In 1946, a young pharmacist fresh out of USC opened a drugstore on Forest Avenue with his brother. Eighty years later, Bushard's Pharmacy still operates from the building Joe Bushard built, in its original footprint and without a remodel. On Sept. 25, 2026, the store marked its anniversary on the same night the city cut the ribbon on the permanent Promenade on Forest.
Both the store and the street have lasted. The plaza outside Bushard's started in June 2020 as a stopgap that gave restaurants room for customers. It is now a fixed part of downtown. The roadway, curbs, sidewalks and parking spaces between Coast Highway and Glenneyre Street are gone, and brick, landscaping, seating and a performance area have taken their place. The permanent plaza was designed around a different purpose than the pop-up was. The temporary version helped businesses get through the pandemic. The permanent one is a gathering place the town planned more than two decades ago, and on Friday, Dec. 4, Hospitality Night will put it to its first big December test.
A pop-up that cost a fraction of the plaza
According to the Orange County Register, the temporary plaza that opened in June 2020 cost about $250,000, including $10,000 for security. The permanent conversion came to $7.2 million, which City Manager Dave Kiff told the Register was under budget. The Daily Pilot put the overall estimate at $7.3 million. That figure includes a $5.5 million construction contract the City Council awarded to Superb Engineering in January.
That is roughly 29 times the cost of the pop-up. The money went into things the 2020 version never had: drainage, surfaces and furniture built to stay. The Laguna Beach Independent reported that the city hired SWA Group for the final landscape architecture and Psomas Engineering for the final civil engineering.
The city's approved design includes these elements:
- Surface and drainage: trench drains, permeable surfaces and brick pavers where the curb and gutter used to be
- Planting: new trees and landscaped areas
- Seating: seating, dining tables and wider walkways in front of the shops
- Evenings: new lighting and space for temporary performances
Built for salt air and storm runoff
Much of the design deals with problems that come with a street a block from Main Beach. The Register reported that decomposed granite in the construction is meant to help with drainage and flooding concerns. It also reported that the new landscaping was chosen for a "saline" environment after unstable and diseased eucalyptus trees were removed over the summer.
The paving is tumbled brick in multiple colors, laid partly in herringbone. The centerpiece is a fountain inspired by a kelp forest and topped with an artwork. When the fences first came down before the Fourth of July, the Register's early coverage described custom tables and chairs, umbrellas with built-in heaters, new lighting and piped-in audio.
The Register also covered the critics. Some in the community opposed making the plaza permanent, citing lost parking, the town's historic character and possible flooding. The granite and the drainage work are the city's answer to the last of those concerns.
The businesses that held on through construction
The promenade's history is also the history of the shops that line it. The Daily Pilot reported that businesses stayed open throughout construction, even while fencing left only narrow walkways for people to get past the work.
Three businesses stand out in the opening coverage:
- Bushard's Pharmacy. Sheila Bushard-Jamison took over from her father in 1986. Her daughter, Marisa Fader, now runs the business side. The Register describes it as an apothecary that carries high-end cosmetics and perfumes, many of them from France and hard to find in the United States.
- Moulin. This Parisian-style café turned 10 this fall, and its staff handed out free crepes and baked goods at the opening.
- Alessa. On opening night, the Daily Pilot photographed diners at this Italian restaurant on the promenade.
Fader told the Register she had seen foot traffic pick up as soon as the Coast Highway end opened in July. "We've seen an uptick in people shopping and eating and enjoying the promenade," she said. "After seeing the fence and the jackhammer for so long, I'm happy to see people down here."
A gathering place planned decades ago
The rest of downtown already had plenty of seated venues. Mayor Mark Orgill made the comparison to the Daily Pilot: "You go to the [Laguna] Playhouse, you're in seating. You go to the Cultural Arts Center, you're primarily seated. It's a different experience. [At] the promenade, you can listen to music and you can socialize at the same time."
The idea goes back further than the pandemic. Orgill told the Register that Vision Laguna 2030, a plan about 2,000 residents helped shape around the turn of the millennium, called for a central gathering place like this one. He said groups had already started using it, including reading circles and high school students who talked about meeting there. "It's becoming a place where people see others they might not run into in a year," he said.
The September dedication drew more than 500 people, according to the Laguna Beach Independent, and the local group The 133 Band played after the ribbon cutting. The city has said its summer series, Music at the Promenade, ran Friday through Sunday evenings through Aug. 30.
The final touches
The plaza opened while a few items were still in progress. The city said it would build the remaining elements in the weeks after Sept. 25. The week of the opening, Kiff told the Register that more art pieces, a nautilus bench and bike racks were going in. He said some interior brickwork, activation of the Wi-Fi speaker system and adjustments at the Coast Highway end were still to come. At a Sept. 22 City Council meeting, he said full electrical service, covering the fountain, the audio system and Wi-Fi, was expected within days. The nautilus bench and the fountain are the two new features to look for on a walk down from Glenneyre.
Hospitality Night, Friday, Dec. 4
The city and the Chamber of Commerce hold Hospitality Night on the first Friday of December. This year it falls on Dec. 4 and runs from about 5 to 9 p.m. It is the first holiday block party since the promenade became permanent, and the plaza now has its own spot on the evening's schedule. The city's tentative lineup:
| Time | What | Where |
|---|---|---|
| 3:00 p.m. | Downtown street closures begin | Forest, Ocean, Beach, Glenneyre, Peppertree Lot |
| 4:00 to 11:00 p.m. | Free trolley and on-demand neighborhood service | Citywide |
| 5:00 to 5:30 p.m. | Thurston Middle School Band | Peppertree Lot |
| 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. | Laguna Beach Presbyterian Art Market, La Playa Tamales, cookies and cider, caroling | Laguna Beach Presbyterian program |
| 5:00 to 9:00 p.m. | Business open houses | Downtown |
| 6:10 p.m. | Santa lights the tree | Peppertree Lot |
| 6:15 to 7:30 p.m. | Laguna Community Concert and JaZz Band | Peppertree Lot |
| 6:30 to 6:45 p.m. | Anneliese School | Main Stage on Forest Ave. |
| 6:30 to 9:00 p.m. | Santa hears children's wishes | Santa's Beach House |
| 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. | Music on the Main Stage | Promenade on Forest |
The evening has two centers. The Peppertree Lot hosts the tree lighting and runs music until 7:30 p.m. The Forest Avenue stage starts at 6:30 p.m., and the promenade's music runs until the event ends at 9 p.m. Because the plaza no longer has a roadway or parking, the closure on Forest's lower block is now permanent and shapes the whole evening.
Downtown streets begin closing at 3 p.m., and the free trolley runs from 4 to 11 p.m. The city labels the schedule tentative and posts a street closure map on its Hospitality Night page, which is the place to check before you head downtown.
If you're weighing how a project like the promenade affects a home near downtown, Tara Shapiro is happy to talk it through. Her Laguna Beach neighborhood page is a good place to start, and when you want to discuss a specific street or property, Let's Connect.
