Downtown Manhattan Beach Project Pulse: Plans, Parking and Public Input

If you've walked or driven along Morningside Drive in the last two years, you've seen the fence. It wraps a flat gravel lot where a three-story parking structure used to stand, and if you keep going toward the pier, you'll pass a second boarded-up building on Manhattan Beach Boulevard that used to be a bank. The City Council is expected to consider proposals for both sites this September.

The public input process offers context for the proposals now under consideration.

Two Fenced Lots, One Vote This Fall

The lot behind the fence is Lot 3, at 1155 Morningside Drive, a three-story structure built in 1971 that held 145 parking spaces until a 2024 seismic evaluation found it structurally unsound. The city demolished it and replaced it with a temporary 69-space surface lot while it figured out what comes next.

One block away, as reported by Easy Reader & Peninsula Magazine, the former US Bank building at 400 Manhattan Beach Boulevard tells a different version of the same story. The city bought the 16,570-square-foot, three-parcel site for roughly $13 million in April 2025, financed through tax-exempt Certificates of Participation, in part to head off the kind of dense residential development that state housing law would otherwise have encouraged there. Now both sites sit under direct city ownership, and the city is planning them together under an initiative it calls Project Pulse.

Survey Results for the Two Sites

According to Easy Reader & Peninsula Magazine, between last August and this July, the city ran one of its more thorough public input campaigns in recent memory: a phone survey of 588 residents, a booth at the Hometown Fair, appearances at multiple farmers markets, and focus groups with residents and downtown business owners. The survey responses showed different preferences for each site.

A hotel, social club, or visitor center finished at the bottom of the rankings at both sites, according to results shared at a January City Council session covered by Easy Reader & Peninsula Magazine.

The stretch of land between the two sites, behind Vons, has been used informally as a place to walk.

As reported by Easy Reader & Peninsula Magazine, one resident said at that meeting:

"Whatever you decide to do, you are going to change the lives of people right there."

A Hotel Expansion Proposal

Mike Zislis, who owns the Shade Hotel directly across from Lot 3, proposed a hotel expansion for Lot 3, with subterranean parking connecting to the existing Metlox garage and hotel rooms above. He cited the Shade Hotel's 96% occupancy and more than $10 million in transient occupancy tax revenue generated for the city.

Zislis’s proposal puts a potential revenue generator before the council alongside the options favored in the survey. The council is expected to consider the proposals in September.

Downtown Parking Counts

The city's traffic engineer, Erik Zandvliet, told the council that Manhattan Beach currently has more total downtown parking than it did before Lot 3 was demolished, because spaces were added elsewhere downtown during the gap. The temporary Lot 3 surface lot holds 69 spaces. A second temporary lot at 400 MBB adds 26 more. The Metlox garage, a short walk from both sites, still provides roughly 100 public spaces after 5 p.m. and on weekends at $2.50 an hour.

The two fenced lots remain visible parts of downtown, while the city engineer's comparison concerns the total number of parking spaces downtown.

What's Actually on the Table Now

The city unveiled conceptual designs for both sites in July. For 400 MBB, the leading concept is a two-story "anchor hub" with three food and beverage spaces on the ground floor, opening onto a plaza that would absorb the little-used stretch of Morningside Drive between the two sites, closed off with retractable bollards so it can flex open for events. The second floor would hold 5,400 square feet of creative office space with a 3,000-square-foot patio facing the boulevard, with what the city's own renderings describe as potential ocean peeks and sunset views. A small 16-space lot would sit behind it, accessed off Morningside and 10th Place, right behind Vons.

At Lot 3, the city is weighing two very different paths. Option A pairs 129 underground parking spaces across three levels with three stories of retail, restaurants, and a community patio above ground, with the top floor positioned for real ocean views if the council approves a height override. Option B drops the retail entirely in favor of maximizing parking, 200 spaces total, 71 more than Option A, while still preserving a third-floor community patio if the nonconforming height gets approved.

If you're trying to picture what changes for you specifically:

• A dedicated restaurant patio at Lot 3 facing Metlox Plaza and the Tree Section, if Option A moves forward
• A second, more secluded rooftop patio with west-facing ocean views, also under Option A
• A pedestrian plaza replacing part of Morningside Drive at 400 MBB, with bollards controlling car access
• Either 129 or 200 total parking spaces at Lot 3, depending on which option wins

Project Timeline and Financing

Earlier planning documents pointed to an August 2026 council vote. The date has since moved to September, according to reporting from MB News.

City staff have said the Certificates of Participation used to finance 400 MBB created an aggressive timeline because bond payments begin whether or not the site is generating revenue. Development could begin as early as 2028, most likely at 400 MBB first, with the two projects staggered rather than built at the same time.

What Changes Regardless of the Vote

One thing isn't waiting on September. New downtown and North Manhattan Beach parking meter rates took effect August 1, just days before this was written, part of a broader rate increase the city says will help cover debt service tied to the Lot 3 replacement. Meter rates outside the downtown and North MB zones stay at $2.50 an hour, unchanged. City staff pointed out that Manhattan Beach's rates had lagged behind peer cities like Hermosa Beach and Newport Beach, both of which raised theirs first.

The selected plan will affect the future use of these downtown sites. The council's expected September decision follows the public input process described above.

Accardo Real Estate Associates has been watching Project Pulse unfold from a few blocks away, the same fences and the same Vons parking lot. If you're thinking about what a changing downtown means for your own plans in Manhattan Beach, whether that's now or down the road, request a complimentary market consultation and we'll walk you through it in person.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.