Despite the economic slump, plans are in the works for more businesses opening or relocating.
By Olivia Damavandi / Staff Writer
Though the economic recession and increased commercial rent prices have contributed to the exodus of several restaurants and retail stores from the city, a multitude of developments are slated to begin this year, some of which will expand or relocate existing businesses, and others that will add new ones.
Rumors have been swirling that Windsail and PierView Cafe, two longtime defunct eateries on a double-lot near the Malibu Pier, will be replaced by Nobu, which opened at the Malibu Country Mart in 1999, and by a Wolfgang Puck restaurant.
Nobu Malibu’s general manager, who prefers to remain unnamed, confirmed in a telephone interview Sunday that the Japanese restaurant would indeed be replacing Windsail with hopes of opening for business at the new location by summer 2010.
Plans for a Wolfgang Puck restaurant to replace PierView Cafe, however, have not been solidified.
“There is nothing I can confirm at this time,” Stephanie Davis, director of communications for Wolfgang Puck, said in an e-mail last Thursday. “We are still in the discussion stage.”
Larry Ellison, Oracle CEO and 2009’s fourth richest man in the world, according to Forbes magazine, bought PierView in 2003 for an undisclosed sum from 13-year owner Chuck Spencer. He then purchased the Windsail structure, which was already vacant, from local developer Richard Weintraub the following year (Weintraub, with partner Richard Sperber, is opening the new Malibu Lumber Yard mall April 18). The two restaurants have stood lifeless ever since.
The Planning Commission in January 2007 approved coastal development permits for the demolition of both former eateries and for the construction of a 5,900-square-foot restaurant on the property where Windsail sits. A 7,100-square-foot restaurant will be built on the PierView Cafe portion of the site. The two facilities will not be connected, and both plans are for restaurant buildings smaller than the structures currently on the property.
The construction delays have been, in part, due to the pending obtainment of permits associated to wastewater, Stephanie Danner, senior planner of the city’s planning division, said Thursday in a telephone interview.
Granita, Malibu Inn spaces remain empty
Those wondering what will become of the vacant space that once housed Granita, Wolfgang Puck’s and Barbara Lazaroff’s eclectic under-the-sea-themed restaurant that opened at the Malibu Colony Plaza in 1991 and closed in 2005, will have to wait and see.
“There have been discussions but no plans have been formally submitted,” Danner said last week.
Danner said no formal plans have been submitted for the potential demolition or development of the Malibu Inn, either, which sold at a foreclosure auction for reportedly $5.3 million in January. But local developer Weintraub is rumored to be its new co-owner.
Fiona Hutton, publicist for Weintraub, declined to comment in an interview last Friday.
Northern Malibu to have new eateries, including another Subway
Another pending development that will soon go to hearing is the renovation and addition of two commercial structures in the Trancas Country Mart, located at the intersection of Pacific Coast Highway and Trancas Canyon Road. The project proposes construction on two commercially zoned parcels totaling approximately 18 acres, and necessitates a conditional use permit and coastal development permit.
The application for changes at the mall, owned by Daniel Bercu, include maintaining the existing HOWS Market while constructing retail and restaurant space attached to the west and east sides of the building. Tra Di Noi’s Antonio Alessi and nightlife impresario Rande Gerber would operate the restaurants, one an Italian eatery, the other a family style steakhouse. A common green area with a section for young children would be added a short distance to the west of that building. The green area would be surrounded by the existing Starbucks coffee shop plus two new restaurants to the south, and newly constructed retail shops to the north and west. The development plans also call for two new onsite wastewater treatment systems and a total of 403 parking spaces in four parking lots.
Although the project site is not located within any federally protected wetlands, it is adjacent to Trancas Creek, declared an environmentally sensitive habitat area under the city’s Local Coastal Program. However, the city report states that the project is not anticipated to have any effects on waters or wetlands protected under the Clean Water Act.
Northern Malibu residents who make the trek to Colony Plaza for a Subway sandwich may be pleased to hear that the franchise will soon add another location in the Point Dume Plaza. Danner last Thursday confirmed the sandwich chain would occupy the space left vacant by the Dume Room, next to Point Pizza.
Shahnaz Fattahi, owner of Subway in the Colony Plaza, is opening the Point Dume Plaza one, Marco Galindo, general manager, said in a telephone interview Thursday of last week. An opening date has not been confirmed.
The city will, after March 30, decide whether to grant a demolition permit for the leveling of the nonoperational Chevron gas station located east of Webb Way at the corner of Pacific Coast Highway and Malibu Road, which would include the removal of all structures associated with the 1,876 square foot building on the site, along with the existing private sewage disposal system.
Danner said last week that the Planning Commission has not received any applications for the potential development of the property, owned by Chevron Products Company. The former gas station began operation in 1956.
A new, conjoined 76 Gas Station and Circle K, however, have opened on Pacific Coast Highway between Las Flores Canyon and Rambla Pacifico, and operate between 6 a.m. and 12 a.m. The application by Circle K owner Mehran Sarrafze for a license to sell alcohol had caused a stir of opposition by area residents, who said another liquor store is not necessary and would cause problems. Country Liquor Store is located directly across Pacific Coast Highway from the new Circle K.
“We opened March 12. Everything is going well, we are getting lots of positive response from the community,” Sarrafze said of the store and gas station, adding he does not know if alcohol will be sold at the location in the future.