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March 2015
www.lbbusinessjournal.com
Building A Better Long Beach
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Welcome By Robert Garcia Mayor, City of Long Beach Long Beach is a city on the way up. All over town, we are seeing positive signs of growth and change. Crime is at record lows, incomes, employment, and housing values are going up, more young people are moving in, downtown is seeing a renaissance, and the Port – our economic engine – is not only expanding, but becoming more sustainable and more efficient every day. We have one of the best school districts in the country, and excellent institutions of higher learning, producing more artists than any other city west of the Mississippi, and outstanding graduates in human services, health sciences, technology and many other professions. As the only major city with a downtown on the water between San Diego and San Francisco, we are a growing tourist destination. We have two worldclass art museums, one of the best aquariums in the country, and a thriving arts and music scene that grows every day. Our airport wins awards for efficiency and convenience, and is nationally renowned for featuring local shops and restaurants on its concourse and offering one of the most aesthetically impressive terminals in the world. I am extremely optimistic about the future of Long Beach. And, we are just getting started. We just created two new departments in our city, which will provide vital support to our growing economy. The Technology and Innovation Department will lead us in developing new ways to use technology in service of an open and responsive city government, and will also support technology businesses in the community in a variety of ways. And the Economic and Property Development Department, which was long defunct, will take the lead in streamlining our business development practices and marketing Long Beach as a great place to open a new business or move existing operations. We’ve also newly created a Technology and Innovation Commission to support these goals, and revived the inactive Economic Development Commission as well. Our hard work is already paying off. Virgin Galactic and Mercedes-Benz USA have set up in Douglas Park. Major retailers are moving into the new Pike. Interest in Long Beach as a place to open or expand a business has never been stronger. Across the country and around the world, people are recognizing everything Long Beach has to offer: The cultural amenities of an international city, with the charm and warmth of a small town; a city government committed to being more business friendly and supporting economic growth; an educated, hard-working labor force; and, of course, great weather, a beautiful coastline, and unique neighborhoods perfect for raising a family or simply enjoying the relaxed Southern California lifestyle. We have weathered some challenging economic times, here in Long Beach and throughout the country. But even during the downturn, we saw new housing being built, particularly downtown; we continued to build new parks; we provided permanent housing to hundreds of people who had been homeless, and, most importantly, we’ve balanced our budget every year – and I am committed to continuing this fiscally responsible approach, so that Long Beach remains fiscally strong. We are going to continue working to attract new businesses and provide the support they need to thrive. We are going to continue marketing Long Beach to the world as the perfect place to live, work and play. We are going to continue sounding a message of openness and optimism. Our best days are just ahead.
Building A Better Long Beach
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Location, Location, Location
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ith bustling industries, a diverse talent pool, a varied and affordable housing stock, one-of-a-kind tourist attractions, a strong cultural arts scene, award winning public education institutions, temperate weather – allowing for uninterrupted business activity – and more, pinning down the City of Long Beach’s standout attribute seems no easy task. But chat with corporate executives of international and national companies about why they’re based here, and the answer becomes clear: Long Beach’s standout asset is its location. Sacramento An often quoted saying among real estate agents about the top three elements to consider when buying property is “location, location, San Francisco San Jose location.” For businesses seeking easy access to major roadways, air travel and international trade outlets, Long Beach certainly meets that requirement. Fresno Long Beach has quick and easy access to major freeways and interchanges including the 91, 405, 605 and 710 Freeways. Centrally located between Downtown Los Angeles and the heart of Orange County, travel to those areas is (in good traffic Santa Barbara Los Angeles conditions) no more than 20 minutes to half an hour away. For those who prefer public transit, the city has its own bus Long Beach Anaheim company, Long Beach Transit, and Metro Blue Line stations connect Long Beach to Downtown Los Angeles. San Diego The Long Beach Airport offers quick and easy air travel from JetBlue Airways, Delta and US Airways, with connecting flights to every major location in the country. The airport is conveniently located for business travelers, adjacent to the 405 Freeway near Douglas Park (a business park boasting many international and national business brands), offices of The Boeing Company, the Port of Long Beach’s interim headquarters and hotels including the Holiday Inn Long Long Beach Beach Airport, Long Beach Marriott and Airport Courtyard Long Beach Airport. Its award-winCity of Signal Hill ning terminal boasts a resort-style atmosphere and food and drinks from local eateries at un-inflated prices. UPS and Fedex also serve Long Beach Airport to get packages distributed quickly. Port of The city is also home to the Port of Long Long Beach Beach, the second busiest port in the United States, which is home to subsidiaries of major international shipping companies. Near dock and on-dock rail infrastructure allow easy transfer of goods from ship to rail and vice versa, and several local trucking companies offer reliable road distribution services. The port is investing more than $4 billion in major infrastructure projects to allow for even more commerce to pass through Long Beach. With proximity to major roadways and its own port and airport, Long Beach – California’s 7th most populated city – is a gateway to local, regional and world commerce, making it an ideal location for businesses large and small. ■
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Welcome Location, Location, Location Long Beach:The Best Choice Economic Development Commission – Spurring Economic Growth In Long Beach Long Range Property Management Plan Approved, Enabling Development Opportunities Business Assistance Development Projects Douglas Park Business Sectors • Aviation & Aerospace • Financial Services • Green Business • Health Care • Hospitality & Tourism • International Trade • Oil • Real Estate – Commercial & Industrial • Technology
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Mayor’s Technology And Innovation Initiatives Begin To Take Shape Business Districts Shopping & Dining • Diverse Dining Opportunities • Shopping Centers Livability Housing In Long Beach Education Important Phone Numbers Presented by the Long Beach Business Journal a publication of South Coast Publishing, Inc. 2599 E. 28th Street, Suite 212, Signal Hill, CA 90755 Phone: 562/988-1222 • Fax: 562/988-1239 lb.journal@verizon.net
George Economides, Editor & Publisher Heather Dann, Sales & Marketing Executive • Larry Duncan, Staff Assistant Samantha Mehlinger, Senior Writer • Dave Wielenga, Staff Writer Photojournalist Thomas McConville Building A Better Long Beach
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Long Beach: The Best Choice Latest Companies To Invest In Long Beach Explain Why Burnham USA Equities, Newport Beach, California The Long Beach Business Journal reached out to Scott Burnham, CEO of Burnham USA Equities, Inc., and asked him why his firm is investing in Douglas Park and Long Beach, and what the city’s residents can expect from the hotel/retail/restaurant development at Carson Street and Lakewood Boulevard. His response: “We foresee a real opportunity to do something in this part of Long Beach which will be very beneficial to the community. We also recognize that no new retail development of any significance has been constructed in this part of the city in some time, which will allow us to play an important role in improving the lifestyle experience for the area. We will bring something fresh and special to the area with the inspiration of new design elements and tenants that are carefully curated to serve the demographic. “We expect to create a village atmosphere (themed with a design that defines what Long Beach is known for in aviation and the port). The center will be carefully curated with stores, shops and special eateries that serve the local population (neighborhoods, Long Beach City College, Long Beach Airport and of course, the local businesses that reside in the area). Byron Ward of Burnham-Ward Properties added: “We will look forward to engaging the greater community as we bring focus to the things we are best known for such as unique architecture and design, people places, vibe and a sustainable dynamic tenant mix.”
Virgin Galactic, Pasadena, California A Company Of The London-based Virgin Group Ribbon-cutting ceremonies welcoming Virgin Galactic and The Spaceship Company to Long Beach were held March 7 at the firm’s 150,000-square-foot office and manufacturing facility at Douglas Park, north of the Long Beach Airport. When asked what attracted the company to pick Long Beach to manufacture its LauncherOne satellite launch vehicle, Will Pomerantz, vice president of special projects at Virgin Galactic said: “We’ve certainly been looking at facilities for several months now. . . . This facility in Long Beach ended up having all the right parts, all the right attributes. . . . There were a couple of different aspects [to our decision]. One, we needed very large space where we could manufacture rockets and manufacture a lot of them. Also we wanted a place that was pleasant for our staff to live and work. “We have a lot of job openings. The fact that the Long Beach area has such a wonderful stable of talent already, people who are quite experienced in aerospace and in other related fields, was very attractive to us. “We certainly expect to be there [Long Beach] for a long time, and we expect to be very busy there, too.” In welcoming Virgin Galactic to the city, Mayor Robert Garcia said, “Long Beach has long been a pioneer city in the aerospace business, and we’re very excited that Virgin Galactic is now making us a pioneer city in the private space flight industry, and seeking to hire local people for those jobs. I am looking forward to seeing the new facility, and to the significant economic impact Virgin Galactic will have in Long Beach.” On March 7, the company attracted several thousand people to its Job Fair. 6 • March 2015
Ribbon-cutting ceremonies were held March 7 to welcome Virgin Galactic to Long Beach’s Douglas Park, north of the Long Beach Airport. Pictured from left are: Congressman Dana Rohrabacher; California State Assemblyman Patrick O’Donnell; Virgin Galactic and The Spaceship Company CEO George Whitesides; Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia; and Long Beach Councilmember Stacy Mungo.
