Longtime dwellers of a small apartment complex by the beach make way for new boutique hotel, Strand & Pier, slated to open next year
As a kid growing in Hermosa Beach, Jeanne English and her siblings frequently visited the old downtown movie theater off of Hermosa Avenue. In the summer, the free movie screenings on Wednesdays drew a large crowd, and the line to the entrance wrapped around the theater, all the way down to the West Bay Apartments, a small one-story complex near The Strand.
“I remember thinking, ‘Boy, it would be cool to live here someday!’” English, now 65, says.
In 1975, she moved into a one-bedroom unit and never left. Her mother Donna English, now 95, took over the property in the mid-60s and is still its landlord. The apartments were originally built in 1949 as a motel.
Next Wednesday, Jeanne English will be among the six other tenants to bid a final farewell to their longtime home. The property is expected to close escrow in the next few weeks — it’s being overtaken by the developers of Strand & Pier, a new 111-room luxury boutique hotel on The Strand, complete with a rooftop pool, five restaurants, spa and fitness center. Construction is slated for completion sometime next year.
Nestled between Hermosa Cyclery and a parking lot, the West Bay Apartments are easy to miss. There’s eight units—mostly one-person studios—inside the short, flat one-story building that is inconspicuously fronted by rusty maroon gate. On the north side, the building is enveloped by a sidewalk and one-way street, frequented all day by loud delivery trucks. On the south is another alleyway.
The majority of the West Bay’s tenants have lived here for at least a decade. The “newest guy,” explains English, has been here for five years.
Bill Rennolett, an Inglewood native, moved into unit H 28 years ago after finding a listing in a local paper. The rent, then at $475 monthly, was doable too. At the time, the “stumbling distance” to and from the bars was a selling point for him, he explains.
Much has changed since the big renovation of Pier Avenue, which transformed the street into a giant plaza and created a downtown epicenter bustling with bars and restaurants. It’s considered a norm for West Bay tenants to catch drunken people taking a leak or puking on their walls late at night. English says she even caught someone “going number 2” one night.
“It doesn’t seem to me they consider the downtown residents when they plan a function down here,” says Rennolett, who works next door at Hermosa Cyclery. “But then again, if you moved out here, you should be expecting this. That’s what people tell me when I go outside and tell them to be quiet.”
Rennolett says receiving the 60-day notice has been a bittersweet experience for him. He’s since found a second-story apartment in Harbor City, about 10 miles from his old home.
“I’m fed up to here with the beach,” he says. “I can’t even begin to tell you how nice it was to be at my new place. It has different noises, but they’re not big noises. Now I get to hear dogs barking in the neighborhood and they’re far away. It’s a lot different.”
Jeanne English, retired from her longtime occupation at the DMV, is moving out to Hawthorne. Her brother Tom is re-rooting in Lawndale.
“I’m not gonna miss all the noise,” English says. “It’s ugly awful noisy down here. Every Friday, Saturday night. Oh man. Holidays. It’s awful. I am, however, gonna miss being close to the beach.” ER
