"The turnover in downtown Manhattan Beach is unprecedented right now and we are all talking about it."
Kelly Stroman, executive director of the Downtown Manhattan Beach Business and Professionals Association, made that remark in The MB News's report on what's happened to Manhattan Avenue and Manhattan Beach Boulevard this year. If you've walked either street lately and felt like you were reading a different storefront every few weeks, you weren't imagining it. What's harder to see from the sidewalk is that this isn't one story. It's two, running on the same six or seven blocks at the same time, and only one of them has anything to do with restaurants.
The Corner Everyone Watched All Year
The most talked-about changes sit right where Manhattan Avenue meets Metlox Plaza. Coucou, the French bistro already known in Venice and West Hollywood, took over the former Nando Trattoria space at 1131 Manhattan Ave and has since built a steady following for its steak frites, apéro hour, and the soft-serve sundae that's become its unofficial signature. A few doors down, Great White, the Venice all-day café known for wood-fired pizza and fish tacos, opened at 401 Manhattan Beach Blvd in the Metlox corner spot Pitfire Pizza used to occupy. Bread Head moved into the former Tacolicious space on Manhattan Avenue with a focaccia-forward sandwich menu that's already built a following. And Bacio di Latte, a gelato shop, is now open inside Metlox Plaza itself.
None of these are small, unproven concepts testing the water. They're operators who already run multiple locations elsewhere in Los Angeles, choosing Manhattan Beach as their next stop. That's worth sitting with for a second, because it's different from what's happening one block over.
The Quieter Trade Happening Block by Block
Away from the Metlox corner, the changes are smaller and less photographed, but they add up to something. Gum Tree, the home and gift shop that's anchored a stretch of downtown since 2016, lost its lease on Manhattan Beach Boulevard and relocated to a smaller space at 1140 Highland Avenue, about a block away. Its former spot on the boulevard is set to become a Beyond Yoga. Around the corner, Velvet by Graham & Spencer is moving into the former Gelato & Angels space, and Blank Street Coffee has signed a lease for the space Peet's Coffee used to occupy. Walstory has closed. Drift Beach Club closed in June. Pressed Juicery shut down with no announced replacement, though the association says there's been more than one inquiry about the space.
Not every move fits a single storyline. Ounce of Salt, a jewelry line from local designer Jen Baick, opened in the former Rolling Hills Flower Mart space on Manhattan Avenue, and Framebridge is expected to open in the former Kate Lester Home space this fall. Sogna Toscana got the green light from the Planning Commission to build out the former Lemonade space in Metlox Plaza, including a small patio facing the boulevard. Trilogy Spa relocated to a spot near 12th Street, right across from one of the two sites the city is about to decide the future of.
That last detail is the hinge this whole piece turns on.
What Connects All of It
Here's the pattern underneath the list. Nearly every one of these swaps is the same shape: a longtime independent tenant either closes or gets pushed into a smaller footprint, and a better-capitalized operator with locations elsewhere in the city or the state moves in behind them. Gum Tree didn't fail. It got squeezed into a smaller space by rising rent, and a national athleisure brand took the space it left. Peet's, itself a chain, is giving way to another chain. The businesses that are opening are, almost without exception, expansions. The businesses that are closing or shrinking are, almost without exception, single-location, locally rooted operators.
That's not a coincidence and it's not really about any one landlord's decision. It's what happens when a fixed amount of retail square footage meets rising demand for it. Downtown Manhattan Beach has not added meaningful new commercial space in years. Every one of these leases is being fought over on the same footprint that existed five years ago, which is exactly why rent has become the deciding factor in who stays and who has to move.
The Other Turnover, Happening at City Hall
Which is why the second story matters as much as the first, even though almost nobody is talking about them together. The city has spent close to a year working through concepts for two long-underused downtown parcels, and both are heading to City Council for final review this month.
One is known as 400 MBB, the former US Bank site next to Vons, right at what planners are calling a gateway into downtown. The concept on the table is a two-story building with three food and beverage spaces on the ground floor, opening onto a plaza that would incorporate the little-used Morningside Drive, with creative office space and a rooftop patio above.
The other is Lot 3, the site of a 145-space, three-story parking structure that was demolished in late 2024 after seismic inspections flagged it as unstable. It's been a 69-space surface lot ever since. The two options the city is weighing both add parking, but they diverge sharply from there. One puts parking underground and stacks three levels of retail, restaurant, and a community event patio above it, with meaningful ocean views from the top floor if the council approves the added height. The other keeps parking at surface level, adds retail along a stretch of 12th Street that barely sees foot traffic today, and skips the extra restaurant space in exchange for more spots to park a car.
Whichever version the council picks, both sites are the first real addition to downtown's retail footprint in years. That's the detail that ties the two turnovers together. The pressure that's been squeezing independent tenants out of existing storefronts all year is the same pressure the city is now trying to relieve by finally building on the two parcels it's been sitting on. One is happening lease by lease. The other is happening at a dais. Both are responses to the same shortage of space.
What This Means If You Already Live Here
None of this requires you to do anything. But if you've been wondering why downtown feels like it's mid-renovation even when nothing visible is under construction, this is why. A few things worth watching over the next few months: Framebridge is expected to open this fall in the former Kate Lester Home space, Sogna Toscana is still working through its buildout in Metlox Plaza, and the Pressed Juicery space on the boulevard is still without a confirmed tenant despite multiple expressions of interest. The bigger decision, the one that will shape what downtown looks like for the next decade rather than the next season, is the City Council's review of the Lot 3 and 400 MBB concepts this month.
If a coffee shop or a boutique you've relied on for years closes or moves to a smaller space, it's rarely a reflection of how the business was doing. It's usually a reflection of what the space next to it is now worth, and how few spaces like it exist. That's true this year in a way it hasn't been in a while, and it's why the pattern matters more than any single opening on its own.
If you're watching downtown change and wondering what it means for the value of a home a few blocks away, that's a conversation worth having with someone who tracks this closely. Merritt & Sanderson Team has spent years reading Manhattan Beach block by block, not just listing by listing, and we're always glad to talk through what a shifting downtown means for the neighborhoods around it.
