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LA’s Famous Gladstone’s to Anchor Massive San Pedro Waterfront Development

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The former San Pedro Public Market now goes by the name West Harbor, and it’s signing on restaurant tenants fast

A rendering for an upcoming waterfront development complete with large blue buildings and lots of open air space.
A rendering for the future West Harbor
Studio One Eleven
Farley Elliott is the Senior Editor at Eater LA and the author of Los Angeles Street Food: A History From Tamaleros to Taco Trucks. He covers restaurants in every form, from breaking news to the culture, people, and history that surrounds LA's dining landscape.

The new development on the former site of San Pedro’s Ports O’ Call is coming along nicely, and while it won’t be completed until 2022 the list of tenants is shaping up already. The project, once to be named San Pedro Public Market but now called West Harbor, has already lined up a handful of new restaurant tenants, and developers there say there’s still more to come.

First up for the 42-acre West Harbor development is a brand new Gladstone’s. The 48-year-old oceanside restaurant is most famous for its massive patio overlooking the Pacific up in Malibu, though in recent years changes to that property further north have brought about some uncertainty as to the restaurant’s future. This new San Pedro outpost of Gladstone’s actually shares the same owners as the Long Beach version, and comes complete with lots of seafood and those same water views.

West Harbor will also work an unnamed new concept from Greg Morena, who already runs Pappy’s Seafood and the Albright, located along the pier in Santa Monica. Similarly, a second as-yet-unnamed restaurant and market will come from chef and owner Robert Bell, most famously known for the recently-closed Chez Melange in Redondo Beach. A brewery and beer garden are in the works as well, though that information is still under wraps at the moment.

In total, future visitors can expect nearly 35,000 square feet of waterfront dining space, as well as a large 6,200-seat amphitheater, a dockside area for incoming cruises and water taxis and the like, and (nearby) a marine research facility known as AltaSea. The project is not without its detractors, though, particularly from those in the small seaside San Pedro community who worry about displacement from the influx of money and tourism. Others have decried the loss of Ports O’ Call the restaurant, which was forced out back in 2018 after 57 years to make room for the new development. West Harbor is on track to break ground formally next year, and to open in 2022.