Building A Better Long Beach
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Economic Development Economic Development Commission – Spurring Economic Growth In Long Beach
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eralding it as “a great step forward for economic development in Long Beach,” Mayor Robert Garcia has resuscitated the city’s economic development commission, which had been dormant for several years. According to the City of Long Beach website, the economic development commission “advises the Mayor and City Council on matters relating to local businesses and economic issues such as growth patterns and programs to better serve the community.” In an interview with the Business Journal, Garcia confirmed that the commissioners would be performing those duties. “The commission’s first task will be an independent review of the permitting, licensing and planning process that businesses go through when opening or expanding, and it will be presented to the city council for review,” Garcia said. “This all-star team of business and community leaders will ensure that we make the process of opening a new business seamless and quick.” Thereafter, Garcia said, the commission “will also work towards presenting ideas and recommendations to spur economic growth in Long Beach.” Garcia intends the commission’s revival to position Long Beach for long-term economic sustainability. “We need a 21st century approach to economic development that drives innovation and supports business growth in trade, health care, technology, manufacturing and the creative sector,” he said. “The economy is changing rapidly and we have to be in the best position to attract quality, middle-class jobs. That’s why I’ve made reviving this commission a priority, and also why I revived the city’s economic development department . . .” Garcia said he assembled the economic development commission to represent a range of expertise and perspective. These are its members: • Kristi Allen, vice president of hotel operations at Long Beach-based Ensemble Hotel Partners, and the chair of the Long Beach Area Chamber of Commerce. • Becky Blair, longtime commercial real estate broker in Long Beach and former chair of the Long Beach Planning Commission. • Blair Cohn, executive director of the Bixby Knolls Business Improvement Association, chair of the Council of Business Associations (COBA) and Cycling Competition Manager for this summer’s Special Olympics World Games. • Frank Colonna, longtime real estate broker and former two-term city councilmember. Randal Hernandez, managing director of government relations at Union Bank and former chief of staff with former Long Beach mayor Beverly O’Neill. • Ralph Holguin, CEO of RMD Group, Inc., a North Long Beach-based high-tech company. • Walter Larkins, president of CDR Benefits, LLC, a life and health insurance company, and founder of Endosurgical Development Corp. and CDR Financial Services, LLC. • Michelle Molina, managing partner of Millworks, an investment and property management company in Downtown Long Beach. • Robert Olvera, Jr., president of International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 13. • Cyrus Parker-Jeanette, dean of the College of Fine Arts at California State University, Long Beach. • Paul Romero, senior national sales director with the Long Beach Convention & Visitors Bureau. ■
Long Range Property Management Plan Approved, Enabling Development Opportunities Forum Scheduled March 31 To Discuss Investment Opportunities (Note: The following was received from the City of Long Beach at press time and is important news for possible investors and developers.) The City of Long Beach has received approval to implement its Long Range Property Management Plan for the disposition and use of real property of the former Long Beach Redevelopment Agency (RDA). The mayor, city council, city staff, oversight board and RDA successor agency spent considerable time and energy creating and advocating for this hard fought milestone which will enable future investment and development opportunities in the City of Long Beach. 8 • March 2015
“This is an extremely important step forward for economic development in Long Beach, and I’m grateful to Governor Brown, his staff and our representatives in Sacramento for helping us complete this process,” said Mayor Robert Garcia. “This plan will improve neighborhoods throughout the city, eliminate blight and generate vital revenue for the city.” The California Department of Finance approved the city’s plan, which was developed after the State of California dissolved redevelopment agencies four years ago. The plan includes an inventory of the real property of the former Long Beach RDA, which encompasses 259 parcels at 71 sites. The city will begin to implement the plan by selling the 27 parcels that are categorized as “for sale” properties. Proceeds from their sale will be distributed as property
tax to taxing entities. The city will receive approximately 22 percent of that amount. Mayor Garcia and the Downtown Long Beach Associates (DLBA) have scheduled a forum on investment and development opportunities in Long Beach on Tuesday, March 31. The forum will provide opportunities to network with other developers who have taken advantage of award-winning city policies, such as the Downtown Plan and Long Beach’s Adaptive Reuse Ordinance. Key city staff will provide assistance and guidance with the best opportunities to invest in Long Beach. For further information about the forum, please contact the DLBA at info@dlba.org. To learn more about property investment opportunities, call Long Beach Economic and Property Development Director Mike Conway at 562/570-5282. ■ Building A Better Long Beach
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Business Assistance City Departments Ready To Help New And Expanding Businesses
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“I think that the city government, the city council, the mayor and city manager have all been very supportive of our efforts to grow. And I think that’s a big plus. You go into a big city and you’re not going to get the kind of attention from the local city hall.” John Molina, Chief Financial Officer, Molina Healthcare
emonstrating a renewed commitment to the growth of business and industries and the economic well being of the community, the City of Long Beach recently created the Economic & Property Development Department, headed up by Mike Conway, director. An 11-person commission made up of Long Beach community leaders representing business, workforce and community interests oversees the department, which is focused on retaining and attracting businesses. Located on the third floor of city hall, the Economic & Property Development Department is the first stop for anyone looking to start or open a business in Long Beach. Economic Development Officer Seyed Jalali, who has years of experience leveraging community resources and working with the city’s Long Beach Development Services (LBDS) Department and community resources to assist business owners with a team-based approach, is always ready to help out incoming businesses, serving as their point person at city hall. The Economic & Property Development Department and LBDS are prepared to assist businesses with the technical aspects of opening a new location, the city’s permitting processes and even with financial assistance and incentives when applicable.
Technical And Permitting Assistance One of the principal challenges in opening a business is finding a location. City staff has strong ties with Long Beach Commercial Real Estate Council, a network of commercial real estate professionals, and often work with the council’s members to find appropriate locations for new businesses. City staff assist businesses and their real estate brokers by identifying which areas and buildings are zoned for certain business uses. A manufacturer, for example, would need to locate within an area zoned for industrial use, such as Douglas Park, an office and industrial business park by the 405 Freeway and Long Beach Airport. Virgin Galactic, a company specializing in commercial space flight, recently worked with Long Beach Development Services Director Amy Bodek and Conway of the Economic & Property Development Department to identify a property in Long Beach to manufacture a satellite launch vehicle. The company presented its needs – a centrally located building measuring more than 100,000 square feet with access to a nearby airport, zoned for manufacturing – and city staff quickly identified a building meeting those specifications in Douglas Park. Once a suitable site has been chosen for a new business, staff at city hall are ready to guide business owners through the planning and permitting process, the length of which varies, depending on the business type and whether new construction is involved. The permitting process for a small project – for instance, a boutique moving into a vacant retail space – may take as little as two to six weeks. A large project, such as a 100,000-square-foot automotive trade school currently being built at Douglas Park, may take three months to approve, depending on the workload of city planning officials. For those who need approval in a shorter time frame, the city offers expedited permit processing for a fee, which covers overtime costs of city staff or the use of a hired consultant to speed the process along. To streamline the permitting process, the city provides checklists for the most common business uses, including office, retail and restaurant, so business owners know exactly what they need to do to get their businesses off the ground from day one. These checklists are available online at www.lbds.info/building or at city hall. Monday through Friday, planning personnel are available to work with any current or prospective business owners, with or without an appointment. Counters staffed with planning specialists are open to the public on the fourth floor of city hall, where business and site plans may be brought for review, and where permits are submitted. There are designated city staff members for each component of the permitting process, including engineers specializing in electricity and plumbing, fire plan checkers, and more.
Financial Assistance And Business Incentives The City of Long Beach offers financial assistance to businesses through a variety of loan programs and development incentives. Funded by a federal grant, the city’s revolving business loan program provides loans, in (Please Continue To Page 12)
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Building A Better Long Beach
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Business Assistance (Continued From Page 10)
amounts ranging from $20,000 to several hundred thousand dollars, to small and medium-sized businesses. As these loans are repaid, the city reuses those dollars to fund more business loans. In order to participate in this program, a business seeking to expand or relocate in Long Beach must generate one new job for every $35,000 loaned. Loans are to be used for equipment, fixtures, working capital and marketing, but not for construction. Another financing option for businesses through the City of Long Beach is the Grow Long Beach Fund, a partnership between the city and the National Development Council’s Grow America Fund. Through this program, Small Business Administration loans are made available to small businesses in need of financing in order to expand. Qualifying businesses must be on financially sound footing, demonstrate the ability to repay the loan and must create new jobs. Loan amounts typically range between $100,000 to $400,000, according to city staff. While the Grow Long Beach Fund is typically used for more established businesses, the city’s microenterprise loan program is suited to start-ups. Through the program, small businesses with five or fewer employees (including the owner) and fully developed business plans may qualify for loans ranging from $25,000 to $35,000. Qualifying business owners must submit their business plans for review, after which a business loan subcommittee of the new Economic Development Commission will determine whether to not to provide the financial assistance, according to Jalali of the Economic & Property Development Department. Large retailers are the only business type currently eligible for a tax incentive program through the City of Long Beach. Any retailer generating at least $5 million in taxable sales is able to receive 50 percent of its sales tax back after the first $50,000 in sales tax has been generated. The returned tax dollars must be spent to offset construction or expansion costs. Primarily this incentive benefits car dealerships and large retail centers, according to Jalali.
Businesses located in Community Block Development Grant-eligible areas of the city may also qualify for property improvement incentives through Long Beach Development Services. Primarily these areas include North Long Beach, Westside Long Beach and parts of Central Long Beach, according to Bodek of LBDS. With Community Block Development Grant funds, the city offers $2,000 grants for new businesses in those areas, which may be used for any purpose. LBDS also offers $2,000 facade improvement grants to businesses as well as business property owners. In the instance that a business owner and the owner of the business site apply for and receive grants, the total amount is $4,000.
