Jay’s surf shop, and San Francisco attorney Alexander Leff.
Wagner, it was revealed, had not signed the new contracts, nor had even been involved in their negotiations with the restaurant groups.
“It is still a bona fide deal,” Leff said on Tuesday. “Jefferson Wagner is part of our team. He and I have different roles in regard to the pier; he has different areas of responsibility. I think I can say we are both delighted to move forward and bring visitors back to the pier.”
“I’ll concur,” Wagner said. “I missed out on the negotiations but I am part of Malibu Pier Partners. I’m responsible for physical activities, being there to answer questions day to day because I’m there almost every day. Alex is up north doing paper work. That’s kind of how it has been running the last couple of years.”
Asked why has it taken so long for the new amenities to come to fruition, Leff said, “Good things take time.”
The recent history of the pier has been one of a series of delays that have increasingly vexed the state. In 2003, the state signed a 20-year contract with Malibu Pier Partners for commercial development of the pier. As master concessionaire, the partnership was to provide restaurants, sport fishing, stores, a possible museum, informational and retail kiosks and similar amenities, plus ample parking for public use and enjoyment of the historic facility.
Four years later, though physically rebuilt and ready, the only operation on the pier was one sport fishing boat. A two-story building at the ocean end of the pier, externally refurbished and gleaming with new paint, remained empty, as did the capacious site of the former Alice’s Restaurant near the entrance. The state-owned parking lot on Pacific Coast Highway is taken up largely by shipping containers used in the renovation of a local hotel.
Indicative of the long and contentious road to the new agreements, Malibu Pier Partners and Leff are currently being sued for breach of contract by two separate parties who provided earlier contractual services at the pier. The lawsuits, by the owner of Mo’s Restaurant and Jeff Bonhach, who was initially hired by Leff to head project development on the pier, do not name Wagner as party to the complaints. When asked, Leff said he did not want to be quoted about specific litigation.
Jay Sadofsky, owner of Mo’s Restaurant, said he was contracted by Malibu Pier Partners in 2004 to operate a temporary food service at the pier. In the summers of 2004 to 2006 a mobile kitchen, chairs and tables, and a bar was set up on the pier on weekends serving short-order menus. The spot was crowded most weekends.
“Our intent was to operate as a very temporary thing as Leff finalized a deal with the first restaurant he got involved with,” Sadofsky said.
That deal fell through, Sadofsky said, and that’s when Leff approached him about making a deal to operate permanently on the pier.
“So we agreed, we spent money, we had our architect do the plans,” Sadofsky said, adding that Leff asked him to go forward with the plans to submit to the state by October 2005.
But Sadofsky said he didn’t hear from Leff until January 2006, and things dragged on. “He was doing what he had done to us for three years, which was to just basically delay us, put us off, drag us along … and we finally just got fed up.”
Brian Kefluk, attorney for both Sadofsky and Bonhach, said, “We’ve been ready to perform since 2005. This would have been our second year of operation. We hold the liquor license for the pier, we went out and got that-we were directed to do so by Alex Leff-we paid the money necessary to secure the license, we did all the work, we hired attorneys, he signed the contract that we believe is enforceable, but he says that he revoked the contract. It becomes an issue as to whether he can legally revoke it, because the Malibu Pier Partner agreement says it has to be unanimous, and Jefferson Wagner never revoked it.”
The separate suit on behalf of Bonhach claims that he worked for Malibu Pier Partners and they simply refused to pay him, Kefluk said. Bonhach is suing for back pay and potential bonuses that he was promised. Both suits have been moved to San Francisco where Leff lives, as claims against him personally were included.
“These will both be state Superior Court actions,” Kefluk said. “They’re both in their initial stages; I don’t know that we even have any time lines yet.”
The attorney’s reaction to the news of the agreement with The Ruby’s Restaurant Group and Beachcombers Restaurant may portend a possible change in the timing of the legal actions.
“Well, good for them. Let’s hope it comes true,” Kefluk said. “To the extent that they can make money doing what we were going to do, that just allows the court to give us the money that we said we were going to make. So it’s a win-win for us. At this point, quite frankly, we’re happy with damages.”