Circling The News

The Bay Club, located on Sunset and PCH, closed its doors in May. The site may reopen as an Equinox fitness center.

When the Bay Club, a fitness club located 17383 Sunset Boulevard, closed on May 31 after nearly 20 years in operation, it left a void for an upscale fitness entity in Pacific Palisades.

It was reported September 27 Real Estate Journal story (“Equinox to Open Los Angeles Gym Overlooking Pacific Ocean”) that a new Equinox would open in that space. The story said the club would occupy about 24,000 square feet in the former Bay Club location.

The story added that “In recent months, there has been a resurgence in gym memberships after a decline during the pandemic, which initially led to reduced interest in group workouts. However, data from CoStar indicates that fitness retail’s share of overall retail leasing has remained relatively stable for the past five years.”

Architect Heather Waldstein of Rosenheim & Associates, representing Equinox, was initially supposed to provide a presentation of the building signage and frontage on October 12 to the Pacific Palisades Community Council.

CTN asked Waldstein when the projected opening for the Equinox might be. She did not have a timeline. CTN asked her if the project had come to the Pacific Palisades Design Review Board (DRB).

“No,” she said.

The DRB is the governing body on signage, and with the city, gives approval, which allows a project to go forward.

CTN contacted PPCC President Maryam Zar, who said the City had told the architects to go directly to the Community Council, and not the DRB. The City was contacted for an update, since the project had not gone to the DRB, yet.

The building, at the corner of Sunset and Pacific Coast Highway, has been the site of a fitness center since the building’s opening in 1986.

A Pritikin Fitness Center was initially in the building, succeeded by the Pacific Athletic Club in 1991, and then the Spectrum gym, according to a Los Angeles Times story.

The 101,923-sq.-ft. main building, called Sunset Coast Plaza, is a three-story office and retail property, with a parking garage underneath. It underwent renovations in 1989 and 2001, and according to its website, there are numerous office spaces available.

The Bay Club closed because of leasing issues. At the time, a spokesperson told CTN, “We can’t comment on rent negotiations. We spent a lot of time trying to craft a solution, but ultimately, we were not able to get an agreement forged.”

Rick Caruso at the opening of Palisades Village.

Most are familiar with the term transgender, but now Rick Caruso is the epitome of a new term, trans political.

Transgender, according to the American Psychiatric Association is defined as “People who may pursue multiple domains of gender affirmation, including social affirmation (e.g., changing one’s name and pronouns), legal affirmation (e.g., changing gender markers on one’s government-issued documents) and medical affirmation.”

One might define Caruso as trans political because first he was Republican (before 2011), then Independent (2012-2016) and then Republican (2016-2019) and now Democrat (2019 to present).

The billionaire, who built Palisades Village, the Grove, the Brand and the Americana  seems to have dysphoria, which has been described as a mental state in which a person has a profound sense of unease or dissatisfaction with who he is.

The L.A. Daily News October 11 Editorial (“Rick Caruso to Set More of His Money on Fire”) wrote that “L.A. County Democratic Party chair Mark Gonzalez said he told Caruso that ‘he had some making up to do’ in order to get into the good graces of the Democratic Party. Obviously that’s a request for money, not an invitation to high tea at The Grove.”

L.A. Daily News, which endorsed Caruso for mayor, called it “disheartening.”

Caruso, who spent $104 million on his bid to become L.A. Mayor (That was $160.42 per vote compared to Karen Bass’s $10.15), had trouble getting the backing of Democratic voters.

In an October 5 interview with Politico (“Party-switching Billionaire Targets California Republicans”) the author wrote: “Caruso, who didn’t rule out spending in primaries, wouldn’t put an exact dollar figure on his anticipated contributions for the next cycle. But he said he was dedicating his money and time to push the most viable Democratic candidates to the front of the field and give them the best chance of beating their GOP opponents. He also anticipates being involved in the presidential and U.S. Senate races and wants to court Latino voters who failed to tip the scales in his favor in his own mayoral race last year.”

“Stick with the central theme of getting moderates in the House,” Caruso told POLITICO of his new strategy.

In California, many of CTN readers are smart enough to know that a shrew businessman does not support attacks on Prop 13, ACA 1 and ACA 13—which make it easier to raise taxes and harder to pass taxpayer protections, which some “moderates” in the California legislature did support.

So, what is Caruso’s end game? Does he want to be governor? Does he think he could run for a national office?

It’s obvious he feels he needs the Democratic party’s help with whatever is his ultimate, unsaid goal.

In a Visage July 25 story (“15 Great Leadership Qualities and Characteristics”), the top five qualities listed are empathy, authenticity, self-awareness, courage and integrity. Maybe L.A. Voters felt that Bass had more empathy, authenticity, self-awareness and integrity than Caruso?

There used to be a game show “To Tell the Truth,” in which three “contestants,” all claimed to be the person identified. The show panelists had to decide which of the three was telling the truth and which two were imposters. Is the billionaire a Republican, an Independent, a Democrat or just saying what he thinks people what to hear?

“Will the real Caruso please stand up?”