Large Restaurant to Be Built on Pier

The half-empty Redondo Beach Pier will be getting a huge new restaurant to help bring business back to the structure that was badly damaged by fire and two storms in 1988.

The City Council approved a deal last week with Kincaid’s Fish, Chop and Steakhouse to build a 10,000-square-foot restaurant on a vacant patch of the pier that was renovated and reopened in February 1995 with $11 million in city funds.

“We had 22 restaurants that indicated they were interested,” said Barry Kielsmeier, harbor properties division manager. “Kincaid’s is the kind of people we wanted to bring in to set a new standard.”

The city is still hoping to bring two or three more restaurants or large businesses to fill other vacancies.

Kincaid’s will build a $3-million restaurant on the north section of the horseshoe-shaped pier, with half of the money invested by the city. The city is guaranteed at least $260,000 to $290,000 in annual revenues once the restaurant opens in the summer of 1998.

Currently there are three restaurants on the pier.