Inner Gardens Showroom Opening Soon on Montana Ave

Montana Ave seems to be slowly recovering from the early 2009 tsunami of store closures. The newest addition is an Inner Gardens showroom that is set to open next year. I walked past the store today and it looked like they were about ready to open but a big sign in the window just says "2010," so who knows when exactly they'll open. If you're not familiar with Inner Gardens, here's a description from their website:
INNER GARDENS offers a complete range of products and services for creating beautiful environments by bringing together nature and the art of ornament into your home, garden or workplace.

This will be the company's third showroom.

Quonset Court Groundbreaking Early Next Year?

Any project on or near Lincoln Blvd should get some sort of priority funding because, for the most part, that street is a real eye-sore. Imagine my delight when I recently walked past the corner of Broadway and Lincoln to discover that two old structures are slated to come down. I'd heard of those two mixed-use buildings that will eventually rise in the place of an old car shop and a mattress store but I just assumed that they were on hold indefinitely like every other housing project in California right now.
After doing some research, it seems that this workforce housing project has seen quite a bit of back and force with the city as preservationists fought to save the last remaining Quonset hut in Santa Monica. Ultimately, NMS and Killefer Flammang agreed to redesign the building to preserve the hut which will be slightly moved to the corner of 9th and Broadway.
Since this is an affordable housing project, NMS will rely on public funding to finance the project. According to these documents, it seems that they were granted funding for this project, along with the neighboring "Lincoln Walk"project, late last summer. This hopefully means that this project is ready to break ground very soon. Not only would it be nice to see an upgrade of yet another corner in the city but this might also be the first major project to break ground in quite a while.

Photo Credit: Killefer Flemming Architects

SMDP has more on TJ Maxx

We actually broke the story a couple of days ago that TJ Maxx is moving into the former Circuit City space on 4th St but didn't have any more details available. The Santa Monica Daily Press, however, was able to dig a little deeper. Apparently, the store will be around 32,000 square feet and the chain is hoping for a May 2010 opening. Read the article at smpd.com

New Project: 1802 Santa Monica Blvd

There finally seems to be some activity along this particularly ugly stretch of Santa Monica Blvd right at the corner of 18th St. According to city documents filed last week there are now plans to build a 32 unit three-story mixed-use building with ground floor commercial space. This is very close to St. Johns Hospital and might attract lots of hospital workers looking for a shorter commute. While currently used as a Christmas tree lot, this property has been vacant for some time. No renderings have surfaced so far.

TJ Maxx Coming to 4th St

Good news for everyone who thinks there's a lack of affordable clothing stores in Santa Monica: Discount fashion retailer TJ Maxx will be moving into the former Circuit City space at the corner of 4th and Arizona. No opening date has been announced.

Decluttering Santa Moncia - Few Remaining Billboards To Be Removed

Thanks to strict sign regulations passed in the 1980s, most of Santa Monica is free of those ugly off-site billboards. Yet, there are a few signs scattered across the city that were erected prior to the billboard ban. Finally, it seems that many of these will be coming down as several properties are being redeveloped.

-Two of the most visible billboards set to disappear are at the northeast corner of 4th and Broadway. This lot will soon (?) be developed into a nice commercial structure with a ground floor restaurant.

-The billboards along Olympic Blvd near the Cloverfield exit are also slated to come down within the next couple of years as Metro is expanding the Expo line into Santa Monica. Groundbreaking and utility relocation (which hopefully includes billboard removal) is expected early next year.

-Two more billboards along 17th St right next to Crossroads are also part of the right of way mentioned above. However, they are slightly south of the planned route so we'll see if those will be removed as well.

Yes, a couple of billboards still remain, along on Lincoln, Santa Monica and Pico Boulevards but with land being so valuable in Santa Monica I'm sure it won't be long until those disappear as well.

2919 Wilshire Moving Forward

Can we finally say goodbye to that ugly, run-down liquor store on Wilshire and Stanford? Next week, the planning commission is set to approve a development permit for the planned 4-story mixed-use development at 2919 Wilshire. The development will include 26 apartment units above a 11,000 SF specialty market and is targeting a LEED silver certification.
This area is already saturated with Whole Foods, so I wonder what kind of specialty market they have in mind. The Albertson's next door is supposed to be redeveloped in the coming years but I doubt they would downsize to just 11,000 SF. Trader Joe's would certainly be a welcome addition to the neighborhood.

Chipotle Replacing Fatburger on the Promenade

Fatburger recently announced that they will be moving to the newly-remodeled Santa Monica Place food court this summer. According to city documents the popular Mexican fast food restaurant Chipotle will be moving into the space now occupied by Fatburger at 1218 Third St between Wilshire and Arizona. This will be the chain's first location in Santa Monica.

Update: Check out our latest post which includes the opening date of the new store.

519 Santa Monica Blvd

Another mixed-use project for Santa Monica Blvd. This one's right across the street from the library and Goodwill. The existing 1-story commercial building hasn't been vacated so we probably won't see construction on this one for a while. This particular stretch of Santa Monica Blvd has really undergone a tremendous transformation. Hopefully, that suburban-looking Goodwill store across the street will be replace with a nice mixed-use structure in the near future.

Photo Source: dfh architects, santa monica

Freeway Capping is Moving Forward

The 10 freeway has long been considered an eye sore, especially in the downtown area, where it cuts of the Promenade and Santa Monica Place from Main Street. We've heard a lot of talk about capping the freeway between Ocean Ave and 4th St but now the city really seems to be committed to this project. Check out the document below for some interesting information about the project. Also being studied is a reconfiguration of the 4th St freeway exit that would move the off-ramp right next to city hall.

Santa Monica Freeway Capping