Michael Hackman, an independent studio owner who controls the building that Pop Mart is moving into, says he is inundated with calls from people excited that the company is coming to Culver City. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re getting all these calls from people saying \u2018I have a daughter who is a huge fan,\u2019 and \u2018how can we get a Labubu doll?\u2019\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Swedish furniture giant Ikea said last month that it would open a store in the Helms Bakery complex that once produced bread. Although Ikea\u2019s address will be in Los Angeles \u2014 most of the sprawling area now known as the Helms Design District is in L.A. \u2014 Ikea pointedly announced it was coming to Culver City. <\/p>\n
Culver City residents \u201cspend a significant amount of time commuting and are increasingly impacted by affordability challenges,\u201d making it a good fit for a new Ikea store, company spokesperson Briana Lehman said in a statement. <\/p>\n
The Helms Design District was a good fit for Ikea because it is a \u201chistoric Los Angeles destination\u201d known for its restaurants and home furnishings businesses, the company said. The complex is also home to a Scandinavian Designs store, The Rug Warehouse, Room and Board, among other retail businesses. <\/p>\n
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A Saturday lunch crowd in March 2026 at Destroyer in Culver City.<\/p>\n
(Myung J. Chun \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
The 11-acre Helms complex is the former home of the Helms bakery, famous for the butter yellow trucks that once zoomed across Southern California delivering fresh bread and for being an official supplier for the 1932 Olympics \u2014 a distinction still proudly displayed on a rooftop sign. <\/p>\n
The bakery shut down in 1969 because the founder did not want his company to unionize, The Times once reported. The Marks family real estate firm bought the property in 1972 and turned it into a center for home furnishings and antiques.<\/p>\n
The charm of Culver City is understandable because the former whistle-stop between downtown L.A. and the ocean has emerged as one of the region\u2019s top choices for creative businesses, including HBO, Amazon and Apple, which is building a splashy new office complex <\/a>on the border of Culver City and Los Angeles.<\/p>\n Another newcomer is tech company Pinterest, which opened a new office in Culver City in January. <\/p>\n For years, city leaders have worked to cultivate a business-friendly image while managing some growing pains. Improving housing affordability is another priority, the mayor said. The average home costs more than $1.2 million, and longtime residents have expressed<\/a> worries that the influx of well-paid tech employees will push up rents and exacerbate the area\u2019s housing shortage. <\/p>\n Apple is building a splashy new office complex on the border of Culver City and Los Angeles. <\/p>\n (Myung J. Chun \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n More units are on the way, Puza said, citing efforts to meet the Southern California Assn. of Governments\u2019 target of adding 3,341 units to Culver City by 2029. <\/p>\n \u201cWe have 4,400 units in the pipeline,\u201d he said, and \u201c600 of those are affordable.\u201d<\/p>\n A maker city<\/p>\n \u201cCulver City has always been a \u2018maker city\u2019 for people who make things,\u201d said Hackman, whose company Hackman Capital Partners<\/a> owns Culver Studios, where classics \u201cGone With the Wind\u201d and \u201cCitizen Kane\u201d were filmed. Amazon MGM Studios now makes movies and shows for its Prime channel there.<\/p>\n \u201cCreatives have really latched on to the Culver City area,\u201d Hackman said.<\/p>\n The low-key linear city evolved along railroad lines and roads connecting downtown Los Angeles with Abbot Kinney\u2019s resort city Venice, making it a self-contained outpost in the early 20th century. Its personality, however, lost luster after World War II, as it was engulfed by the sprawl of Los Angeles. <\/p>\n The Culver Studios, built in 1918, is a landmark in Culver City. Such classic movies as \u201cGone With the Wind\u201d and \u201cCitizen Kane\u201d were made there. <\/p>\n (Myung J. Chun \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n The presence of famed movie studios, including the former Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer headquarters, always provided some glamour, but when car dealerships started replacing former roadhouses and speakeasies in the 1950s, Culver City took on a decidedly suburban vibe.