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Overview
Only minutes from the Pacific Ocean is Downtown Santa Monica, Santa Monica Place mall and the Third Street Promenade, named a "Shop 'til You Drop Shopping Area" by Los Angeles Family magazine. The popular Southern California destination borders Los Angeles' fashionable Westside and is just south of Malibu.
With hundreds of restaurants, shops and theaters, the Third Street Promenade is a busy hub of Downtown comprising three walk blocks between Wilshire Boulevard at the north end and Broadway and Santa Monica Place mall at the south.
There are more than 60 stores, along with 25 restaurants, coffeehouses and casual dining establishments — many with al fresco dining — on the Promenade. The surrounding area of Downtown — which extends to Ocean Avenue on the west and 7th Street on the east — offers more shopping and dining choices. Throughout the week, Downtown draws tens of thousands of working professionals coming out for lunch, tourists from across the country and around the world, locals, families and teens.
Besides great shopping and dining, the area has many entertainment alternatives. With one movie house on 2nd Street showing the best of independent and foreign films and three movie theaters on the Promenade offering first-run films, the area is home to 21 screens. Also in Downtown are several venues for live theater and magic, a doll museum and a variety of bars, clubs and pubs. One of the biggest entertainment draws of the Third Street Promenade is the eclectic mix of street artists and performers.
The Promenade and Downtown Santa Monica are popular locations for special events too. Many companies choose the Bayside District as a site for product samplings and launches, as well as for filming and photography for television, advertising and feature films.
Downtown Santa Monica and the Third Street Promenade are managed by DTSM, Inc., a nonprofit entity created in the 1980s by the City of Santa Monica.
History
What is now Santa Monica's Third Street Promenade — a retail, entertainment and shopping destination that many consider the heart of Downtown — was originally a regular street with automobile traffic. That changed in 1965 when Third Street was converted into one of the first pedestrian malls in the country.
In 1984, the Santa Monica City Council created a city-funded nonprofit 501(c)(3) agency called the Third Street Development Corporation, later renamed the Bayside District Corporation, now Downtown Santa Monica, Inc. (DTSM, Inc.) and charged with the directive of keeping the area vital.
After a two-year planning process to develop a new approach to the area, a 1986 bond issue to fund the project and a 1988 groundbreaking, a new and revitalized Third Street Promenade launched September 1989.
The initial $13 million investment by the City of Santa Monica attracted additional private investment estimated at more than $500 million. The City also created the Third Street Promenade and Downtown District assessment fee. Funded by tenants within the district, the assessments, along with sales tax and other funding, generate approximately $13 million per year for Promenade management. This includes operation, maintenance and repair of public improvements — cleaning parking structures and pavement, landscaping maintenance, etc.— Santa Monica Police Department services, utilities and marketing programs.
Downtown Santa Monica, Inc. is bordered on the west and east sides by Ocean Avenue and 7th Street, respectively; the north and south sides by Wilshire Blvd. and Colorado Ave. The Third Street Promenade includes the three blocks between Broadway and Wilshire Blvd. There are public parking structures on 2nd and 4th streets between Wilshire Blvd. and Broadway and one structure just north of Wilshire on 4th Street.
Photo Information
DTSM photography provided on this page are only for media use and approved communications, i.e., advertising collateral materials.
Right-click on the links below to download or 'save to disk' a high-resolution photo or logo.
Please provide a courtesy copy of your editorial or advertising material upon publication or broadcast.
If additional images or larger file formats are needed for photos, please call DTSM, Inc. at 310-393-8355.
Photo usage requires photo credit in all instances. Photographer: Robert Landau |
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