Workforce Development The Pacific Gateway Workforce Investment Network, administered by the City of Long Beach, offers workforce development services to businesses in Long Beach as well as those located in the nearby cities of Signal Hill, Torrance and Lomita. Pacific Gateway has a variety of options to help build a business’s workforce. The principal tool the organization offers is the Virtual One-Stop online database, available at www.longbeachvos.org, where businesses may post job openings and search through thousands of qualified candidates after creating a free account. New businesses moving to town may find it beneficial to hold hiring events, particularly if their hiring needs are more expansive than just a few employees. Pacific Gateway offers assistance coordinating, marketing and staffing mass hiring events, as well as pre-screenings, skills assessments, individual interviews and follow-up meetings. In some instances, Pacific Gateway is able to help cover business costs of customized and on-the-job training for new workers who meet certain qualifications. For customized training – such as training workers to use specialized equipment or to work in specific settings – Pacific Gateway offers assistance in designing a training program and finding a training provider, if necessary. With a valid business license, workers’ compensation insurance, W-9 forms and a customized training agreement, businesses may have as much as 50 percent of training costs covered for qualified employees. Similarly, Pacific Gateway’s On-The-Job Training Program covers wages of new hires while they learn the skills necessary to be effective in their new jobs. This program also covers up to 50 percent of a worker’s wages but in some cases may pay for as much as 90 percent of wages. In addition to its workforce hiring and training resources, Pacific Gateway also offers specialized workshops for businesses on topics such as tax credits and incentives, layoff aversion, site permitting assistance and financing.
Small Business Incentives Program
The Pacific Gateway Workforce Investment Network is available to help businesses recruit, hire and train employees. The organization recently assisted a new North Long Beach business, Northgate Gonzalez Market, fill 170 positions.
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In an effort to attract and retain small businesses, the Long Beach City Council is implementing a new incentives program for businesses with 10 or fewer employees. Any such business that is relocating to or expanding its presence in Long Beach is eligible for a monetary incentive equal to the amount of its first year’s business license tax. The incentive is paid as credit against the bill for the tax. Manufacturing businesses opening a new location in Long Beach are also eligible to receive an incentive equal to the amount of the first two years worth of payments for the business license tax. Similar incentives are available for small businesses investing in renovations or construction improvements to their properties. Businesses spending more than $2,000 on a permit for construction or renovation are eligible for an incentive equal to one year’s business license tax, while those spending $4,000 are eligible for an incentive equal to two years of business license taxes. Through the new business incentives program, small businesses that add employees will receive an incentive payment equivalent to four times the amount of incremental business tax for each new employee, which is to be paid as a credit against the current year’s business license tax. For more information, contact Seyed Jalali at 562/570-6172. ■ Building A Better Long Beach
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Development Projects
The rendering pictured above by Plenary-Edgemoor Civic Partners has been selected as the preliminary design for the proposed new Long Beach Civic Center. The project includes a city hall, Port of Long Beach headquarters building, main library, redesigned Lincoln Park, residential units and possibly a hotel. A civic plaza corridor will run through the complex and include retail and dining establishments. Community engagement meetings are ongoing throughout the city. The existing Landmark Square office tower is at the far left and the World Trade Center office tower at the far right.
Real Estate Investment Transforming City Landscape
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eal estate developers are investing in office, industrial, residential and retail projects throughout the City of Long Beach. Most of these developments – which include millions of square feet of commercial projects and thousands of residential units – are concentrated in Douglas Park (see pages 16 and 17), downtown and the waterfront.
New Civic Center In late 2014, the Long Beach City Council made a decision that stands to change the face of Downtown Long Beach when it approved plans for a new civic center. Developer Plenary-Edgemoor Civic Partner’s plans include a new city hall, Port
of Long Beach headquarters and a main library, as well as multi-family residential units, a hotel, retail and a redesigned Lincoln Park. While the proposal is still undergoing community review, Mike Conway, director of Long Beach’s Economic and Property Development Department, expects the final approved plans to feature around 650 multi-family units and 200 hotel rooms. Designs for the public elements of the project – city hall, port offices and the main library – are to be completed first, followed by private developments. Groundbreaking is expected in early 2016, with a completion date of early 2019 for the city buildings.
Waterfront Retail Long Beach’s retail offerings are soon to become quite diversified, thanks to two new waterfront projects as well as the new retail planned at Douglas Park. Downtown’s The Pike at Rainbow Harbor, fronting Shoreline Drive and located west of Pine Avenue across from the Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center, is currently being redesigned as an outlet shopping center by its property management firm, DDR Corp. In addition to the existing Restoration Hardware Outlet, new tenants include Nike, H&M and Forever 21. DDR is in talks with other national retailers to fill remaining retail pads for
The Pike at Rainbow Harbor is being converted to an outlet center by property management firm DDR Corp. Restoration Hardware was the first store to open in the revamped center, which includes a Cinemark and several dining and entertainment establishments. Soon, H&M is opening, followed by Nike and Forever 21.
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its redesigned center. On the edge of Alamitos Bay, the planning process is underway for a new retail center to replace an aging hotel at the southwest corner of 2nd Street and Pacific Coast Highway. Called The Shoppes at 2nd+PCH, the proposed development consists of 216,000 square Building A Better Long Beach
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Development Projects feet of retail and 29,000 square feet of restaurant space. City staff is working on a draft environmental impact report for the project, which should be ready for public review by spring 2015. After the report is approved, demolition of existing structures on the site may begin.
Downtown Residential Including the proposed residential units for the civic center project, there are more than 1,800 new apartments planned or under construction in Downtown Long Beach. The urban waterfront is an attractive location to live for people of all ages, with diverse dining and shopping, access to multiple modes of public transit, and close proximity to attractions like the Aquarium of the Pacific and The Queen Mary. The largest of these downtown developments is Shoreline Gateway, a two-tower residential and retail project by AndersonPacific LLC and Ledcor Properties, Inc. located at 707 E. Ocean Blvd. Construction on the first residential tower, the 17story The Current with 223 luxury apartments, is underway and should be completed by early 2016. A second 35-story condominium tower is expected to break ground within the next year “We chose to develop in Downtown Long Beach because it provides or so. The towers are to be connected by a 25,000 square foot plaza featuring retail and other amenities. one of the most unique waterfront urban settings in California; Under construction in the nearby East Village Arts District with walkable amenities, a vibrant Downtown, a mix of cultural and is Edison Lofts, an adaptive reuse project in which property recreational amenities, integrated with several modes of public transportation, developer Ratkovich Properties is converting an old city hall office building into 156 multi-family rental units. Located at all within proximity to major employment centers in the region.” 100 Long Beach Blvd., the project is slated for completion in Ryan Altoon, Executive Vice President, AndersonPacific LLC September 2015. Also underway in the East Village is the 6th which is developing Shoreline Gateway, rendering pictured above Street Lofts project at the corner of 6th Street and Elm Avenue by Long Beach-based Urban Pacific Multi-Housing, LLC. The 30-unit multi- National Bank Building at 110 N. Pine Ave. – into mixed-use residential and retail projects. Plans for the Ocean Center project, designed by Studio One family building should be completed by mid-2015. Multiple projects are also underway closer to the downtown core. Construc- Eleven, feature 75 multi-family units, ground floor retail and amenities. The tion continues to adaptively reuse a former department store at 433 N. Pine historic Security Pacific building is to be converted into 118 multi-family units. Ave. into a 28-unit residential complex with ground floor retail. Just a few Adjacent to the Ocean Center Building, Lennar Multi-family Communities is blocks away, demolition of an old office building located at 245 W. Broadway planning a new seven-story, 216-unit apartment building. Located at the end of The Promenade, a popular dining corridor in Downis nearly complete. After a storm drain beneath the property is relocated, construction on a new 222-unit apartment building called Parc Broadway is ex- town Long Beach, a 20-unit residential building called the Residences at Citypected to begin in the summer of 2015. Around the corner from Parc Place is awaiting entitlements from the city. Plans for the project, located at Broadway, a 69-unit apartment building called Pine Square is being built be- 495 The Promenade North, also include ground floor retail. The newest completed apartment building near Downtown Long Beach is neath an existing elevated residential complex at 250 Pacific Ave. Four other residential projects planned for Downtown Long Beach are await- Urban Village by AMCAL Housing at 1081 Long Beach Blvd. The building features ing approval by the city. Two of these involve adaptively reusing office build- 129 market rate apartments and 5,000 square feet of ground floor retail. ■ ings – the Ocean Center Building at 110 W. Ocean Blvd. and the Security Pacific
Lennar Multi-family Communities is planning to build the 216-room apartment complex pictured above on Ocean Boulevard in Downtown Long Beach.
Building A Better Long Beach
Parc Broadway is a 222-unit apartment complex at the northwest corner of Pacific Avenue and Broadway in Downtown Long Beach. It is a project of Broadway Company, LLC.
