The never-officially-announced plan to transform The Pike at Rainbow Harbor into an outlet mall has taken a big step forward, but at the expense of one of the center’s most popular eating and entertainment destinations.
KDB Kitchen Den Bar closed its doors last weekend. The space will apparently be subdivided into retail shops, according to a site plan for the proposed outlet center that was posted online last year but apparently later taken down.
Like Gameworks, its predecessor in that high-profile space at The Pike, KDB offered a full menu, several bars including a sports bar with multiple big screens, a bowling alley and dozens and dozens of video games – kind of like a Chuck E. Cheese’s for grown-ups.
Employees at KDB had been warned during the summer that the closing was imminent. Signs posted on the restaurant’s doors Monday stated, “The Pike at Rainbow Harbor has implemented an outlet mall conversion, with this redevelopment KDB Long Beach has closed. For more information on this exciting development, please visit thepikeatlongbeach.com.”
Of course, I couldn’t find any information about the outlet mall on that site. But at the website of EWB Development, the company proposing the conversion, there’s a whole page devoted to The Outlets at The Pike; find it at ewbdevelopment.com/projects/
the-pike. (Hopefully, the company realizes that the location isn’t off the 71 like its website says.)
The company has been surprisingly silent about the outlet proposal, which surfaced when The Pike’s Restoration Hardware Outlet store opened last summer. The store, which features discounted (but still pricey) furniture along with accessories and design items, reportedly has been the top performer among the chain’s outlet stores.
Since opening a decade ago, The Pike has had mixed success. Waterfront restaurants south of Shoreline Drive – Famous Dave’s, P.F. Chang’s and Outback among them – have succeeded (although pizza-and-pasta shop Boston’s shut down a few months back).
But the area north of Shoreline – aside from the popular Cinemark theaters – largely has languished. Some storefronts have never been occupied; others lost their tenants long ago. The center also took a hit in 2011, when Borders filed for bankruptcy and closed its bookstores, including The Pike location; that space now houses a $1 bookstore.
A NEW ERA
It’s definitely a new era in Long Beach politics. You’d never have seen Mayors Beverly O’Neill or Bob Foster enjoying Sunday “beer bust” at the Falcon bar on Broadway, but that’s where Mayor Robert Garcia was last Sunday, along with his buddy, state Sen. Ricardo Lara, D-Commerce.
And I’m certain O’Neill and Foster wouldn’t have known every word to sing along to Nicki Minaj’s “Anaconda,” as Garcia and Lara did.
A WEEK AWAY
My column will take a break next Sunday, as I’ll be overseas on business. I am flying through London (where the terror alert was just raised), staying in Finland (which shares a border with Russia) and traveling on Sept. 11. At least I’m not flying Malaysia Airlines.
David Medzerian is a senior team leader for the Register; his column appears here on Sundays and in the Los Angeles Register on Fridays. Reach him at dmedzerian@lbregister.com.