<\/p>\n Over the years, Culver City Stadium was replaced by a shopping center, and a Costco now stands on the site of the Culver Dog Track, where greyhounds and, later, cars raced. The Culver City Airport, where city founder Harry Culver kept his own plane, closed to make way for a supermarket and an Earl Scheib auto-painting outlet.<\/p>\n With the cessation of train service in the 1950s and the 1965 opening of the Santa Monica Freeway, Culver City became a bit of an island, with its own police force and conservative sensibility.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a drive-through city,\u201d said Walter N. \u201cWally\u201d Marks III, whose family bought the recently defunct Helms Bakery in 1971. \u201cYou didn\u2019t stop here.\u201d<\/p>\n Now, he said, \u201cCulver City has been found.\u201d<\/p>\n A tech boom<\/p>\n One of the reasons it has gained appeal is the economic boom the tech industry brought to the Westside two decades ago, grabbing up offices in what became known as Silicon Beach<\/a>. In search of space, companies looked away from the ocean. More recently, the region also has become a growing hub for aerospace startups<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was obviously glitzier to be at the beach,\u201d Marks said, but Culver City had the room and its location east of the 405 Freeway turned out to be a plus as traffic to the west grew unbearable at some hours of the day. <\/p>\n A vintage clock adorns the city\u2019s downtown area. Culver City, a former whistle-stop between downtown L.A. and the ocean has emerged as one of the region\u2019s top choices for creative businesses.<\/p>\n (Myung J. Chun \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n Architect and Santa Monica escapee Lise Bornstein says a broader shift is lifting Culver City.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like the energy center in L.A. is being pulled east more and more, like the city itself is pulling,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Her firm, KFA, bailed out of Santa Monica in 2019. <\/p>\n \u201cWe were starting to lose out on employees because driving to Santa Monica was a deep, deep, dark thing,\u201d Bornstein said, \u201cand we were busting at our seams.\u201d<\/p>\n KFA landed in a manufacturing building from the 1940s, last used by a china importer that was converted to an airy office by the architects. <\/p>\n It\u2019s one of several former industrial buildings in Culver City\u2019s Hayden Tract area that was developed by Sam Hayden after World War II. It\u2019s now a cluster of buildings with creative uses, some of which were designed by architect Eric Owen Moss in a plan to turn the district into a \u201claboratory\u201d for experimental, avant-garde design.<\/p>\n Near KFA\u2019s office is Moss\u2019 undulating, steel-clad Waffle building, which is occupied by the two-Michelin-star<\/a> restaurant Vespertine. . It\u2019s part of the mix in the Hayden Tract, which includes pottery studios<\/a> and a whiskey distillery<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Metro\u2019s E Line pulls into Ivy Station in Culver City. One of the reasons the city has gained appeal is the economic boom the tech industry brought to the Westside two decades ago.<\/p>\n (Myung J. Chun \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n In November 2024, a new version of Helm\u2019s Bakery from restaurateur Sang Yoon opened in a 14,000-square-foot lot in the district, but it closed<\/a> in December due to lagging sales. Two restaurants \u2014 a pizzeria and Japanese restaurant \u2014 plan to open in the district this spring, according to the district\u2019s Instagram account. <\/p>\n The new Pop Mart headquarters will occupy a Moss-designed building on Hayden Avenue known as Slash for its tilted windows and jagged design. <\/p>\n The company said it was drawn to Culver City because of its proximity to L.A.\u2019s creative industries, which shape global pop culture.<\/p>\n \u201cPop Mart sits at the intersection of art, design, and entertainment, making Culver City, with its concentration of film studios and innovative technology companies, an ideal base,\u201d Larry Lu, president of Pop Mart for the Americas, said in a statement to The Times.<\/p>\n
It eliminated parking requirements for new development, making it less expensive to build housing, new shops and restaurants. The city also has a small-business assistance program to reduce permit costs and provide advice to startups. <\/p>\n![\"Apple](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1774684638_621_.jpeg\")
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