"I am excited to bring something new, exciting, locally owned and family-oriented to this space," Mayor Jim Light wrote on Facebook in July, as reported by the Daily Breeze. The space he meant was the old Redondo Fun Factory at 123 International Boardwalk. It has been empty since October 2019.
His wording was careful. He was "hopeful," and the deal the City Council approved was an exclusive negotiating agreement, which is a period for working out terms. It is not a lease. That caution runs through every waterfront item on the city's calendar this fall. A new music venue opened its smaller room and left the larger one for later. The harbor's gateway sign is getting a new face on the same arch. The Seaside Lagoon redesign has been cut back to a first phase.
The plan that stalled, and what replaced it
Years ago the Fun Factory was supposed to be part of something much bigger. In 2017 the City Council was set to buy the property back so it could become part of a large redevelopment of the entire waterfront. That plan never happened. According to the Daily Breeze, court disputes over the development kept the city from renegotiating the arcade's lease. The Fun Factory closed in 2019, and so did the Fun Fish Market & Restaurant next door.
The recent work has been much smaller. In 2024 the council approved earthquake modifications at the property and filling in the pit where the Tilt-a-Whirl used to sit. The ride had spun visitors around since 1972. Once that work wrapped up earlier this year, the city started looking for a new tenant.
That tenant may be Multiverse, the operator of Level Up Bowl and Bistro. The council approved the negotiating agreement on the consent calendar at its July 21 meeting. If the two sides reach terms, the space would become a bowling alley, arcade, bistro-style restaurant and sports bar. Level Up recently opened a similar venue at The Avenues mall in Rolling Hills.
The building itself shapes what can go there. The old Fun Factory was originally built as part of the pier parking structure, and a city staff report says redeveloping it from its current layout would need significant analysis. Under the agreement, city staff may draft a lease within three months, which brings the window to roughly late October. As of today, neither the October 6 nor the October 13 City Council agenda lists Multiverse, the Fun Factory, or an extension of the agreement.
A music venue that opened its smaller room first
Deep End Live, at 100 Fisherman's Wharf, shows how new uses are working their way onto the pier. The partners are Joe P. Smith, Brent Reger and Daryl Swensson, the same group behind the Project Barley brand. They told the Daily Breeze the space came back up for lease and was "95% ready to go," because the previous tenant's renovations were mostly still in place.
The venue has two rooms. The 4,000-square-foot room holds 234 people and is the one operating now. The second room is about 6,000 square feet, holds 400, and is slated for a later phase. The partners compared their plans to long-running South Bay rooms like Brixton and Concerts By the Sea.
The fall lineup lands on the same nights as the pier's own traditions. Here is how the next two months look on the waterfront, from the venue's calendar and the event organizers' own listings:
| Date | What | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Wed, Oct 14 | Boots on the Pier | Deep End Live |
| Fri, Oct 30, 5–6 p.m. | Trick-or-treating on the Pier and Boardwalk | Redondo Beach Pier |
| Fri, Oct 30, 6–8 p.m. | 9th annual Pier Halloween, free | 100 Fisherman's Wharf |
| Fri, Oct 30 | Max 80s Halloween Weekend Kickoff | Deep End Live |
| Sat, Oct 31 | Skeleton Crewe | Deep End Live |
| Fri, Nov 6 | LA's Wasted Youth | Deep End Live |
| Thu, Nov 12 | Guttermouth | Deep End Live |
| Sat, Dec 12, 3:30–5 p.m. | Paddle craft parade | King Harbor |
| Sat, Dec 12, 5:30–7 p.m. | King Harbor Holiday Boat Parade | King Harbor |
The Halloween hours come from the Redondo Pier Association's flyer. Local Anchor lists the event as 6–9 p.m., but the organizer's flyer is the one to go by. According to the King Harbor Boat Parade site, the concert on the pier for parade night is still listed as TBD.