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Douglas Park 3 2 1 16
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Douglas Park Continues To Be A Huge Success Story For City Of Long Beach
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t Douglas Park, a 261-acre business park butting up to the north side of the Long Beach Airport on former Boeing property, office and industrial buildings are being built both on speculation and with tenants already lined up. Douglas Park is named after Donald W. Douglas and his Douglas Aircraft Company that brought airplane manufacturing to the city in 1940, producing 9,441 aircraft for the war effort. The park boasts one of the largest parcels of undeveloped land zoned for industrial and office use in Southern California. This, coupled with its proximity to the 405 Freeway, the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles and the Long Beach Airport, as well as its central location between Los Angeles and Orange counties, make it very appealing to businesses. Already home to dozens of businesses, several thousand workers and numerous corporate headquarters, the business park is also attracting retail and hospitality developers. Recently, SARES-REGIS Group, Douglas Park’s property management firm, announced that a new 26-acre hotel and retail center – which will take up 10 percent of Douglas Park – is planned for the northeast portion of the business park at the corner of Carson Street and Lakewood Boulevard. Plans by Newport Beach-based Burnham USA Equities Inc. include a hotel, restaurants and shops for a combined 250,000 square feet. Douglas Park is currently home to a Courtyard Marriott hotel, quick-serve restaurants and a Starbucks. After the success of SARES-REGIS’s Pacific Pointe North and South projects – preplanned industrial projects within Douglas Park – the company has decided to move forward with a Pacific Pointe East development at the southeast corner of Lakewood Boulevard and Conant Street. Approved plans include three industrial buildings measuring 232,000 square feet, 144,000 square feet, 118,000 square feet. Of the dozens of businesses located in the Douglas Park area, Mercedes-Benz USA stands to make the biggest mark, at least in terms of square footage. The company is currently building its western regional offices, a vehicle preparation center and employee training classrooms in an existing, two-building, 1.1 million-square foot facility 16 • March 2015
at the northeast corner of Lakewood Boulevard and Conant Street. The company estimates construction will be completed by the end of the second quarter of 2015. The latest company to break ground on a project in Douglas Park is Nautilus International Holding Corp., which kicked off construction on its new headquarters in early March. The company and its four subsidiaries – Metro Ports, Metro Risk Management, Metro Cruise and Metro Shore – will relocate from Wilmington, near the Port of Los Angeles, to a new 40,000-square-foot building in December 2015. Douglas Park’s newest tenants are Virgin Galactic, the international space travel company founded by Sir Richard Branson, and Shimadzu Precision Aircraft Equipment USA, an aircraft parts manufacturer relocating from Torrance. In February of 2015, Virgin Galactic leased a 150,000-square-foot industrial building at 4004 E. Conant St. to manufacture LauncherOne, a satellite launch vehicle. Shimadzu Precision Aircraft Equipment USA, a division of the Japanese company Shimadzu Precision Instruments, Inc., held the grand opening for its new headquarters on the southwest corner of Lakewood Boulevard and Conant Street on March 12. Located east of Worsham Avenue between Conant Street and Cover Street, a sprawling new 142,000-square-foot campus for Universal Technical Institute (UTI), an automotive trade school headquartered in Arizona, is under construction. The school, scheduled to open in fall 2015, will serve as many as 800 students per day. Campus plans feature 77,000 square feet for training laboratories, 10,000 square feet dedicated to manufacturer-specific training programs and 9,000 square feet of classroom space. Urbana Development, a Long Beach-based real estate development firm, is nearing completion on two medical office buildings measuring 38,000 and 52,000 square feet within Douglas Park. The buildings, which will house local medical firms including Long Beach Gastroenterology, Columbia Pediatrics Medical Group and Laser Skin Care Center Dermatology Associates, are nearly complete. Urbana is also moving forward with plans for three new creative office buildings totaling 40,000 square feet on a two-acre parcel of land at the business park. The firm also designed Nautilus’s new headquarters. ■ Building A Better Long Beach
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Douglas Park 4 5 7 6 9 8 11 10 11 12
1. Shimadzu Aircraft Equipment USA 2. Turbo Air 3. Virgin Galactic 4. United Pacific 5. Rubbercraft 6. LD Products 7. Boeing Building 8. The Kong Company 9. Providence Industries/My Dyer 10. Food Pharma
11. Two Medical Office Buildings nearly completed to include Long Beach Gastroenterology, Columbia Pediatrics, Laser Skin Care Dermatology Associates 12. Nautilus International Holding Corp., under construction 13. Verizon facility 14. Courtyard Long Beach Airport 15. Dining establishments inlcude The Habit Burger Grill, California Fish Grill, Jersey Mike’s Subs, The Flame Broiler and Starbucks
16. Universal Technical Institute, under construction Red Box: Here are some of the companies located within the boundaries of the box: Science Care, iQA Solutions, Airgas Business Support Center, Douglas Park Medical Specialist, Stantec, Insight Examination Services, Overland, Pacific & Cutler, Interface Security Systems, LOMCO, JDA, Felahy Law Group, Gunn/Jerkins, American Worldwide Agencies, MHP Structural Engineers, Lin Manufacturing
17
18
19
At center right (#17) at the corner of Lakewood Boulevard and Carson Street are the 26 acres purchased recently by Burnham USA Equities, Inc. of Newport Beach. The company plans to build at least one hotel along with restaurants and retail stores. On the east side of Lakewood Boulevard (#18) is the Mercedes-Benz USA western regional offices and the location (#19) of Pacific Pointe East, a three-building project to be developed by SARES-REGIS Group (SRG). Even though Douglas Park is “officially” the 261 acres west of Lakewood Boulevard, SRG markets the entire area pictured above as Douglas Park.
“Some of our customers, if they
“Long Beach is a very
“The close vicinity of the ports is particularly
have to, can even fly in to the
business-friendly city.
attractive. You can save a lot of money in
Long Beach Airport and we can
I think the city understands the nexus
trucking from the port [to Douglas Park]
deliver a part right to the plane’s
between the port and the city
versus to Ontario, where it could be triple
side and they can take off.”
and how important it is.”
the price in trucking to haul the containers.”
Larry O’Toole, CEO Sanders Industries Holdings and its subsidiary, Rubbercraft
James Callahan, President Nautilus International Holding
Paul Lin Chief Financial Officer, United Pacific
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Business Sectors
Aviation & Aerospace With a long-term lease and a flurry of new hires, Virgin Galactic’s recent arrival in Long Beach confirmed the resurgence of the local aviation and aerospace industry. Virgin Galactic is designing and manufacturing its new satellite-launching space vehicle, LauncherOne, in Douglas Park, a business complex named for and built where Douglas Aircraft Company once produced the warplanes and commercial airliners that turned flying machines into engines of the Long Beach economy. The neighborhood already includes Shimadzu Precision Instruments’ Aircraft Equipment USA operation, which recently relocated its headquarters from Torrance, and Rubbercraft, maker of finely customized elastomeric parts for military and commercial uses, which became one of Douglas Park’s first major tenants when it moved its headquarters from Gardena two years ago. Douglas Park abuts the north side of the Long Beach Airport, long popular among business and leisure travelers for its efficiency and freeway-close location, now enhanced by a modern and resort-like passenger terminal that opened two years ago. JetBlue Airways utilizes the airport as its West Coast base, offering up to 27 daily flights to numerous destinations across the U.S. The Long Beach Airport is, itself, a hub of aviationrelated business. It includes maintenance operations for Gulfstream Aerospace’s corporate jets, cargo hauling by FedEx and UPS, business and service centers like the Aeroplex/Aerolease Group, Signature Flight Support, Toyota-owned AirFlite, and pilot training that ranges from schools like Long Beach Flying Club and Angel City Flyers to the high-tech simulations at FlightSafety International. The Boeing Company, which is wrapping up production of the C-17 Globemaster III transport, just opened an Engineering Career Development Center. Additionally, Long Beach Airport is surrounded by a host of non-aviation income streams. In Douglas Park, Mercedes Benz is converting a 1.1 million-square-foot Boeing hangar into a regional headquarters. The Kilroy Airport Center is home to the U.S. headquarters for high-tech office equipment company Epson America, Inc. and also is the headquarters for SCS Engineers, Ribbon cutting ceremonies for the new headquarters for Shimadzu Aircraft Equipment USA were held March 12 at Douglas Park, located Moffatt & Nichol and Senior Care Action Network, north of the Long Beach Airport. The firm, a division of Shimadzu Precision Instruments, is relocating from Torrance. Pictured from left are: Yutaka Nakamura, senior managing executive officer, Shimadzu; Yasuhiro Yamanaka, president of Asahi Kinzoku Kogyo Co., Ltd.; Tim among others. The Long Beach Airport Business Park Patton, office of Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia; Stan Deal, senior vice president of commercial aviation services, Boeing Commercial is home to a large Auto Club of America office, Verizon, Airplanes; Shigehiko Hattori, chairman of the board, Shimadzu; Hidehisa Horinouchi, consultate general of Japan, Los Angeles; Randy and P2S Engineering, to name a few. ■ Gordon, president/CEO, Long Beach Area Chamber of Commerce; Osamu Ando, senior managing executive officer, Shimadzu. 18 • March 2015
Building A Better Long Beach
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Business Sectors Financial Services The depth of the financial resources available in Long Beach is illustrated by a banking presence that includes every major and mid-sized institution in the Western United States, as well as a pair of local independents – Farmers & Merchants Bank and International City Bank – that have achieved similar stability by connecting their success with the well-being of the city. Farmers & Merchants Bank (F&M) was founded in 1907, and more than 100 years later it remains in the same family and follows the same principles of honesty, integrity, compassion, faith and community service. It has consistently been rated as one of the strongest financial institutions in the country. The bank has 23 branches throughout Los Angeles and Orange counties. International City Bank (ICB) was established in 1984 with a focus on products and services for businesses throughout the Long Beach area and a familiarity with the local financial landscape. It also specializes in Small Business Administration lending. ICB also has an Irvine branch. The rest of the banking roster includes Wells Fargo Bank, Chase Bank, Comerica Bank, First Bank, City National Bank, Bank of America, OneWest Bank, Citibank, U.S. Bank, Union Bank and California Bank & Trust. The range of other financial services in Long Beach matches the spectrum of needs with relevant experts, including certified public accountants (such as Windes, the largest accounting firm based in Long Beach, pictured top left), stock brokers (such as Merrill Lynch, pictured below), experts on the tax codes, retirement planners, life insurance brokers, small business startup advisors, tax advisors and workers’ compensation insurance brokers. When choosing to open a business in Long Beach or to expand current operations, there are plenty of professionals available to ensure that your transition is smooth and that your business meets all city, state and national requirements and regulations, and that all tax and legal issues are addressed. ■
Green Business Green businesses and services are growing steadily in Long Beach, thanks to increased customer demand and encouragement by the City of Long Beach through its Lawn-to-Garden program and green building standards, its goal to become the “Most Bicycle-Friendly City in America” and other efforts. The industry is most commonly described as businesses with services or products that benefit our environment or reduce harm to it while turning a profit. While some businesses are brick-and-mortar, even more are consultants, many of whom advise businesses and others how to reduce their consumption of non-renewable and scarce resources such as oil, water and disposable items. Long Beach-based Solar Source (whose project manager is pictured at left) is one renewable energy company in town that installs solar photovoltaic panels for a steady base of clients across all sectors who are seeking to reduce their energy use and save money. Other energy firms in Long Beach focus on helping the Port of Long Beach reach its goal to become the greenest port in the world through energy use reduction and other measures. Throughout Long Beach, new retail stores have opened carrying sustainably made clothing and other items. Yellow 108, (Please Continue To Page 24)
