Plans for 326-seat restaurant and bar tweaked by City Council
A new, three-story Bubba Gump Shrimp restaurant is slated to open on the Santa Monica Pier next summer, where the 50-year-old Boathouse restaurant building now stands.
Developers for the movie-themed chain outlet, which has been in the works since September of 1998, asked city officials on Tuesday to ease construction regulations and increase the amount of alcohol they can sell.
The City Council granted their requests in exchange for a few design changes. Demolition is set for the next two months. Developers say the six-month construction process will begin as soon as they get the required permits.
“We’re more excited about this project than any other that we’ve been involved in recent years,” said Bubba Gump CEO and president Scott Barnett, adding that Santa Monica’s $4-million-plus Bubba Gump will be the 14th nationwide. “We are not out of the woods yet. We still have to get out of building and safety.”
The new, 9,000-square-foot restaurant will offer two floors of outdoor seating, 314 restaurant seats and a bar. Architect Howard Laks described the building as a “neo- Italian waterfront design,” in line with what pier officials encourage.
Bubba Gump is expected to pay City Hall $10,417 in base rent a month, plus $1,889 annually for common maintenance and 2.5 percent of the restaurant’s food, beverage and retail gross sales. The city owns the pier and its buildings.
Barnett Tuesday asked the City Council to relax some guidelines governing the project.
Barnett said that putting a sound blanket and plywood around the construction site, as City Hall had mandated, would be too expensive and not provide a great benefit to neighboring businesses on the pier. Instead, Barnett offered to construct a chain-link fence with plywood on the front of the site.
And, in an unprecedented move, Barnett offered to compensate the other pier vendors for lost business during the estimated three-week pile-driving process.
City officials appeared surprised and pleased by the suggestion but didn’t discuss it at length.
Asked if City Hall would hold him to his offer, Barnett said, “I’m not really certain how it ended, but I meant what I said... If it really is an issue for (the vendors), maybe we can help them move their carts further away or in some way make this amenable to them.”
Barnett also said it was unfair for City Hall to forbid construction crews from crossing the bike path after 9 a.m. Instead, he asked that workers be allowed to cross the bike path up to five times a day for no more than five minutes at a time.
Finally, Barnett asked that his alcohol sales be allowed to account for as much as 35 percent of his total sales, as opposed to the 25 percent the Planning Commission approved. Though 35 percent is common in Santa Monica, Bubba Gump was originally limited because City Hall said it wanted a family-oriented establishment and not a nightclub.
For most restaurants, alcohol sales make more money than food service.
City Council members made concessions on all three counts, setting the alcohol limit at 30 percent, limiting the bike path crossings to two minutes and accepting Barnett’s suggestion for a chain-link fence.
In return, they asked for a few changes of their own, to which Barnett agreed.
Under the new plans, a public posting area for notices will be located on the corner of the building. Also, the height of the building’s elevator shaft tower will be cut two feet.
Finally, the developers agreed to make the elevator accessible to the public at the beach level. Under the original plan, the elevator only could be entered on the beach level through the restaurant.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 12, 2003. Read the original PDF.