"This building belongs to the city, so we wrote public benefits into its lease." Mayor Caroline Torosis said that in the City of Santa Monica's October 9 announcement that The Victorian will close as a restaurant and nightclub after its annual Halloween weekend. Most of the reaction has been about the nights out. On Main Street, the more practical question is what happens on Sunday mornings.
For decades the Main Street Farmers Market has run on borrowed space and borrowed plumbing at 2640 Main St. The lease the City Council approved in March protects that arrangement. The bigger change coming is the city's stated plan to move the market off the parking lot and onto Main Street as a weekly open-street event. The building's new name won't change Sundays nearly as much as that move will, and the city's announcement gives no date for it.
What the market borrows from the house
The Victorian is a two-story house built in 1892. It was moved to Heritage Square in 1973 and sits across from the California Heritage Museum. The city owns the property. The Sunday market grew up around it. The city's market page says the market was established in 1995 as a collaboration among the Main Street Business Improvement Association, the Ocean Park resident group, The Victorian and the Heritage Museum.
The March 24, 2026 council staff report describes how the market actually uses the site. About 28 farmers, 14 food vendors and 5 Main Street merchants set up on the Victorian's parking lot. Community education booths and musicians use the driveway and lawn between the house and the museum. The Victorian opens its restrooms to farmers and shoppers during market hours and lets the market store items on site.
Shoppers know the public hours, posted by the city as 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., year-round, rain or shine. The staff report gives a longer operating day of 6:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. That covers the trucks, tents and teardown on either side of the shopping window. For about eight and a half hours every Sunday, the market depends on a private operator's restrooms, water and electricity.
That dependence is the reason the lease matters. The amended lease commits the operator to keep giving the city "support, access, and use of the Victorian's restrooms, storage, power / electricity, and water facilities to support the Sunday Farmer's Market on Main Street." The house is changing from a nightclub into a family club, but the utilities the market relies on are now a written lease obligation.
How the city used its position as landlord
According to the city, the change started with the operators. Garner Gerson and Adir Tal, the Santa Monica hospitality operators behind The Victorian, approached the city in late 2025 with a proposal to move away from the late-night model. City staff restructured the lease so the historic property wouldn't lose its tenant, and the council approved it unanimously on March 24. The Santa Monica Lookout adds that the same pair operate Calamigos Guest Ranch and Beach Club in Malibu.
City Manager Oliver Chi said in the city's release that the operators told him "their nightlife model had run its course at The Victorian, and that families were what Main Street needed next." The Lookout pointed out that the move runs against a recent trend, as Santa Monica has been adding nightlife venues and launched Southern California's first entertainment zone downtown.
The new business is a membership club, and the city added several public benefits to its lease:
- Parking. The 25 on-site public parking spaces stay available to the public, used as they have been historically.
- The lawn. The operator will keep the historic museum lawn open and visible as a community amenity.
- Scholarships. Up to 20% of memberships will be free for Santa Monica residents, including families, educators and small business owners.
- Reporting. The operator must file an annual report with the city on the community benefits it provided, including events, attendance and partnerships.
- Seasonal events. The operators plan to work with the city and community groups on free summer barbecues, Santa Monica Snow Days and holiday celebrations on the grounds.
The lease also sets the timeline for all of this. The staff report gives a ten-year base term from April 1, 2026, with three five-year options to extend. The original lease dated to 1978 and would have run out in 2033. Under the amended lease, the market's restroom and utility support is tied to a term that can last well into the 2040s if every option is used.
The street version had a trial run in August
The release includes one line that changes Sunday mornings more than the rest: "the Sunday Farmers Market will transition to a weekly, open street event on Main Street."
The neighborhood has already seen what that could look like once. On Sunday, August 23, 2026, the market moved into the street with the Ocean Park Association and the Main Street Business Improvement Association. Farmers sold from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., with a Kids Play Zone, chalk art and live music. The Main Street Entertainment Zone was active, so mocktails and cocktails were served on the street. In the afternoon the two associations ran a street event into the evening with seating and DJs. The city billed it as a "very special day," a single event. Nobody announced it as the start of the weekly format.
That gap between the one-day event and the weekly plan is where the open questions are. The March staff report describes the market in its current layout on the parking lot, driveway and lawn. The October release says the market will move to the street. Neither document says when, which blocks would close, or how traffic and parking would work on market mornings.
| Question | Where it stands as of mid-October 2026 |
|---|---|
| Is the Sunday market staying on Main Street? | Yes. The mayor's statement says it "will remain." |
| Will it keep the Victorian's restrooms, storage, power and water? | Yes. The operator's commitment is written into the amended lease. |
| Do the 25 public parking spaces and the lawn stay public? | Yes, under the lease terms. |
| When does the market move to the street every week? | The October release and the March staff report give no date. |
| Which blocks of Main Street would close? | Neither document names them. |
| When is The Victorian's last night? | The city says its final weekend will be its annual Halloween celebration. |
| When does The Santa Monican open, and what does it cost? | Opening targeted for mid-2028; the operators will announce membership details and pricing in the coming months. |
The next twenty months on the block
The city expects renovation to begin in late 2026 and is targeting a mid-2028 opening for The Santa Monican. Plans include a pool, a spa and fitness center, a family and youth facility, a coffee bistro, a restaurant and bar, gardens and gathering spaces. The house will be closed for about a year and a half to two years. The street around it is still changing during that time, and the same release lists a series of openings within a short walk of the market:
- Met Her at a Bar, 2651 Main St., an all-day café from restaurateurs Mindy and Vinny Kinne. It opened in August with roughly 100 jobs and is the couple's first Santa Monica location.
- Circle Bar, 2926 Main St., a Main Street fixture since 1949. It reopened in May under new local ownership after nearly three years dark.
- Santa Monica Market, 2015 Main St., which added a full deli counter this summer under new owners.
- Punch Bowl Juice & Smoothie, 2218 Main St., recently opened.
- Bar Fortuna, 2917 Main St., an all-day wine bar from the team behind Crudo e Nudo, set to open this fall.
- Nameless, 2810 Main St., which closed during the COVID-19 pandemic and will be reopened by The Victorian's operators.
The last item matters for evenings in Ocean Park. While The Victorian is under renovation, its operators plan to keep a presence on Main Street at 2810 Main St., a few blocks south.
City policy is pushing in the same direction. In March, the council removed the $1,000-per-seat requirement for new restaurants and set up a $3 million economic development fund to attract and keep businesses. It approved The Santa Monican lease at the same March 24 meeting where it adopted the Realignment Plan update, which prioritizes revitalizing commercial corridors including Main Street. If the weekly market does move onto Main Street, it would put farm stands right in front of the storefronts that policy is meant to fill.
For now, nothing about the Sunday routine has changed. The market at 2640 Main St. is open this Sunday and every Sunday from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. The city's Main Street Farmers Market page is where a new schedule or street layout would most likely appear first.
Brian Merrick has spent more than 30 years following how small lease terms and local decisions shape daily life along this coast, from Malibu to Main Street. If you're weighing what changes like The Victorian's reinvention mean for the block you live on or are considering, Brian Merrick Team can talk it through with you. Work With Brian.
