"The turnover in downtown Manhattan Beach is unprecedented right now and we are all talking about it." Kelly Stroman, executive director of the Downtown Manhattan Beach Business and Professionals Association, said that to MB News in July. Three months later the reshuffle has a pattern you can trace on a map.
The familiar independents mostly didn't close. Over the summer they moved to different streets, and in one case to a different town. The blocks of Manhattan Beach Boulevard leading to the Pier refilled with brands that already run stores elsewhere. To find the shop you used to walk to, you now walk a few blocks farther.
One address shows the whole pattern
Start at 324 Manhattan Beach Boulevard. Gum Tree, the Aussie-inspired cafe and gift shop owned by Lori and Will Ford, ran its Manhattan Beach location there for about ten years. The Fords own the Hermosa Beach bungalow that houses their flagship, but they leased the Manhattan Beach space. In December 2025 Lori Ford explained the situation to the Daily Breeze: "We unfortunately lost our lease, and so we are doing the best we can to find another space. We really want to stay in downtown Manhattan Beach. It's really been an incredibly supportive community to us, and our store is doing great. It's just that the new rent was out of our reach."
They stayed downtown, just not on the Boulevard. Gum Tree has reopened at 1140 Highland Avenue, according to an October 1 post from Experience Manhattan Beach, which describes the family as running three shops in Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach and Hermosa Beach.
The old address went to Beyond Yoga. The athleisure brand's store locator now lists a Manhattan Beach store at 324 Manhattan Beach Blvd. with regular hours.
Gum Tree's move is the only one in this year's turnover where the owner has said publicly that rent was the reason. Even so, the same shape repeats along the rest of the street.
Manhattan Beach Boulevard now reads like a store locator
Here's the Boulevard between Metlox and the Pier as best it can be confirmed on October 10, 2026:
| Address or space | Before | Now | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 324 Manhattan Beach Blvd. | Gum Tree | Beyond Yoga | Open |
| 308 Manhattan Beach Blvd. | Gelato & Angels | Velvet by Graham & Spencer | Open |
| 401 Manhattan Beach Blvd. | Pitfire | Great White | Open |
| Metlox Plaza | New tenant | Bacio di Latte | Open as of July |
| Former Peet's Coffee space | Peet's Coffee | Blank Street Coffee | Lease signed in July; no confirmed opening |
| 451 Manhattan Beach Blvd., Suite B102, Metlox | Lemonade | Sogno Toscano | Permits approved in June; no confirmed opening |
| Former Pressed Juicery space | Pressed Juicery | No tenant named | Vacant as of July |
| Former Drift Beach Club space, Metlox | Drift Beach Club | Local Muse pop-up ran through July 12 | No permanent tenant named |
Of the openings confirmed on the Boulevard since July, the ones with public store lists all belong to businesses that have locations elsewhere. Velvet's own store list shows the 308 address alongside its other shops. Great White, founded by Sam Trude and Sam Cooper, lists the 401 Manhattan Beach Blvd. location on its locations page with daily hours and reservations, in the former Pitfire space. Sogno Toscano will be its brand's sixth location, after Santa Monica and The Grove, according to South Bay Tide.
Sogno Toscano also shows why "coming soon" on the Boulevard can last a while. The Planning Commission approved its beer-and-wine permit and a new outdoor patio on June 24, with indoor and outdoor hours set at 8:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily. Cesare Santoni, the company's director of hospitality, said the cafe was planned for summer 2026 and would serve lunch and dinner in a casual setting. According to the company's filings, the menu will include specialty espresso drinks, Italian pastries, sandwiches and charcuterie. South Bay Tide noted that it still needed a state Alcoholic Beverage Control license and any outstanding city permits before opening to the public. As of this writing, no opening has been confirmed. MB News spelled the name "Sogna Toscana" in its July roundup, so you may see both versions.
Blank Street Coffee is in the same holding pattern. It signed for the former Peet's space by July, but Manhattan Beach isn't yet among the cities on the company's locations page.
Manhattan Avenue gained a jeweler and lost a gallery
One block north, the changes look different. Manhattan Avenue's new arrivals include the kind of single-owner storefront the Boulevard has been losing.