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Business Sectors which sells hats, clothing and accessories, not only has a shop and its headquarters in Long Beach but also sells to most Whole Foods around the United States. MADE In Long Beach sells a wide array of locally made goods, from bike baskets to jewelry. Tiny EcoUrbanite offers eco-friendly baby and children’s items as well as educational classes on natural parenting. Local and organic food is one of the fastest growing trends in Long Beach, with national local-food expert Primal Alchemy catering many events and BeachGreens and other companies providing local delivery of organic produce from local farms. Organic juice bars are sprouting up around town and many restaurants are providing more organic, local and non-genetically modified food. An increasing number of landscaping companies are converting lawns into drought-tolerant, toxin-free, or food-producing gardens for businesses and residents seeking to decrease water and pesticide use, attract birds and bees or grow local food. The city’s bike shops and active transportation consultants help residents and employees go car-free or car-light, and the city is looking to launch a bike share program as well as a car share program. The urban planning community is helping create denser, more walkable neighborhoods. And, under the city’s adaptive reuse incentive program, several buildings have been renovated with sustainable products and processes. With the growing number of sustainability professionals in the city coupled with new government regulations and incentives, green business is an industry to watch. ■
Health Care Health care is a significant part of the Long Beach economy as four medical providers are among the city’s largest private sector employers – and these businesses are homegrown. Long Beach Memorial Medical Center, born as Seaside Hospital in 1907 and ranked among the nation’s best in 11 areas of care in 2014, is the flagship of the MemorialCare Health System, which also owns the Miller Children’s & Women’s Hospital and Community Hospital Long Beach, and three more hospitals in Orange County. St. Mary Medical Center was founded in Long Beach by the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word in 1923. Now part of Dignity Health, the hospital continues to earn recognition for the work of its 600 physicians and 1,350 employees to meet the health care needs of the city’s residents. SCAN [Senior Care Action Network] Health Plan, organized in 1977 by a Long Beach group dissatisfied with access to Medicare services, is now the nation’s fourth-largest not-for-profit Medicare Advantage plan with 1,100 employees serving 130,000 people in California and Nevada. The nonprofit remains headquartered in Long Beach. Long Beach based-Molina Healthcare, founded by Dr. C. David Molina in 1980 as a pay-what-you-can clinic, finished 2014 with operations in 15 states and ranked No. 393 in the Fortune 500. The company, which now focuses on Medicaid and Medi-Cal plans, predicts 2015 revenues will reach $14.3 billion. Long Beach is one of three cities in California with its own health department, employing 340 employees at nine sites. Although 99 percent of the $120 million budget comes from federal, state, county and private sources, the city’s administrative role facilitates direct contact with the public, which enables resources to be directed more efficiently. ■ 24 • March 2015
Building A Better Long Beach
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Business Sectors Hospitality & Tourism Beyond the profits it turns, the jobs it generates and the tax revenue it collects through the tourists and conventioneers it attracts, the Long Beach hospitality and tourism industry continues to transform the city into a better place for the people who live here. Consider that the expanding dining and drinking options in Downtown Long Beach are mostly concentrated within eight square blocks of the Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center. Notice that the number of restaurants and bars within those boundaries has climbed to 125 as the trade shows, meetings, special events and massive get-togethers on the convention center calendar have surpassed 300 annually. The shops, galleries and services that are filling in the spaces between the restaurants – and the free time between the outof-towners’ lunch and dinner rushes – exude a livability that might have something to do with the new residents that are filling up downtown’s formerly stagnant housing inventory. Long Beach’s two principal attractions – The Queen Mary and Aquarium of the Pacific – each lured 1.5 million people in 2014, generating revenues that justified spending money on the ship’s improved amenities and historical restoration, as well as a succession of high-quality displays at the Aquarium. The four decades the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach has raced through downtown streets has helped transformed the area and attract investors from across the country. The Long Beach Lesbian and Gay Pride Festival has similarly transformed the cultural landscape. Numbers from the Long Beach Area Convention & Visitors Bureau (CVB) say hospitality is a huge industry in Long Beach and has been a major engine of economic recovery. Visits to conventions, trade shows and attractions surpassed six million in 2014, and overnight hotel stays from these events generated $21,264,955 in transient occupancy taxes (TOT) – $2.48 million more than in 2013. The hotel occupancy rate is expected to be about 74.5 percent in 2015, up from 61.9 percent in 2009. More importantly, every dollar invested by the industry generates $5.70 in return, according to the CVB. Part of the recent success of the industry is the popularity of the Pacific Ballroom at the Long Beach Arena. The state-of-the-art facility was completed in late 2013 and has been a huge hit with meeting planners ever since. The future? A spate of renovation projects, including the Hilton Long Beach and the Holiday Inn Long Beach Airport, suggest it’s bright. ■
“The Long Beach Convention Center is going to revolutionize the way convention centers do business. The Arena with its built in rigging, lighting and curtain system offers a huge cost savings and convenience factor that is unique to Long Beach.” Joshua R. Dunn Director of Sales, LiveVantage
26 • March 2015
Building A Better Long Beach
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Building A Better Long Beach
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Business Sectors
International Trade
“They [the City of Long Beach] have gone out of their way to help us, to be proactive, to be supportive and I just couldn’t ask for better partners than what we have found in Long Beach.” George Adams President, SA Recycling
28 • March 2015
The Port of Long Beach (POLB) is the second-busiest container port in the United States (behind its next-door neighbor, the Port of Los Angeles), moving more than $180 billion in cargo every year – 90 percent of it to East Asia, where its top trading partners are China, South Korea, Hong Kong and Japan. The massive complex covers 3,200 acres, accounts for more than 30,000 jobs in Long Beach, supports 300,000 jobs regionally and generates approximately $16 billion in wages throughout California. Cargo container trade climbed 1.3 percent in 2014, which translates into POLB’s third busiest year ever, and along with the strengthening American dollar, signals even more imports to come. That’s good news, although simply getting bigger isn’t the best measure of the port’s success anymore – instead, it’s a matter of managing growth and mitigating the negative consequences. That has been the challenge of the Green Port Policy, the port’s 2005 commitment to reduce its environmental impact in six areas. Additionally, the 2007 Clean Trucks Program banned old trucks and required emissions control on new ones. The result? A decade that included the port’s two busiest years ever also showed significant reductions in air pollutants, increases in wildlife populations and enhancements to the aquatic habitat. The port is bringing the same values to the Middle Harbor Redevelopment Project, a $1.31 billion upgrade that will combine two aging, inefficient and environmentally underperforming cargo terminals into a single one, with state-of-the-art equipment almost entirely powered by electric, zero-emission technology. The first phase has an October 2015 target completion date, and the tenant, Long Beach Container Terminal, will move in while the second phase shoots for completion in 2019. Increased efficiency is also the goal of a renewed emphasis on the port’s rail lines, which will be upgraded with the intention of increasing the amount of cargo on dock rail from 22 percent to 35 percent. The other large capital improvement project underway at the port is the $1.2 billion Gerald Desmond Bridge Replacement Project. It involves tearing down the existing Gerald Desmond Bridge and replacing it with a taller, wider bridge to allow larger vessels to pass beneath it further into the port, and to facilitate more vehicle traffic on the bridge deck. Many of the businesses located in downtown office buildings are here due to the presence of the port, including maritime attorneys, freight forwarders, custom house brokers and others involved in the movement of goods. ■ Building A Better Long Beach
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EE mery
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General Dentistry
(562) 421-9361 3840 Woodruff Ave. #208 Long Beach, CA 90808
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Business Sectors Oil It’s not as obvious as in the early 1930s, when the dense sprawl of derricks seemed to drape across the rolling inland horizon like a dirty black shawl, but Long Beach is still very much an oil town – except now the air is clean. The same black gold that built the Port of Long Beach into a colossus of international trade (largely to transport oil to foreign markets), that bought the Queen Mary and that constructed the convention center still constitutes an essential revenue stream for the city. Most of the profits from Long Beach’s ongoing exploits of the massive Wilmington and Long Beach oil fields – a total of $75 million in fiscal year 2013-14 – first flow into the Tidelands Operating Fund. From there they are applied, with some restrictions, to purposes ranging from infrastructure development projects to such city services as policing, firefighting, lifeguards and beach maintenance. The City of Long Beach’s oil field properties are overseen by California Resources Corp. (CRC), a spinoff of Occidental Petroleum, which formed the new company last year by combining all its California assets. Tidelands Oil Production Company is field contractor for the west side of the Wilmington Field. THUMS Long Beach Company is field contractor for east Wilmington, an offshore operation that since 1965 has been sitting on four artificial islands, its rigs camouflaged by sound walls designed to look like high rise apartments and adorned with landscaping, waterfalls and “The City of Long Beach is an excellent location mood lighting. The THUMS acronym refers to the consortium of companies that bid on the island contract – Texaco, Humble Oil (now Exxon), Union Oil, Mobil Oil and Shell Oil. In 1967 each island for business operations of all types, as well as a was renamed after the first four American astronauts to lose their lives. Island Grissom, Island great residential and tourism city. The city has an White, and Island Chaffee were named after the Apollo 1 astronauts, Island Freeman for the astronaut who died while piloting a T-38 Talon jet for NASA. engaged, diverse populace, a civic-minded Several private companies work the oil fields, too. They include the Termo Company, a Long business community and an experienced Beach-based family business active across four generations since the 1920s, and Signal Hill Peand professional staff in city government.” troleum, which extracts oil from the Long Beach Field that straddles the border between the cities of Long Beach and Signal Hill. Addtionally, the area includes dozens of oil service related Frank Komin, Executive Vice President – South Operations California Resources Corporation companies that provide high-paying jobs. ■
Real Estate – Commercial & Industrial Long Beach’s commercial real estate market features a wide variety of office, industrial and retail buildings suited to every kind of business, from boutique retailers to manufacturers. Long Beach is home to a large supply of industrial buildings with close proximity to major roadways. These properties are located primarily in the Westside industrial area, a portion of Long Beach spanning from the Port of Long Beach at its southernmost point to Pacific Coast Highway. With access to both the port and the 710 Freeway, the Westside is popular among warehousing, distribution and export companies. It features a wide array of industrial properties, most of which are small to medium in size buildings. The other section of Long Beach with significant industrial operations is North Long Beach. Long Beach is also home to one of the only business parks in the region with enough land to construct built-to-suit industrial and office buildings – Douglas Park. The park is located on property formerly owned by The Boeing Company north of the Long Beach Airport and near the 405 Freeway. Buildings there range from small offices to medium sized medical buildings to huge industrial buildings of more than 100,000 square feet. Three more industrial buildings are being constructed on speculation by property management firm SARES-REGIS Group, and remaining vacant land offers more opportunities to build. The city has no shortage of choices when it comes to office space. Douglas Park offers the opportunity to lease buildings built on speculation, such as three creative office buildings currently planned by local firms Urbana Development and 2H Construction, or to construct a built-to-suit property. On the south side of the airport, the Kilroy Airport Center and Long Beach Airport Business Park complexes offer space for small and large businesses and are adjacent to the 405 Freeway and the airport. Both are well situated between the Los Angeles and Orange County markets. 30 • March 2015
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Business Sectors
The creative office space pictured above is home to Westland Real Estate Group on West Willow Street in Long Beach.
