New development plans in store for Seaport Marina Hotel in Long Beach

New development plans appear to be in the works at Seaport Marina Hotel, the site of the one of the most contentious – and ultimately unsuccessful – project proposals in recent city history.

Ownership of the hotel, situated at the southwest coer of one of the city’s most congested intersections, has shifted from the Lin family to a partnership between the family and CenterCal Properties, an El Segundo-based retail developer.

“This partnership is actively working with the city’s plaing staff on finalizing a concept that will be consistent with the existing zoning while delivering the type of iconic project the community deserves,” according to a statement from Alex Cherin, spokesman for the project.

Specifics of what the new development will include and the future of the Seaport Marina Hotel are unclear; plans have not been released.

Cherin, however, did confirm in an interview the current plans do not include any residential units.

The site’s future inspired a competition between business students attending UCLA and USC who, in 2013, presented rival development plans for Seaport Marina. The USC team offered a retail-focused proposal and won the face-off.

Cherin said Raymond Lin met with the wiing students, but he didn’t know to what degree students’ ideas may have influenced the plaing for the Second and PCH site.

Prior development

A retail-only proposal would differ from a hotly contested proposal to build a $320 million retail, hotel and residential complex known as Seaside Village — or the 2nd + PCH project — that was shot down by the Long Beach City Council in 2011 over conces about traffic congestion, potential harm to the nearby Los Cerritos Wetlands and a 12-story condo tower that violated the 35-foot height limit for the area.

When the Lin family purchased the 11-acre property at the coer of Second Street and Pacific Coast Highway in the 1990s, Raymond Lin intended to raze it for development. Backlash from environmental groups, residents and business owners prevented any progress.

Since then, some have called for the property owner to restore the mid-century mode hotel to its former glory days — when it was the Edgewater I at PCH and 2nd Street, a place frequented by locals and celebrities from afar.

When the Kansas City Chiefs and Green Bay Packers traveled to Los Angeles for Superbowl I in 1967, the competing teams stayed at the Edgewater, hotel officials have said. And when Elvis Presley swiveled his hips at the Long Beach Arena, he called this hotel his waterfront home. But the property has lost its luster since its extravagant opening in the summer of 1963.

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In addition to hotel rooms, Seaport Marina as of late has served as a venue for a Jewish synagogue, Shul by the Shore, and numerous 12-step recovery groups. The owners have also rented parking lot space to private bus and limousine companies, as well as a Christmas tree farm.

Future development

Talk of the hotel’s future comes as progress is being made on a $1.4 million effort to study and devise a plan for new development in the southeast area that is years in the making. The city this week released the most recent draft of the Southeast Area Specific Plan that guides development over the next 50 years for nearly 1,500 acres of coastal land.

Also released this week is a draft environmental impact report that analyzes how future developments could impact the area. It is available for public comment through Sept. 19. The Plaing Commission will hold a public hearing and study session on both documents Aug. 18.

Christopher Koontz, advance plaing officer for the city, has worked on the effort, which was spurred in part by the denial of Second + PCH. He said one of the most notable changes in the new land use plan is how different development at the intersection at PCH and Second Street might look in the future.

The plan aims to encourage different uses at three of the four coers where development already exists, such as the Trader Joe’s parking lot and Marina Pacifica Shopping Center.

“We’re really thinking about allowing housing to mix with retail, and trying to make better coections with the water,” he said. “Right now if you go to Best Buy or Ralph’s, there is a beautiful waterway behind it but you wouldn’t know it because the developments totally block its view and tu their backs on it.”

Councilwoman Suzie Price, whose district includes southeast Long Beach, said she is eager to move the plan to the next phase.

“I feel the community has been very patient and we have gone through a very thorough process,” she said. “This is just one of those projects that is so big in scope and people feel very strongly on either side, but I think the majority of our community stands somewhere in the middle and want to see this project move forward.”

The Pacific Coast Highway gateway to East Long Beach is considered one of the last remaining parts of the city that is not entirely built out.

Historically, it has been difficult to develop in southeast Long Beach, in part, due to the sensitive habitat surrounding the seaside community, which boasts approximately 300 acres of open space, including 175 acres of wetlands. That, coupled with residents’ and business owners’ conces about increasing height and density at one of the city’s busiest intersections, has stalled any substantial development in the area for years.

If approved, the plan will replace a 1977 development plan.

Koontz said the ultimate goal is to create a cohesive vision for growth in the area.

“We need rules of the road, whether it is for a developer that comes in tomorrow or five years from now so there is a clear expectation of what is expected from them,” he said. “We want to provide certainty not just to property owners but to the community about what they can expect there over the next several decades.”

Staff writer Andrew Edwards contributed to this report.