If you’re looking for signs of the aging of the baby boom generation, look no further than the Marina City Towers in Marina del Rey.
The waterfront complex on Admiralty Way, also known as the Marina City Club, typified the swinging-single era of the 1970s. It was originally home to a hotel and apartments, and was a popular party spot for Angelenos. It even housed its own nightclub.
Today, it is a condominium complex, with most of the residents in their 50s, according to one tenant leader. And they’re no longer in a mood to party.
Last month, the Marina City Towers Residents Against Noise, a group of 140 residents, succeeded in blocking the issuance of a liquor license to a business owner who has been running a new banquet venue in the former location of the Red Onion Restaurant and Bar.
“If you have a party deal here, with people tooting their horns and singing, it’s enough to keep me awake,” said Nathan Krems, 82, who has lived at the Marina City Towers for 18 years. “There is nothing wrong with it being a commercial area. They should have a marine museum, bank, any kind of daytime operation.”
After numerous and heated hearings by the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control which included dozens of letters of protest and testimony from residents the license was denied.
Which makes it tough these days for Daniel Ginzburg, who leased the former Red Onion building as the site for his Fantasea Yacht Club and has since spent over $1 million on renovations.
“Without a liquor license, this building has no economic value,” said Ginzburg. “I’ve had to let go close to 20 employees. This business is being crushed by a few angry affluent homeowners wanting to protect their fiefdom. It’s ridiculous.”
Ginzburg is haunted by the ghost of his predecessor. In its heyday, the Red Onion was a jumping discotheque with few restrictions placed upon it by the county. It closed in November 1993, and the building was left abandoned until Ginzburg leased it two years ago.
Ginzberg’s opponents, all residents of the neighboring Marina City Towers condominium, do not approve of Fantasea Yacht Club selling liquor.
“We had it with the Red Onion people coming out at two o’clock in the morning and gathering outside making a lot of noise,” said Bette Wexler, a resident of Marina City Towers. “If they got (a liquor license), it would affect our whole living here.”
Ironically, many of these same people were around during the Marina City Club’s heyday.
“Before it was sold and developed (into condominiums), there was a hotel here and three restaurants,” recalled Wexler, who has lived at the complex on and off for more than 15 years. “People would come from all over.”
Wexler, who is in her 50s, said she frequently went to evening soirees at the complex. “I don’t do that anymore,” she added.
Raymond Cohen, a restaurant consultant who met his wife at a party in the marina during its heyday, said the marina scene was “very, very popular, both from a residential standpoint as well as a place to go.”
Nowadays, say marina watchers, the area is made up of pockets of young singles, families and older affluent professionals. But it’s no longer the hip place to go and meet other single people. More popular are nearby Venice and Santa Monica.
Cohen blames the nightclub scene of the ’80s “rowdier and noisier” than it was during his day in the ’70s for the loss of the marina’s cachet among young professionals.
“The marina was a happening place, but it wasn’t noisy,” said Cohen. “It was more of a bar scene. Then the ’80s came and the marina got rowdier and headed downhill.”
For Ginzburg, not having a liquor license means losing a large portion of potential revenues. If his business had a liquor license, Ginzburg said his revenues would be about 75 percent higher.
Before Fantasea Yacht Club moved in, Louise’s Trattoria, an Italian restaurant chain, had expressed an interest in the old Red Onion site, but decided against it, said Ginzburg. The reasons why are not clear (officials with Louise’s did not return calls), but Ginzburg said the nearby residential area “may have been a factor.”
Dr. Albert Reff, an opponent of the liquor license and a Marina Tower tenant since 1974, said he and marina residents attended a conditional use permit hearing for Louise’s and made it known that they would not tolerate a late-night restaurant.
“(Louise’s) made no bones about the fact that they planned to operate until 1:30 in the morning,” said Reff. “We then attended (a hearing) and made our concerns known.”
Whether the recent ABC decision will have an effect on planned developments at the county-owned marina remains to be seen. In the works are two major projects that could transform the fading marina into a more vibrant retail destination. The first is an entertainment-retail center featuring theaters, sidewalk cafes, and galleries in a promenade-style development near Mindaneo and Admiralty ways. The county has sent a request for qualifications for developers on that project.
The second project is a resort-style center at Mother’s Beach on the west side of the marina.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe, who represents the Marina, sent a letter of support on behalf of Fantasea to the ABC. He doesn’t see the agency’s decision setting a precedent for the marina.
“I think based on the (Red Onion’s) history, people remembered that and saw (Fantasea) as a problem,” he said. “I don’t believe if it were going in for the first time it would have those kinds of problems.”
Kerry Gottlieb, chief deputy director of the county’s Department of Beaches and Harbor, said Fantasea and homeowners “struck an appropriate balance,” because the club can continue to operate even without selling liquor.
Still, Gottlieb admitted that in order for Fantasea to compete with other banquet facilities, “it really needed the license.”
Ginzburg said his yacht charter business, which is adjacent to the Fantasea Yacht Club, will make up for the loss of business at his banquet facility.
“Fortunately we have a nice steady yacht business,” said Ginzburg, who is appealing the decision. “It’s very, very frustrating.”