“We can’t see ourselves being anywhere else but Long Beach. It’s a great city, great community.” Kevin Peterson Pesident and CEO of P2S Engineering
An applications engineer at DENSO Products and Services Americas, Inc. headquarters in Long Beach adjusts a robot used to build automotive parts.
Above is an engineer working on a design for a project at P2S Engineers’ headquarters in Long Beach.
Firms seeking high rises with views are in luck in Long Beach – the city is home to a downtown waterfront where buildings such as Landmark Square, the World Trade Center, Shoreline Square and several others offer views of the Pacific Ocean, Catalina Island and The Queen Mary. Throughout Long Beach’s suburban areas there is no shortage of office buildings. The uptown neighborhood and business corridor of Bixby Knolls, for example, is popular among health care providers due to its wide selection of office space and proximity to Long Beach Memorial Medical Center. There are many more office buildings scattered throughout the city’s suburban submarkets, such as at the Freeway Business Park located beside the interchange for the 405 and 710 Freeways, and offices near the busy traffic circle at Pacific Coast Highway and Lakewood Boulevard. There are numerous opportunities for retailers of any size to locate to Long Beach, with several highly trafficked shopping and dining districts throughout the city, including Belmont Shore, Downtown Long Beach, 4th Street’s Retro Row, Bixby Knolls and others. Additionally, there are several large shopping centers with national brand anchor stores throughout the city, including the Long Beach Towne Center in northeast Long Beach, The Pike at Rainbow Harbor, Marina Pacifica, The Marketplace Long Beach and more. ■
Technology Innovative technology is a growing presence in Long Beach business, its impact expressed by an eclectic collection of companies whose games, gadgets, content management systems, home entertainment devices and interactive office equipment are internationally successful. The importance of technology is evident in the policies of Long Beach’s 37-year-old mayor, Robert Garcia, who believes it can make government more efficient and will make Long Beach more attractive to companies that specialize in that sector. “It’s about attracting more high-tech companies to Long Beach, training more high-tech workers and preparing people for the changes in the economy,” Garcia said. Equipped with the newly named Technology and Innovation Department and a corresponding Technology and Innovation Commission he created, as well as a $3 million innovation grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies, Garcia promises Long Beach will soon have a website that functions like “a 24/7 online city hall.” Additionally, Garcia pledged an open-data portal that will provide easy access to a wide-range of city information, and a review and overhaul of the city’s smartphone apps – including the GO Long Beach app, which allows citizens to report problems ranging from lost dogs to graffiti to potholes. Long Beach is already nationally recognized as a Top Ten Digital City four years running. Its private tech sector showcases the range of products and cultures found in the high-tech industry. CIE Games, which for 13 years has developed, published and partnered such wildly popular games as Racing Rivals and Car Town with the biggest automotive and entertainment brands in the world, was acquired by Glu Mobile in August 2014 for $100 million. Laserfische, a privately held company that eschews acquisitions in favor of its own innovations, has devised and distributed enterprise content management software worldwide for 28 years and turned profits for the last 22 in a row. Epson America, Inc., continues to push the possibilities for state-of-the-art office equipment and home entertainment devices, yet is also creating a stir by exploring uses for its Moverio smart glasses that go beyond games into unprecedented ways of learning. ■
Mayor’s Technology And Innovation Initiatives Begin To Take Shape Officially, it’s named the Long Beach Technology and Innovation Commission. Mayor Robert Garcia, who created the group and appointed the members, likes to call it the Geek Squad. Ultimately, however, the commission’s focus on modern technology and creative innovation has a practical underlying purpose. Said Garcia: “Any time things become more innovative through technology the environment becomes more business-friendly. Period.” Technology was one of Garcia’s priorities as a city councilmember. He promised voters a Technology and Innovation Commission during his campaign for mayor. When he renamed the city’s Technology Services Department to match the commission, Garcia’s priority became the official language of city hall. Here are the commission members: Gwen Shaffer, a former newspaper reporter, now a journalism professor at California State University, Long Beach who has significantly researched issues of access related to modern information systems. 32 • March 2015
Milton Arcos, a software architect and production developer for Integrated Rental Systems. David Ferrell of Long Beach Tech, a group of technology entrepreneurs. Cindy Hanks, deputy director for academic computing and multimedia and broadcast services at Long Beach City College. Robb Korinke, a consultant for California Forward. Juan Lopez, a special assistant for the Los Angeles City Controller. Andrew Schrock, a communications doctoral candidate at USC. “I put together this all-star group of techies,” Garcia said proudly. “I tried to find people from different experiences, so there’s somebody from education, somebody who owns a hardware company, somebody into open data, somebody who does broadband. But ultimately I just tried to find the most creative people.” Garcia hopes the Technology and Innovation Commission will promote efficiency and generate and economic progress for Long Beach. Building A Better Long Beach
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Business Districts
L
ong Beach is a large city with ethnically and architecturally diverse neighborhoods; and its business districts reflect this eclecticism. The city’s business associations combined bring hundreds of events a year to the city, attracting thousands of people for shopping, dining and entertainment. Exploring the city reveals thriving business corridors, including the following:
Downtown Situated at the waterfront and home to The Queen Mary, Downtown Long Beach has a mix of new and historic buildings, a large and growing residential base, major commercial buildings, and a diversity of chain and independent restaurants and shops. Home to the city’s main bus depot, three metro train stations, separated bike lanes, a Bikestation, and wide sidewalks for pedestrians, it’s easy to access. Pine Avenue and The Promenade are noted for their restaurants and bars, and the East Village Arts District is characterized by historic buildings, art galleries, and a diversity of indie shops, cafes, restaurants and bars. Downtown restaurants span nearly every type of cuisine and budget, from old steakhouses to authentic Italian and pizzerias to vegetarian and vegan establishments. If you want a view of the harbor, head to a waterfront spot, like the Sky Room at the top of the historic Breakers building for a martini and live jazz, or Fuego at the Hotel Maya for a margarita. Hamburger Mary’s, Sevilla and other spots on Pine Avenue lure the nightlife crowds, while Fingerprints Records on 4th St. attracts music enthusiasts to its frequent in-store shows. The Downtown Long Beach Associates conducts numerous events throughout the year, attracting a wide variety of people to downtown’s shops, restaurants, art galleries and music venues.
4th Street’s Retro Row Retro Row is a small but mighty district, densely packed with shops, eateries, cafes, bars and the city’s only remaining independent movie house, The Art Theatre. The district boasts two in-street patios in front of Vietnamese and Mexican restaurants, and a pocket park on the corner of 4th and Cherry features a retro car art installation and bench as well as cleverly branded bike racks. The district is home to its own international restaurant row, with a wide variety of ethnic eateries, and includes Restauration, Kafe Neo, and other spots along 4th Street between Temple and Cherry Avenues. At night, the bars host talented local and visiting music acts. The street is best known for its shops selling second-hand retro clothes and furniture, which light up at night with neon signs.
Belmont Shore Belmont Shore is a prime example of how to create an inviting pedestrian environment to attract shoppers and diners. Running along 2nd Street near the bay and beach, Belmont Shore has a stoplight at nearly every corner – ensuring slow car traffic and therefore safe walking for people of all ages – as well as shared bicycle lanes, wide sidewalks and ample outdoor dining. The street is lined with scores of restaurants – featuring a variety of ethnic foods – cafes, bars and upscale shops, and also has a community feel because of all of the ‘regulars’ who frequent the area. The Belmont Shore Business Association sponsors numerous events during the year to attract shoppers of all ages. Its September car show and annual Christmas Parade each draw more than 50,000 attendees.