The arch stays, the face changes
If you drive into the marina between now and Thanksgiving, you may see the oldest piece of the waterfront mid-swap. On August 4 the City Council approved San Pedro Sign Company to replace the King Harbor gateway sign, again on the consent calendar. The city's staff report expected work to start in August and finish by November 2026. The contract runs through August 2027 in case weather causes delays.
The sign's history explains why the arch is staying. As the Daily Breeze traced it, the original sign dates to the 1920s. It was redesigned in the 1940s and again in 1969, when it got the arch most locals know. The 1995 version kept that shape but dropped the six flagpoles on top. San Pedro Sign Company has refurbished it twice before, in 2004 and 2015.
The arch and poles stay. The arched panels get a sans serif typeface in place of the serif lettering the sign carried for nearly 60 years. The city's newest logo replaces the sailboat in the center seal. Under "Redondo Beach King Harbor," the sign will read "pier, hotels, restaurants, seaside lagoon, fishing." The blue poles get repainted.
The cost grew from a repaint into a rebuild. The city's 2025-26 Capital Improvement Program had set aside $74,000 to repaint the sign. The full remodel costs $158,786, and part of that comes from the 2026-27 budget. Mayor Light had pointed to rusting metal, faded colors, cracked and peeling paint and aging plastic. Some residents have asked the city to keep the sign's long-familiar elements, and a group of residents is pursuing state landmark designation for it. No public update on that effort has surfaced since August. No reporting has yet confirmed that the old panels are down.
Seaside Lagoon, Phase 1
The lagoon's plan has shrunk the most. That matters because one of the words on the new sign points straight to it.
Seaside Lagoon at 200 Portofino Way first opened in 1962 as a warm saltwater swimming lagoon. Since 2019 it has been drained each year to hold stages for the BeachLife Festival. In 2021 the state set aside $10 million to rehabilitate it, and the city added $1 million. The 2024 plan the City Council approved included a renovated lagoon, a separate lap pool and a two-story building for administrative and lifeguard offices, with the aim of year-round use.
Engineering and regulatory review pushed the first phase alone above $16 million. Part of the reason, Patch reported, is that Los Angeles County public health rules would not let a recreational lagoon and a lap pool run as one water feature. In April the council backed a reduced Phase 1, then estimated at about $9.47 million.
The current design replaces the saltwater flow-through system with a recirculating lagoon of about 770,000 gallons. It has a swimming area of roughly one acre, a maximum depth of five feet, a sand-covered zero-depth entry leading to a concrete bottom, plus a water slide, splash features and ADA-accessible entry. The old system has been expensive to keep running. A pump failure closed the lagoon for about two weeks in the 2025 season and cost roughly $60,000 to repair. The most recent two-year round of water-quality fines came to $175,000 after negotiation.
The Harbor Commission saw the reduced design for the first time on August 25 and voted unanimously to support the 2024 plan. That plan kept salt water, greater depth and a sand bottom. On September 15 the City Council voted unanimously to submit a Coastal Development Permit application. As Patch reported, Mayor Light called it the closest the city has come to construction in roughly two decades of discussion. It is still not final approval. The California Coastal Commission has to issue the permit before work can begin.
The checkpoints between now and the boat parade
Each of these projects has a date coming up that will show whether it's moving:
- Late October: the three-month window for city staff to draft a Fun Factory lease with Multiverse closes. As of the October 13 agenda, no lease or extension has been listed.
- November: the expected finish for the King Harbor sign, with the contract allowing time through August 2027.
- Coastal Commission review: the Seaside Lagoon permit application is the step that decides whether the reduced Phase 1 gets built.
- December 12: the paddle craft parade at 3:30 p.m. and the boat parade at 5:30 p.m. If the sign work finishes on schedule, the new sign will be in place by parade night.
Deep End Live's 400-person room has no announced opening date. It stays on the list as the next phase of a venue that is already running.
If you own near King Harbor or the pier and want to understand how these waterfront projects could affect your property's value, Rachel Ezra can walk you through what's changing nearby. Request a Complimentary Home Valuation, and we'll keep you posted as the Fun Factory, the sign and the lagoon reach their next checkpoints.
