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Pavilion set for opening in April of 2001
by Robb Fulcher
The multi-million dollar overhaul of the Hermosa Beach Pavilion on Pacific Coast Highway will keep the massive, empty mall closed until about April 2001, the Pavilion's owner, said this week.
Gene Shook, owner of Shook Development Corporation and ITC Real Estate Group of Irvine, said plans for an enormous, upscale 24 Hour Fitness complex have been changed and expanded, delaying until next year the expected opening of the 70,000 square-foot mall.
The new plans call for the 24 Hour Fitness facility to sprawl across three floors of the mall, with racquetball and squash courts at the lower street level, a swimming pool and locker rooms on the level above, and more gym facilities on the uppermost floor.
"24 Hour Fitness has about 400 facilities nationwide and they only have a couple that are like this," Shook said.
Office tenants are expected to anchor much of the rest of the mall, located on the west side of PCH north of Pier Avenue, Shook said.
The mall was closed down in April 1999, costing the town lost its last art-house movie theater, the six-screen AMC Hermosa.
The theater was done in by its relatively small size, Shook said at the time.
"Now moviegoers want to go to larger theaters, and stadium theaters," he said. "They want 15 to 20 screens or more, they don't want six- to 10-screen theaters. It wasn't feasible to increase the number of screens at that location."
Back when the Pavilion was closed Shook said he hoped for a December 1999 reopening, but a more extensive remodeling plan pushed that date back to early this year. Then, with the more ambitious plan by 24 Hour Fitness, the prospective opening date has been pushed back again.
The huge concrete Pavilion was built in 1988 and has never done a booming business. Shook bought the Pavilion in 1996. ER