The South Bay Marketplace on Hawthorne Boulevard celebrated its official grand opening Tuesday afternoon with a ribbon cutting and a table full of sandwiches, coffee and pastries from .
The center, which is just south of the , already boasts a , , , , the aforementioned Panera Bread and . A is set to open Thursday, and Freebirds will open in October.
The Marketplace aims to be an upscale shopping destination, according to developer David Brewer.
"We have tremendous interest for the little space we have left" in the center, Brewer told Redondo Beach Patch, noting that 96 percent of the retail space has already been leased.
Local government officials, including councilmen Matt Kilroy and Steven Diels and Mayor Mike Gin, as well as representatives from the other stores in the center, attended the event.
After the ribbon cutting, Gin spoke to those present.
"Just seeing the traffic here on a Tuesday afternoon … this has been an amazing success story," he said.
"We're happy to have the panache of the stores here," Diels said, and Kilroy agreed.
"It's my wife's No. 1 place to be," Kilroy said.
Just down the street on Artesia Boulevard, hosted its "soft" grand opening with a pastry spread from and various food trucks parked outside.
The bookstore, , will hold its official grand opening celebration in October, said store representative LeAnna Herrera.
Though it seemed full, the store actually expects to receive three more pallets of books—about 12,000 books total—in the mail, Herrera said. The shipments were delayed due to Hurricane Irene on the East Coast.
Besides its extensive collection of books about the mysterious and unexplained, the shop also offers signed first editions in multiple genres.
"We deal with a lot of book collectors" through the program, Herrera explained.
Additionally, Mysterious Galaxy carries instructional books for writers, and it sells Google eBooks through its website. Nevertheless, Herrera told Patch that there's still a market for physical books.
"Books at home are awesome," she said. "People want to have both [ebooks and printed books]."
