The El Segundo Works of Allied Chemical’s General Chemical Division opened in El Segundo in 1920 on a large lot on the northeast corner of Sepulveda Blvd. and Rosecrans Ave. It produced agricultural and industrial chemicals.
The town itself had incorporated just three years earlier, but it was growing quickly. Standard Oil of California had put the area on the map by locating its second California refinery there in 1911
Over the next eight-plus decades, the Sepulveda-Rosecrans intersection would become one of the busiest in the South Bay. The Manhattan Village Mall opened on its southeast corner adjoining Manhattan Beach in 1981. The South Bay’s first Apple store opened in the mall in 2005.
As the corridor’s commercial prospects continued to increase, the fortunes of the Allied plant were heading on a downward spiral. A 1994 hydrofluoric acid gas leak caused the evacuation of the Lakes at El Segundo golf course and construction workers building the West Basin water recycling plant nearby.
No one was injured, but residents and some city officials began to more strongly question the efficacy of having dangerous chemicals being produced in the increasingly densely populated area.
The plant itself had undergone several operational and name changes over the years. By the 1990s, it was known as AlliedSignal. In December 1999, the company merged with Honeywell Corp., and the El Segundo plant was renamed Honeywell International.
By the early 2000s, only fifty employees were working at the El Segundo Honeywell plant. The 2002 implementation of an international agreement limiting the production of ozone-depleting chemicals proved to be its death knell.
As it was engaged in such production, Honeywell announced in December 2002 that it would close its El Segundo facility at the end of January 2003, and demolish the plant’s structures later that same year.
Commercial developers began putting forth proposals almost immediately. The first, Plaza El Segundo, came from the Mar Ventures firm. After some dickering with neighboring Manhattan Beach officials over its size and traffic impact, a 425,000-square-foot center was approved by the El Segundo City Council on Feb. 16, 2005.
Plaza El Segundo was built on the northern portion of the former chemical plant site, with its entrance on Sepulveda Blvd.
The outdoor shopping center featured bigger retail outlets such as Best Buy, Borders Books, Chick’s Sporting Goods (acquired by and renamed Dick’s Sporting Goods in 2007), and a very large Whole Foods Market. (Later additions include Nordstrom Rack, Home Goods and PetSmart.)
After the site had been cleared and its soil remediated, its stores began opening in phases starting on Nov. 18, 2006.
Ideas for the second phase of the site’s development set for the smaller site south of Plaza El Segundo and closer to the Rosecrans-Sepulveda intersection began to be introduced by developer Federal Realty Investment Trust in July 2007.
Its retail outlets would be smaller, and more oriented toward upscale clothing and lifestyle boutiques. It was first referred to as “The Pointe at South Bay” in 2008. Its name would later be shortened to simply “The Point.”
Architectural designs revealed plans for four unique buildings to be built in a parklike setting with a children’s playground set around a lushly landscaped open-air central courtyard with a fountain, creating an area envisioned as a community gathering place.
To that end, all the restaurants at The Point, most of them upscale and new to the area, were built with outdoor patios. Automobile entrances to the center were built on Rosecrans and on Sepulveda. Parking for cars was limited to a single-level lot to the east of The Point.
Construction on the Point didn’t begin until 2014, and its grand opening was held on July 30, 2015. From the beginning, the grassy plaza was a hit, with steady bookings for parties, small concerts, movie screenings and other events.
The twin developments on the former chemical plant site were effective enough to cause Manhattan Beach Village operators to pursue a $110 million renovation of the mall located just south of Plaza El Segundo and The Point. That makeover was mostly complete by 2021.
The Plaza El Segundo shopping center has succeeded in bringing much greater retail options to El Segundo, which previously had only its charming but small downtown businesses to offer.
As for The Point, its niche-filling success proves that thinking outside of the “big box” stores can have impressively popular results.
Sources:
Daily Breeze archives.
El Segundo Herald archives.
El Segundo: Seventy-Five Years: A Pictorial History of El Segundo, California, by Eileen Curry Hunter, H2 Limited Publishers, 1991.
Los Angeles Times archives.