Ounce of Salt is jewelry designer Jen Baick's gallery at 1016 Manhattan Avenue, in the former Rolling Hills Flower Mart space. Baick wrote on the shop's own blog that the build-out took four and a half months, and that the work comes from a family line of jewelers and a gemologist in Seoul. The shop is open Wednesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Monday and Tuesday by appointment.
Coucou took over the former Nando Trattoria space at 1131 N. Manhattan Avenue. It's a French bistro from Jesse and Hayley Feldman that opened in Venice in 2023 and in West Hollywood in 2024. Eater LA reported in May that Manhattan Beach gets the same menu as the other two locations, including steak frites, mussels mariniere and the Burger Americaine. There's a daily apero hour from 4 to 5 p.m. with discounted drinks and snacks. Coucou has more than one location, but it's a small, owner-run group with three restaurants. That's a different scale from a national store locator.
The Avenue also lost one of its independents. Walstory closed its gallery at 919 Manhattan Avenue in July. The gallery's own site puts it this way: "We never left Manhattan Avenue. We just followed it south." Walstory is now at 3201 Manhattan Ave in Hermosa Beach, open Wednesday through Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. Its first exhibition in the new space opens October 24. That's the same street name in a different city, and a direct parallel to Gum Tree.
Two more Avenue spaces are unresolved. Framebridge, the framing chain, was expected in the former Kate Lester Home space "in the fall," but its store page doesn't list Manhattan Beach yet. The former Bardot Salon and Corpo Bonito spaces have been renovated into one storefront, and no tenant had been announced as of July.
Highland is where the waiting happens
If the Boulevard is where brands sign leases, Highland Avenue is where much of the rest of downtown has ended up, and where the longest waits are.
- Gum Tree, 1140 Highland Avenue: reopened, as covered above.
- Sand Spa and Polish by Sand Spa: opened earlier in 2026, according to MB News.
- Parakeet Cafe: took the former Cafe Altamura space. MB News reported in July that it was delayed, with no opening date, and no later update has surfaced.
- Alfred Coffee: signed a lease for the Ocean View Cafe space as Ocean View closed. Its locations page doesn't list Manhattan Beach yet.
- Former Harry's Cleaners: closed, with no tenant announced as of July.
Put the three streets together and the order makes sense. The Boulevard addresses closest to the Pier went to tenants that can run a store as one location among many. Manhattan Avenue kept a mix of single-owner shops and small restaurant groups, and lost one gallery to Hermosa. Highland picked up the independent that was priced off the Boulevard, plus a coffee shop and a cafe that haven't opened yet. Only one shop owner has said on the record that rent drove a move. Still, every independent that changed addresses this year moved away from the Boulevard, not toward it.
Fall dates that bring everyone back to the Pier anyway
The Boulevard is still where Manhattan Beach gathers, whatever is in the storefronts. Here are the dates for the next six weeks, all subject to change according to the City's special events page:
- October 18, World Famous Pumpkin Race: festival from noon to 5 p.m. on Manhattan Beach Boulevard between Ocean Avenue and the Pier, with races starting at 2 p.m.
- October 22, Uncorked: The Art of Japanese Living: a tasting at Uncorked, 1000 Manhattan Avenue. Easy Reader describes it as pairing Japanese food with a showing of handcrafted kimonos.
- October 24, 38th Annual Family Halloween Carnival: 1 to 5 p.m. at Manhattan Heights Park, 1600 Manhattan Beach Boulevard. Walstory's first Hermosa exhibition opens the same day, a short drive down Manhattan Avenue.
- October 25, Uncorked's 15th Anniversary Party: wine sampling and catered food at 1000 Manhattan Avenue.
- November 11, Veterans Day Ceremony: 11 a.m. at Veterans Parkway.
- November 18, Pier Lighting: 6 to 9 p.m. downtown and at the Pier.
For anyone keeping a list of where things went, the short version is that Gum Tree is at 1140 Highland and Walstory is at 3201 Manhattan Ave in Hermosa Beach.
Downtown storefronts are worth tracking whether you're shopping or thinking about the homes a few blocks away. Leases, rents and which tenants can afford Boulevard addresses all affect how a neighborhood feels day to day. If you'd like to talk through what's changing near your street, or get a straight read on how those changes play out when it's time to buy or sell, Dana Benyehuda is glad to walk the blocks with you.