East Anaheim Street The section of Anaheim Street between Alamitos and Junipero Avenues is known as “Cambodia Town,” and is home to many Cambodian restaurants, bakeries and arts organizations – a source of pride partially because Long Beach is home to the largest Cambodian population in North America. Farther east is the Zaferia District, with some of the city’s best Mexican restaurants and shops, as well as Coronado Street, a design-forward street lined with architecture and design firms, an upscale sandwich shop and used furniture retailers. Anaheim also has a few of the city’s most popular music venues and bars. The East Anaheim Street Business Alliance meets monthly with guest speakers and markets the area from Pacific Coast Highway to Junipero Avenue with several special events during the year.
Bixby Knolls Bixby Knolls is a charming, family-friendly neighborhood with historic homes along tree-lined streets benefitting from the business district along Atlantic Avenue – home to boutiques, restaurants, grocery stores, and familyoriented art spaces. Architecture buffs will appreciate the several well-preserved mid-century buildings on the district’s Long Beach Boulevard, occupied by architecture and real estate firms, some of which were designed by famed architect Edward Killingsworth. Bixby Knolls Business Improvement Association’s monthly First Fridays art walk and Kidical Mass bicycle ride are but two regular attractions that bring shoppers and diners to the area. ■ 34 • March 2015
Building A Better Long Beach
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Shopping & Dining
Diverse Dining Opportunities Long Beach is one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the nation, a quality reflected in its dining establishments. The city has everything from outstanding hole-in-the-wall Cambodian and Mexican eateries to upscale restaurants in historic buildings. Long Beach has secured high-esteem among foodies and boasts the nation’s best pizzeria, according to Zagat. As Long Beach’s dining reputation spreads, more top-notch restaurants are opening up throughout the city while its old favorites continue to thrive. The city is a haven for drink aficionados. Two speakeasies, an upscale whiskey bar, and several specialty beer and wine spots recently opened in the city. Beer Paper LA was founded by a Long Beach local who is now the creative director at Beachwood BBQ, an award-winning brewer on The Promenade. The city has also established a name in the artisanal coffee world and was the chosen location for the 2015 U.S. Coffee Championships. With upscale coffee shops like Rose Park Roasters, Lord Windsor and Makai Coffee, plus pop-ups like Wide Eyes Open Palms selling single pour-overs at farmer’s markets, local grounds are popular here. Some of the city’s pop-ups open successful brick-and-mortar shops – as was the case for Rainbow Juice in Downtown and Long Beach Creamery in Bixby Knolls – demonstrating that the demand in Long Beach for artisanal foods and beverages is strong. ■
Shopping Centers Nearly every home in Long Beach is a bike ride away from a shopping center with anchor tenants for residents to satisfy their big box shopping needs. Los Altos Shopping Center (pictured below), with a Target, Sears, and more, serves thousands of families in the surrounding suburbs and others from the Eastside of town. Marina Pacifica on Pacific Coast Highway is home to Sports Authority, Pier 1 Imports, and Barnes & Noble. Around the corner from Marina Pacifica, the Marketplace Long Beach features a Trader Joe’s, BevMo!, and United Artists Theatres. The Long Beach Towne Center in the northeast corner of the city is a huge outdoor center that has pretty much every shopping category covered, including Michael’s, Lowe’s, Sports Chalet, Old Navy, Sam’s Club, and a 26-screen Edwards Long Beach Stadium theater. In downtown, City Place is anchored by a Walmart and has a Big 5 and other retailers, and The Pike at Rainbow Harbor features a Restoration Hardware outlet with H&M, Forever 21 and Nike stores on the way. Nearby, Shoreline Village provides an eclectic mix of shops along downtown’s Queensway Bay. Between the city’s small local businesses and shopping centers with chain anchors, one needn’t leave Long Beach to fulfill their shopping needs. ■
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Livability
Endless Cultural And Recreational Activities
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ong Beach is winning national accolades for being a livable city. Much of the city’s recognition is owed to its efforts to become “The Most Bicycle-Friendly City in America,” as proclaimed on a sculpture outside city hall. Indeed, several parts of the large city have separated bike lanes, river trails, beach paths, bike boulevards and sharrows, and more. It’s also a very walkable city in many places, both in the more densely populated downtown and beach communities as well as in the suburbs. The city is served by Long Beach Transit (LBT) bus service, regional metro trains, and even has water taxis provided through LBT in summertime. Long Beach is very much a city on the water. Italian gondolas take visitors and locals on rides through the upscale neighborhood of Naples and also downtown. Stand-up paddling is extremely popular in the bay, as are kayaks and Duffy boats. The city has several marinas, some of which are residential. Marine Stadium and the Queensway Bay are places in town to go for jet and water skiing. Testament to how active the city is, Long Beach is home to many pro skateboarders, famous roller derby teams and Olympic athletes from a variety of sports, many who are swimmers and water polo players. One of the city’s best amenities is its beach path, where the diverse cross-section of the city’s residents and visitors enjoy the beach on foot, bike, roller skates and skateboards. Just above the beach path in Bixby Park is yoga on the bluff – free yoga classes that were so popular on a weekly basis they are now held daily. Go inland to find the city’s large El Dorado Park, which includes a lake with paddleboats, kiddie
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Livability
train, and the El Dorado Park Nature Center, where a walk around the lake and woodsy trees is a quiet respite from city life. This is also one of the best environmental education sites in the city for kids and adults. The city also has a very proactive Parks and Recreation Department providing activities year round for people of all ages. On the arts and culture scene, Long Beach has turned out scores of famous musicians, including loads of indie rockers, Cambodian rapper Prach Ly, and yes, Sublime and Snoop Dogg, too. Famous bands play regularly at Fingerprints record store downtown, 4th Street Vine on Retro Row, Alex’s Bar on Anaheim Street, and at annual events like the Long Beach Folk Revival Festival. The three main museums are the Long Beach Museum of Art, located on the beach bluff in a beautiful setting, the Museum of Latin American Art (MoLAA), showing some of the most cutting edge Latino art in the U.S., and the Pacific Island Ethnic Art Museum across from MoLAA in Downtown. Galleries dot the East Village Arts District, Cambodia Town has nationally-acclaimed dance troupes, and Long Beach Cinemateque hosts films in historic Sunnyside Cemetery. The city has its own symphony, opera company, large and small theater companies, and even an artist who makes sculptures from dead palm tree fronds. The Arts Council for Long Beach is a great resource for everything going on art wise. ■
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Housing In Long Beach
Wide Variety Of Options For Buying Or Renting; City Has More Than 50 Unique Neighborhoods
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iving near the beach usually comes with significant cost, but such is not the case in Long Beach, which real estate agents market as the most affordable residential real estate among Southern Cali-
fornia’s coastal cities. Homes in Long Beach may cost as little as half the cost of similar properties in nearby beach cities. In early 2015, the average list price of a single-family home in Long Beach was about $419,000 while nearby coastal cities like Huntington Beach and Redondo Beach had respective average prices of $699,000 and $859,000, according to Zillow.com. With a more-than-125-year history, Long Beach is home to a patchwork of 54 unique neighborhoods, from the historically-designated Wilmore City area along the westside of downtown that dates back to the city’s origins, to California Heights and its craftsman bungalows, to Naples Island laced with canals, to Cambodia Town, home to the largest population of Cambodians outside of Cambodia, and many more. Long Beach has a rich array of architecturally diverse homes, including Spanish, ranch, mid-century modern and colonial, to name a few. In short, there’s a neighborhood in Long Beach to suit just about every personality and pocketbook. Long Beach has a number of neighborhoods with historic charm, including California Heights, Carroll Park, Rose Park, Drake Park, Bluff Park and Belmont Heights, among others. Those seeking quiet surroundings and spacious homes also have plenty of neighborhoods from which to choose, including Lakewood 40 • March 2015
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Housing In Long Beach
Village, Park Estates, Alamitos Heights, University Park Estates, Bixby Hill, the Virginia Country Club and many more. There is also an abundance of “starter homes” in Long Beach, with two to three-bedroom tract-style family homes located throughout the city. From oceanfront towers to quiet, gated communities, there is a variety of opportunities for condominium living in Long Beach. High rises and historic buildings along Ocean Boulevard offer both sweeping views of the Pacific Ocean and quick access to international cuisine, nightlife and shopping in Downtown Long Beach and along 2nd Street in Belmont Shore. Many of these condos are much more affordable than those found in popular areas of nearby coastal cities. Local real estate agents say, it’s not uncommon for condos in Downtown Long Beach to sell for $200,000 to $300,000 – half of what they would go for in nearby beach communities and urban centers. Apartments are a great option for young professionals living in Long Beach, with rental rates well below the premium prices of nearby coastal cities. Long Beach has a portfolio of 74,000 apartment units throughout its many neighborhoods. There is an abundance of newly constructed units throughout the downtown area, offering access to amenities, and public transportation options like Long Beach Transit and the Metro Blue Line. And, with several new apartment communities geared towards young professionals under construction in the area, there will soon be even more options. For those seeking a more residential vibe, there are many apartments located near numerous popular shopping and dining corridors, including Bixby Knolls, Belmont Shore and the Retro Row area along 4th Street. As with the city’s single-family homes and condos, apartments range in age and style, from historic 1920s buildings to retro 1970s units to contemporary lofts. ■ Building A Better Long Beach
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Welcome Education
The Long Beach College Promise The Long Beach College Promise establishes a path of study and standards of achievement for students in the Long Beach Unified School District, and rewards those who meet those standards with a free semester of tuition at Long Beach City College (LBCC) and guaranteed admission to California State University, Long Beach (CSULB). The intent of this 2008 collaboration – so groundbreaking it required changes in state law to enable – is to help students acquire the skills they will need to succeed in the global economy of the 21st century. The program has continued to expand in pursuit of that goal. Creation of the Education Business Advisory in 2009 added a real-world component to the alliance, reinforcing the lessons of the classroom with work-based learning. Rather than waiting until students reach high school, the College Promise now begins in the fourth grade, when students get a look at college life during tours of LBCC and CSULB. In succeeding years they learn about such nuts and bolts of higher education as the admissions process and financial aid. The City of Long Beach joined the College Promise in 2014, with Mayor Robert Garcia pledging to push for universal preschool in Long Beach and promising to double the number of internships the city offers. ■
The Long Beach Public Education System Collaboration is the central and connecting characteristic of Long Beach’s three principal education systems – Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD), Long Beach City College (LBCC) and California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) – which continue to align their academic standards, teaching methods and student assessment processes in pursuit of a clear and smooth education from pre-kindergarten to postgraduate school. Each institution also partners with the private sector, from local businesses to international corporations, which recognize that well-educated, highly skilled people are essential to a productive workforce and a progressive society. LBUSD is the third-largest school district in California, with nearly 80,000 students in 84 public schools. The 8,000 people on its payroll make it the largest employer in Long Beach. LBCC continues to adapt to an evolving and diverse student body by offering a wide variety of programs and flexible class schedules. New fields include programs in cybersecurity and alternate fuels, small business development (in partnership with Goldman Sachs) and truck driving (in partnership with the Harbor Trucking Association), as well as a revitalized emphasis on advanced manufacturing and education technology.
