The San Pedro Waterfront Didn't Wait for a Grand Opening

Dustin Trani is 41. He remembers standing in downtown San Pedro at 21, looking at renderings of what was then called the San Pedro Public Market, calculating that he'd be 25 when it opened. Before him, his family was told in 1974 to move the restaurant closer to the water because the big redevelopment was coming. Last December, Dustin opened The Majestic inside the restored Harbor View House — a Mediterranean Revival landmark that spent decades as a state-run mental health facility — with the same marble tables his family had used for generations and a direct view of West Harbor under construction across the street. The original gymnasium gleams with its polished floors and sloped running track around the upper perimeter. In the old boiler room downstairs, workers are building a speakeasy with a 30-foot library bar. His family waited long enough to watch an entirely different version of the waterfront grow up around them.

The reason most San Pedro residents don't know The Majestic exists yet is the same reason most don't realize the waterfront opening already started: it didn't happen with a press conference. It happened in October 2025, and it's been adding pieces every month since.

What Opened While You Were Waiting

The San Pedro Fish Market's New Landing came back to the water at 706 S. Harbor Blvd. in October 2025 with roughly 1,500 oceanside seats. For two years prior, while the Port of Los Angeles waterfront renovation consumed the site, the Market had been serving its World Famous Shrimp Tray from a temporary location in a parking lot. Founded in 1956 and now in its fourth generation of family ownership — its story told in the docuseries Kings of Fi$H on Amazon Prime — the Fish Market is currently operating in what developers call its final temporary location before moving into a permanent 55,000-square-foot building targeted for late 2026.

The Majestic followed in late December, a few weeks after the Fish Market Landing settled in. Dustin Trani, who became executive chef at J. Trani's Ristorante at 18, framed the opening plainly: San Pedro isn't a pass-through town, and every decade someone promises the waterfront is about to change. The Majestic isn't a museum to the version of San Pedro that waited. The stage inside hosts live performance. The restaurant operates nightly. The Boiler Room speakeasy is still being built — but the place is already open and serving, which is more than anyone in this family expected to say in 2025.

Right now, today, the northern section of the promenade is open for walking and sightseeing. Harbor Breeze Cruises runs harbor tours from the site. Wheel Fun Rentals operates there. Catalina Tea Bar has taken up a daily pop-up residence on the promenade. None of it required waiting for summer.

Why This Isn't Going to Feel Like Long Beach

The Majestic and the Fish Market are not accidents. They are consistent with a deliberate founding logic that most coverage of West Harbor has buried beneath the tenant list.

Eric Johnson of Jerico Development has been public about studying Long Beach's Rainbow Harbor as a cautionary tale — a waterfront populated by national chains, the PF Chang's and Bubba Gump model, that never became a place locals returned to weekly. West Harbor's response was structural: 80% of tenants are family businesses. About 30 to 40 percent of the restaurant operators come from San Diego specifically because they have coastal experience and no existing Los Angeles footprint to cannibalize.

The names on the lease list bear this out. Tacos El Franc is bringing its Los Angeles debut to West Harbor — a Tijuana taqueria recognized by the Michelin Guide and featured on Netflix's Taco Chronicles, known for handmade tortillas and traditional fillings including adobada, suadero, and lengua. Glass Box, a high-concept Asian dining venue enclosed in a striking glass structure with Japanese, Korean, and Chinese flavors, is making its Los Angeles debut here from San Diego; the open kitchen menu spans sushi and sashimi, Taiwanese beef noodle soup, and tenderloin steak fried rice. Paraná Empanadas, another San Diego family operation, will serve Argentine fare anchored by a Malbec beef empanada marinated in Argentinian wine for 24 hours.

None of these names will be familiar from the Westside. That is the point.

Summer 2026: The Biggest Chapter So Far

Building A — the largest of three multi-tenant buildings on the 42-acre site, at 73,000 square feet — is where the summer concentration lands. The majority of its restaurants and entertainment venues are scheduled to open before fall.

Mike Hess Brewing is building a 20,000-square-foot indoor/outdoor beer garden with a 15-barrel brewhouse and a waterfront view deck. King & Queen Cantina will have a 9,000-square-foot over-water bar and deck. Hopscotch, the immersive art experience that originated in San Antonio with a bar and outdoor patio, opens here. Yamashiro — the 100-year-old Hollywood Hills Asian-fusion landmark — opens its first satellite location at the waterfront. The Baked Bear brings made-to-order ice cream sandwiches. Poppy + Rose and Mario's Neighborhood Butcher Shop & Delicatessen round out Building A.

The 6,200-seat waterfront amphitheater, managed by Nederlander Concerts, the firm that ran the Greek Theatre for years, is scheduled to open this summer. The developers describe it as a "robust slate of grand-opening events, immersive programming and community experiences." The first full concert season is planned for 2027. This summer is a preview run.

One specific event with a hard timeline: West Harbor has been named an official LA World Cup 26 Fan Zone. The four-day event brings live match broadcasts, sponsor activations, food, and interactive fan experiences to the waterfront during the tournament's final rounds. Admission to West Harbor is free throughout. Parking will be charged.

The Ferris Wheel Is the Third Act

The formal grand opening — the one with the 175-foot Ferris wheel, described by developers as the tallest in California, along with a carousel and wave swinger — is timed for after the summer restaurant wave. The permanent San Pedro Fish Market building, at 55,000 square feet with a projected capacity of roughly 3,000 people, is also targeted for late 2026. The first complete concert season follows in 2027.

The resident waiting to attend the grand opening as the introduction to this waterfront will be showing up after everyone else has already found their regular table, their preferred harbor cruise time, and their opinion on the Tacos El Franc adobada.

The Neighborhood That Surrounds It

West Harbor doesn't sit alone on the waterfront. It connects along the LA Waterfront to the Battleship USS Iowa Museum, the World Cruise Center, and AltaSea, the blue-tech marine research incubator. The Trammell Crow Company's Jules development — an 8-story, 281-unit building at 625 S. Beacon St. that began construction in early 2026 — is a block away, with ground-floor retail space in discussions for a restaurant or café. As of mid-2025, Alan Johnson of Jerico Development noted approximately 5,000 multifamily units in design, construction, or permitting in and around downtown San Pedro.

San Pedro's state-designated Arts and Cultural District, which stretches from Point Fermin to the Vincent Thomas Bridge, already holds more than 30 galleries, the Angels Gate Cultural Center, CRAFTED at the Port of Los Angeles, and the Grand Annex Music Hall. West Harbor adds a concert amphitheater and Hopscotch's immersive gallery to that corridor. And Walker's Cafe, the ocean-side burger-and-beer institution next to Point Fermin Park that has been part of the neighborhood since the 1940s, received LA City Historic-Cultural Monument status in 2022 and is working through a reopening process — one more strand of the waterfront story still in motion.

The San Pedro Certified Farmers Market runs every Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The promenade is open. The Fish Market is open. The Majestic is open.

Dustin Trani's family waited 50 years for this waterfront. If you live here, there's no reason you should be waiting any longer than this weekend.

Thinking about what this moment means for San Pedro real estate — whether you're buying, selling, or just trying to understand where the neighborhood is heading? Randazzo Real Estate has deep roots in the South Bay and would welcome the conversation. Request your free home valuation or reach out directly to start.