Is Lincoln Blvd is becoming Ocean Park’s Cinderella thoroughfare ? Grimy auto repair shops and traffic fumes are giving way to housing, restaurants and life style boutiques. Although Cinderella’s dress - the long planned Lincoln Neighborhood Corridor (LiNC) project of median and crosswalk improvements - has been taken back to the tailors until funds can be found to pay for it.
Lincoln remained relatively unperturbed by the Covid-19 shutdowns, and currently there are no properties for lease on the Ocean Park stretch. Although the May 31 disturbances saw several stores on Lincoln looted and windows smashed, tenacious merchants hung on. People with dreams opened stores and restaurants. Below are just some of the changes since March 2020. Our trip down Lincoln goes from north (Pico) to south (Ozone). The Street Seen is generally AWOL but on occasion, we venture out. Even addresses on the west (us); odd addresses on the east (them).
2120 Lincoln — The 4-story affordable housing project Pacific Link, replacing a 76 gas station, is fully framed. There will be 37 affordable apartments above ground-floor retail space and underground parking for 29 vehicles.
2127 Lincoln — Italian restaurant Piccolo Santa Monica opened in March 2021. The menu blends a range of farmers market produce and quality Italian ingredients into pasta, slow cooked game meats, and fish dishes.
2212 Lincoln — Bill Dunn Auto Upholstery, a family-owned and operated business since 1962, moved to Los Angeles. Armando’s European Automotive Land Rover, Jaguar, BMW, Porsche, and Mercedes Benz auto repair expanded into the space.
2300 Lincoln — Electric Bikes of Santa Monica Outlet specializing discounted older model year bikes for the consumer shopping for a bargain e-bike closed in late 2019. The space is vacant but the for lease sign has come down. An associated store over at 2803 Main St is also now closed.
2316 Lincoln — The Sofa Company factory showroom for made-to-order sofas, love seats, chairs, sectionals & other home furniture shrank to Betty's Place next door at 2314 Lincoln. The space is vacant but the for lease sign has come down.
2432 Lincoln — Cash For Gold was looted in the May 31 unrest. Cash for Gold is a multistore full-service pawn shop with 11 stores located in Manchester, Albany, Santa Monica, Fall River, Lawrence, and more.
2452 Lincoln — The Ocean Park Inn came out of hibernation from behind their high wire fence on March 2021. They closed and opened (putting up and taking down the fence) twice in the last year - optimistically re-opening August 2020 only to close again December 2020.
2537 Lincoln — The former car wash and auto repair shop site, now surrounded by a green construction fence is for sale. Not everyone thinks this is a good development.
2555 Lincoln — The Arco gas station became a Speedway Express. Speedway is a subsidiary of Marathon Petroleum Oil, which also owns Arco and USA branded stations. Marathon also owns the Tesoro refinery in Torrance, one of the main refineries supplying Southern California under the Arco, USA, Shell, and ExxonMobil brands.
721 Ocean Park — With a major piece of the modernization program ending at Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District’s Michelle and Barack Obama Center for Inquiry and Exploration, the construction trailer complex that served as temporary classrooms was removed from the vast parking lot at Lincoln and Pine.
2601 Lincoln — The future of the Gelsons site is uncertain after demolition permit signs are posted November 2021. The Lincoln Center site is one of the few parcels on Lincoln south of the 10 Freeway zoned Mixed-Use Boulevard Low (MUBL).
2624 Lincoln — Westside Independent VW Repair auto repair shop closed following the death of owner.
2632 Lincoln — The 2-story office building, which had been home to a medical equipment supply store, has been extensively renovated and will open as a high-design boutique creative office. There is an “available” sign on the building.
2723 Lincoln — Health & fitness Summer Camp LA, a branch of the Tampa Bay based Camp, replaced 34 North who didn’t re-open after the LA County mandated gym closures.
2700 Lincoln — Enterprise car rental left and the whole site is available for sale.
2903 Lincoln — Construction of the 4-story mixed-use project with 47 residential units, over ground floor commercial space, and a 2-level underground parking garage for 151 vehicles is underway.
2920 Lincoln — Ocean Park institution since 1977, Panchos Tacos wobbled but is still standing.
3002 Lincoln — Denise Portmans opened Merchant - a mother-daughter business selling a selection of mid-century modern furniture, art, ceramics, home goods, and vintage Moroccan rugs.
3006 Lincoln — Kari Morioka opened metaphysical supply store KM Crystals offering quality crystals - whether you want them for their beauty or for their energetic properties - at affordable prices.
3280 Lincoln — Outdoor furniture and garden store ACME Life Style continues even as a new 2-story mixed use building on the site was approved in October 2020.
3306 Lincoln — Long-time Mexican seafood shack Mariscos Guillen La Playita continues to deliver cheap fresh food to ravenous, likely inebriated crowds that descend on the place at lunchtime and late at night.
And finally words of advice from the guy with the naming rights.