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CSULB’s 322-acre campus features 63 academic programs, offers 137 bachelors degrees, 92 masters degrees, and five doctoral degrees, as well as 29 teaching credentials. Its approximately 35,000 students constitute one of the largest and most racially diverse student bodies in America. It has the largest publicly funded art school west of the Mississippi, the largest physics department in California, and highly respected programs in engineering, accounting, business administration, geography, history and nursing. A new campus landmark is the $105 million “Hall of Science” facility, which headquarters the offices and labs for the biology, biochemistry and chemistry, geology, physics and science education departments. It also features a hands-on museum for children, a large saltwater marine biology lab, a greenhouse facility and an observatory on the roof. Long Beach also serves as the headquarters for the 23-school California State University System. ■
Private Vocational Schools
Private vocational schools augment Long Beach’s public education system by preparing students for careers, mostly from within the fields of health care, auto repair and cosmetology. An exception is DeVry University’s Long Beach campus at Kilroy Airport Center, one of 75 nationwide that offer bachelors and masters degrees in fields like accounting, business, health care management and technology, electronics and computer engineering technology, computer information systems, and multimedia design. Instruction is classroom-based and online. American Career College, part of Southern California’s vocational training scene for decades, came to Long Beach to open its fifth campus two years ago and now teaches dental assisting, medical assisting, optical dispensing and medical billing and coding in The Arts Building, a beautifully restored, 1930s-era art deco gem in Downtown Long Beach. A few blocks away, John Wesley International Barber and Beauty College has been a fixture since 1992 with courses in barbering and cosmetology. A new class begins every Tuesday. One of Wyotech’s five nationwide campuses (pictured above) is located at the Cal State Long Beach Technology Center and offers college-level instruction in the increasingly tech-based mechanics of automotive, diesel, motorcycle, marine, collision and refinishing, plumbing and electrical work. Meanwhile, Universal Technical Institute (UTI), which offers automotive and technical programs at 11 campuses across the country, just signed a 15-year lease on a 142,000-square-foot facility at Douglas Park that can accommodate 800 students and 85 instructors. The Pacific Coast University School of Law – located near the city’s Traffic Circle – was founded in 1927. It offers a juris doctorate degree and a masters of law studies degree. North-West College – located near Grand Avenue and Burnett Street – was founded in 1966 by Marsha Fuerst and is currently owned and operated by her son, Mitchell. It offers instruction in health care and related fields that are driven by a succinct mission: “to prepare students in short term programs for gainful employment.” ■ Building A Better Long Beach
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Important Phone Numbers City of Long Beach
Business Organizations
Public Education
Long Beach City Hall (562) 570-6555 www.longbeach.gov Mayor’s Office (562) 570-6801 www.longbeach.gov/mayor/ Long Beach Airport (562) 570-2600 www.lgb.org Long Beach Building and Safety Division (Permits) (562) 570-6651 www.lbds.info/building/ Long Beach Business License Division (562) 570-6211 www.longbeach.gov/finance/business_license/ Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center (562) 436-3636 www.longbeachcc.com Long Beach Development Services Department (562) 570-5237 www.lbds.info Long Beach Economic Development Division (562) 570-6615 www.longbeach.gov/ecd/ Long Beach Environmental Services Bureau (562) 570-2876 www.longbeach-recycles.org Long Beach Health and Human Services Department (562) 570-4000 www.longbeach.gov/health/ Long Beach Office of Special Events and Filming (562) 570-5333 www.filmlongbeach.com Long Beach Parks, Recreation and Marine Department (562) 570-3100 www.longbeach.gov/park/ Long Beach Planning Bureau (562) 570-6194 www.lbds.info/planning/ Long Beach Transit (562) 591-2301 www.lbtransit.com Pacific Gateway Workforce Investment Network (562) 570-9675 1-800/292-7200 www.pacific-gateway.org Port of Long Beach (562) 283-7000 www.polb.com
Apartment Association, California Southern Cities (562) 426-8341 www.apt-assoc.com Arts Council for Long Beach (562) 435-2787 www.artslb.org Belmont Shore Business Association (562) 434-3066 www.belmontshore.org Bixby Knolls Business Improvement Association (562) 595-0081 www.bixbyknollsinfo.com Cambodia Town Business Association (562) 209-2013 www.cambodiatown.org Downtown Long Beach Associates (562) 436-4259 www.downtownlongbeach.org East Anaheim Street Business Alliance (562) 494-3800 www.easba.com East Spring Street Long Beach Business Association www.facebook.com/eastspringstreetlb 4th Street Business Association www.4thstreetlongbeach.com Long Beach Council of Business Associations www.cobalb.com Long Beach Area Chamber of Commerce (562) 436-1251 www.lbchamber.com Long Beach Area Convention and Visitor Bureau (562) 436-3645 www.visitlongbeach.com Naples Island Business Association www.naplesislandbusiness.com On Broadway Business Association (562) 433-9665 (Sidney Cramer – Co-president) (562) 433-5573 (Keir Jones – Co-president) www.onbroadwaylb.com Uptown Business District www.facebook.com/uptown.renaissance
California State University, Long Beach (562) 985-4111 www.csulb.edu Long Beach City College (562) 938-4111 www.lbcc.edu Long Beach Unified School District (562) 997-8000 www.lbschools.net
Utilities Long Beach Gas and Oil Department Utility and Service Turn On: (562) 570-5700 Emergency Response: (562) 570-2140 www.longbeach.gov/lbgo/ Long Beach Water Department Utility and Water Service Turn On: (562) 570-5700 Water and Sewer Emergencies: (562) 570-2390 www.lbwater.org Long Beach Utilities Services (562) 570-5700 www.utilityservices.longbeach.gov Southern California Edison 1 (800) 655-4555 www.sce.com
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Building A Better Long Beach
Public Safety American Red Cross/Greater Long Beach/Rio Hondo (562) 595-6341 http://www.redcross.org/ca/long-beach/ Long Beach Fire Department (562) 570-2500 www.longbeach.gov/fire/ Long Beach Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Communication Department (562) 570-9250 www.longbeach.gov/disasterpreparedness/ Long Beach Police Department (562) 570-7260 www.longbeach.gov/police/
Hospitals Community Hospital Long Beach (562) 498-1000 www.memorialcare.org/community-hospital-long-beach Long Beach Memorial Medical Center (562) 933-2000 www.memorialcare.org/long-beach-memorial Miller Children’s & Women’s Hospital Long Beach (562) 933-5437 www.millerchildrenshospitallb.org/ St. Mary Medical Center (562) 491-9000 www.dignityhealth.org/stmarymedical/
Attractions Aquarium of the Pacific (562) 590-3100 www.aquariumofpacific.org Long Beach Museum of Art (562) 439-2119 www.lbma.org Museum of Latin American Art (562) 437-1689 www.molaa.org Pacific Island Ethnic Art Museum (562) 216-4170 www.pieam.org Queen Mary (877) 342-0738 www.queenmary.com
Hotels Courtyard Long Beach Airport (562) 429-5803 www.courtyardlb.com Courtyard Long Beach Downtown (562) 435-8511 www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/ lgbcy-courtyard-long-beach-downtown/ Hilton Long Beach (562) 983-3400 www.hiltonlb.com Holiday Inn Long Beach Airport Hotel & Conference Center (562) 597-4401 www.hilongbeach.com Hotel Maya – A Doubletree by Hilton (562) 435-7676 www.hotelmayalongbeach.com Hyatt Regency Long Beach (562) 491-1234 www.longbeach.hyatt.com Hyatt the Pike Long Beach (562) 432-1234 www.thepikelongbeach.hyatt.com Long Beach Marriot (562) 425-5210 www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/lgblb-long-beach-marriott/ Renaissance Long Beach Hotel (562) 437-5900 www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/lgbrn-renaissance-longbeach-hotel/ Residence Inn by Marriott – Long Beach (562) 595-0909 www.residenceinn.marriott.com Residence Inn Long Beach Downtown (562) 495-0700 www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/lgbri-residence-inn-longbeach-downtown/ The Queen Mary Hotel (562) 435-3511 www.queenmary.com The Westin Long Beach (562) 436-3000 www.westinlongbeachhotel.com
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