The property at the northwest corner of 25th Street and Western Avenue includes an empty BofA building and a Smart and Final store next door in San Pedro on Wednesday, July 23, 2025. (Photo by Dean Musgrove, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
The property at the northwest corner of 25th Street and Western Avenue includes an empty BofA building and a Smart and Final store next door in San Pedro on Wednesday, July 23, 2025. (Photo by Dean Musgrove, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
The property at the northwest corner of 25th Street and Western Avenue includes an empty BofA building and a Smart and Final store next door in San Pedro on Wednesday, July 23, 2025. (Photo by Dean Musgrove, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
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The property at the northwest corner of 25th Street and Western Avenue includes an empty BofA building and a Smart and Final store next door in San Pedro on Wednesday, July 23, 2025. (Photo by Dean Musgrove, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
After some three years of back-and-forth planning and negotiations with community members, a plan to build a new drive-thru coffee house on a busy San Pedro corner is headed back to the drawing board.
The developer who pursued the original plan at 25th Street and Western Avenue has decided to sell site because of rising costs, according to the local Los Angeles City Council office.
The development was to be on a 2,200-foot property where a closed and now-empty Bank of America Bank building sits, 1602 W. 25th St. Next to it on a separate plot is a still-open Smart & Final, which shares the same parking space. That business was not connected to the prospective development on the bank building side.
“It is our understanding after speaking with the property owner that rising costs led him to decide to sell the site,” a spokesperson for 15th District Councilmember Tim McOsker said in a written statement. “To be clear, the next owner of the property will be bound by the existing entitlements approved by the (Los Angeles) City Planning Commission.”
Those entitlements currently allow for a drive-thru coffee shop and cafe.
While McOsker was opposed to the drive-thru option and advocated against it, the spokesperson said, he was able to secure an agreement with the developer to limit the hours of operation to protect the neighborhood. Any requested change to the proposed use that is not consistent with those final approvals would require a new application, with appropriate review and a public process, the council office said.
The earlier plan, with Starbucks initially slated to operate there, received approval after a long city planning process. But the coffee chain behemoth later confirmed it was bowing out of the project.
The original developer, Paragon Commercial Group of El Segundo, indicated at the time that it was working with another established coffee shop.
“Paragon has entered into an agreement with another coffee operator who will operate a coffee shop in the 2200 square-foot (property) as entitled,” developer Erwin Bucy, of Paragon Commercial Group, said in a statement to the San Pedro Chamber of Commerce over the summer. “They have five operating units and five more under construction. Definitely very community oriented and more updates to follow in the coming months.”
Bucy did not disclose which coffee company had the deal with Paragon and reports regarding the site after that went quiet.
Richard Scandaliato, president of the South Shores Community Association, said at the time that the issue had been under discussion for at least three years and was under review by Paragon. The developer, Scandaliato said in July, had been working hard to strike a new deal with a “smaller coffee chain.”
Many of the early neighborhood concerns centered around traffic, particularly because of the planned drive-thru. But agreements have been made since then through the planning process for driveway, and ingress and egress configurations in an effort to address some of those issues. Noise and emissions were other neighborhood concerns.
The 500-member South Shores Community Association had closely tracked the plans as it moved through the process over the years, posting status updates on its website. The association will also participate in an appointed advisory committee for the project, said SSCA secretary Jerry Gaines, who also expects to be involved in that panel.
“Given the level of interest within our community, it will be important to follow the upcoming real estate sale, and to learn how to network with a new prospective buyer,” Gaines wrote in a recent email. “The residents and various community stakeholders invested much time and effort over the past months to seek a positive outcome, and are commended in demonstrating care to supporting the quality of life here in South Shores.
The representative for Paragon (Erwin Busy),” Gaines added, “is to be commended for his efforts to negotiate with the community (especially the South Shores Community Association), through the planning/land use process.”
Paragon did not respond to a request for comment.
Among lingering concerns in the neighborhood are heavy traffic as it approaches an existing pedestrian signal at nearby Moray Avenue on Western in South Shores, and the speed of traffic heading south on Western Avenue as it reaches 25th Street.
The South Shores Community Association president’s newsletter from November included a piece about the change that could come with a potential new developer.
“The Paragon Group decided to discontinue development of the B of A property,” the newsletter said. “They will be selling-divesting itself of both parcels of land that are adjacent to Smart & Final. Rising cost, delays and loss of time are not friends to developers. We as a community must be concerned about what a new buyer will bring. Sometimes the problems we know (are) better than the problems we don’t.”