Manhattan Village is a

neighborhood A neighbourhood (British English, Irish English, Australian English and Canadian English) or neighborhood (American English; see spelling differences) is a geographically localised community within a larger city, town, suburb or rural area, ...

Manhattan Beach, California Manhattan Beach is a city in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, United States, on the Pacific Ocean, Pacific coast south of El Segundo, California, El Segundo, west of Hawthorne, California, Hawthorne and Redondo Beach, California, Red ...

, founded in 1985. It was the "last major parcel available for development" in the city Its construction was said to signify "the passing of an era – the removal of oil tanks and the beginning of development of more than 100 acres of formerly bare ground." At that time the city had a population of 30,245. Early concepts had included "a graveyard, a regional wilderness park and a lake that could accommodate paddle boating and

sailboat A sailboat or sailing boat is a boat propelled partly or entirely by sails and is smaller than a sailing ship. Distinctions in what constitutes a sailing boat and ship vary by region and maritime culture. Types Although sailboat terminology ...

ing." West of the

405 Freeway Interstate 405 (I-405) is a major north–south auxiliary Interstate Highway in Southern California. The entire route is known as the northern segment of the San Diego Freeway. I-405 is a bypass auxiliary route of I-5, running along the s ...

and east of

Sepulveda Boulevard Sepulveda Boulevard is a major street and transportation corridor in the City of Los Angeles and several other cities in western Los Angeles County, California. The street parallels Interstate 405 for much of its route. Portions of Sepulveda Bou ...

, the neighborhood adjoins Marine Avenue to the north and is south of

Rosecrans Avenue Rosecrans Avenue is a major west-east thoroughfare in Los Angeles and Orange Counties, California, USA. It has a total length of 27.5 miles (44.3 km). The street is named after U.S. Union General William S. Rosecrans, who purchased of R ...

. The first part to be developed was 37 acres on Sepulveda. In earlier days, the petroleum-drilling area was part of

Standard Oil Standard Oil Company, Inc., was an American oil production, transportation, refining, and marketing company that operated from 1870 to 1911. At its height, Standard Oil was the largest petroleum company in the world, and its success made its co-f ...

's 186-acre "tank farm" which held oil used in steam engines and steamships, according to Richard J Miescke, vice president of the Southern Division of the Chevron Land & Development Co. "They built those reservoirs with mule teams back in the '20s," he said.Ruth Ryon, "Houses Open in Manhattan Beach,' ''Los Angeles Times,'' January 16, 1983, images 136, 140 and 141
/ref> The development as announced in 1983 was to have 115 single-family, zero-lot line estate homes (priced from 295,000 to $415,000), 177 town houses and 223 court homes. Chevron was to sell four acres of its property for about eighty units of affordable rental housing. Property sales were halted in June 1985 because of

methane Methane ( , ) is a chemical compound with the chemical formula (one carbon atom bonded to four hydrogen atoms). It is a group-14 hydride, the simplest alkane, and the main constituent of natural gas. The relative abundance of methane on Eart ...

vapors discovered at the 76-acre site. After tests, there were found to be "no significant problems," said Nester Acedera of the state's Department of Health Services, and sales were resumed. A temporary vapor-venting system was put in place.

Shopping center

"Manhattan Village" also refers to the mixed-use retail and office center in that same neighborhood. The property spans some and features several shopping, dining, and retail destinations. The property consists of enclosed retail space, a community center, and offices.

Opening

Ground was broken in 1979, and the first retail phase consisted of an outdoor section including a Ralphs supermarket, Sav-On Drug and smaller shops, opening in 1980. The mall itself opened with anchors

Buffums Buffums, originally written as Buffums' with an apostrophe, was a chain of upscale department stores, headquartered in Long Beach, California. The Buffums chain began in 1904, when two brothers from Illinois, Charles A. and Edwin E. Buffum, ...

in 1991 and

Bullock's Bullock's was a chain of full-line department stores from 1907 through 1995, headquartered in Los Angeles, growing to operate across California, Arizona and Nevada. Bullock's also operated as many as seven more upscale Bullocks Wilshire specialty ...

in 1982. The site was originally part of a melon and lima bean farm, which Standard Oil purchased in 1911 and thus became a Chevron oil tank farm serving its nearby refinery.

1990s

Macy's Macy's (originally R. H. Macy & Co.) is an American chain of high-end department stores founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. It became a division of the Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores in 1994, through which it is affiliated wi ...

opened in the former

space in 1996, and a Macy's Men's and Home store (closed in 2018) in the former

Urban Outfitters Urban Outfitters, Inc. (URBN) is a multinational lifestyle retail corporation headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Operating in the U.S., the United Kingdom, Canada, select Western European countries, Poland the United Arab Emirates, Kuw ...

Anthropologie Anthropologie is an American clothing retailer with approximately 200 stores across the U.S., Canada, and the UK that offers an assortment of clothing, jewelry, home furniture, decoration, beauty products, and gifts. Anthropologie is part of ...

, and

West Elm Williams-Sonoma, Inc. is an American publicly traded consumer retail company that sells kitchenware and home furnishings. It is headquartered in San Francisco, California, United States. The company has 625 brick and mortar stores and distribute ...

now occupy the space. Owner Haagen sold the mall for $70 million to the Pacific Telesis pension fund in 1990. The mall's first remodel took place in 1992.

2000s

In May 2004, the property was purchased by RREF, a private real estate fund owned by

Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank AG (), sometimes referred to simply as Deutsche, is a German multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Sto ...

. In November of the following year, 3500 Sepulveda purchased the building with the same address, located near the northwest corner of the property. One of its most anticipated and influential tenants arrived when the

Apple Store The Apple Store is a chain of Retail, retail stores owned and operated by Apple Inc. The stores sell various Apple products, including Macintosh, Mac personal computers, iPhone smartphones, iPad tablet computers, Apple Watch smartwatches, Apple ...

opened for business at the mall on July 30, 2005. It was the first and remains the only Apple Store operating in the South Bay. A year after it opened in 2006, its current owner, the Deutsche Bank-owned real estate trust firm RREEF America LLC, began talking with the city of Manhattan Beach about a long-range development plan for the mall and surrounding area. RREEF had purchased the mall in 2004. In 2006, another remodel of the property was proposed. The proposal was heard by the city council several times until construction finally began in 2018 under real estate management company JLL.

2010s

In 2012, the still-not-approved plan was revised and now had a $110 million scope. Construction and renovation began in 2017. The remodel included: * a renovation of existing retail space (completed spring 2018) * a new Macy's building to replace and consolidate both its main store and Men's and Home store (completed late 2018) * new parking (completed late 2018), and * expansion of the outdoor shopping area, "Village Shops" (completed 2019 and 2020)

References