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# A new cafe coming for Civic Center garage
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/a-new-cafe-coming-for-civic-center-garage/
- Published: 2008-09-23T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T21:04:31.000Z
- Author: Melody Hanatani
- Tags: Government & Politics, Santa Monica, #archive-import

(Editor’s note: This story is part of an ongoing series that tracks the city’s expenditures appearing on upcoming Santa Monica City Council consent agendas. Consent agenda items are routinely passed by the City Council with little or no discussion from elected officials or the public. However, many of the items have been part of public discussion in the past.) CITY HALL A space in the Civic Center Parking Garage that was specifically designed for a restaurant could finally get a tenant more than a year after the award-winning structure opened.

The City Council tonight is expected to sign a 10-year-lease with Trimana Grill to operate a morning and daytime cafe on the northern portion of the colorful parking structure, renting the approximately 1,600 square feet space for roughly $4,100 a month.

The execution of the rental agreement is part of a lengthy consent calendar that also includes more than $5 million in expenditures, ranging from new pool chemicals at the Santa Monica Swim Center to lobbying services for City Hall.

The new tenant was secured after City Hall gave up on a long search for a sit-down restaurant in the parking garage, citing difficulty in finding an operator because the space was too big and would require too much money to retrofit into a desirable culinary spot.

The originally 3,500 square feet was eventually scaled down to about half the size in order to find a small cafe that would serve the morning and daytime office crowd.

The remaining half will be used by City Hall’s Transportation Management Division, addressing the need for more office space for municipal services.

That need could temporarily be rectified by sub-leasing approximately 9,400 square feet adjacent to the Double Tree Hotel from the Los Angeles Times to house City TV and Code Enforcement, both of which are currently located at 525 Broadway.

The public television station and Code Enforcement are both planning on relocating to other offices in the city but those spaces are not expected to be ready for move-in by the time their current lease is up in May 2009\. The total cost to sub-lease the space is expected to cost more than $191,000, which includes the rent, moving expenses and costs for computer and telephone wiring.

The Finance Department is also located adjacent to the hotel.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 23, 2008.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/092308.pdf?ref=smdp.com)