FY2025-2026 Work Plan
for
Santa Monica Pier Corporation
FY2025-2026 Work Plan
Table of Contents:
I. Letter from the Executive Director Page 1
II. Mission Statement Page 3
Vision Statement
Company Values
III. Board of Directors Page 4
Staff Members
IV. Map of Santa Monica Pier Page 5
V. Accomplishments of Recent Fiscal Year 2024-2015 Page 6 VI. The Year Ahead: Fiscal Year 2025-2026
a. Assist the City in Expanding Economic
Opportunities & Planning Page 9
b. Pier Corporation Programming Page 10
c. New Enhancements & Opportunities for Pier
Visitorship & Enjoyment Page 10
d. The Pier Corporation as a Leading Nonprofit Page 11
1 FY2025-2026 Work Plan
Letter from the Executive Director
This fall the Santa Monica Pier will celebrate its 116th year of bringing millions of locals, visitors and admirers to enjoy escape and excitement above the Pacific Ocean.
On behalf of the Santa Monica Pier Corporation (Pier Corporation), I’m delighted to share our work plan for Fiscal Year 2025-2026. This document summarizes the Pier Corporation’s accomplishments during Fiscal Year 2024-2025 as well as the organization’s strategic work plan for Fiscal Year 2025-2026.
We are looking forward to embarking on a year of exciting opportunities that will include:
- Supporting the Cit’s efforts to expand large-scale event opportunities that can help Santa Monica as a whole;
- Continuing to produce and build upon the Pier Corporation’s own year-round schedule of free event programming;
- Creating new enhancements and opportunities for Pier visitorship and enjoyment, and;
- Enhancing the Pier Corporation’s reputation as a vital community nonprofit organization through steps including the debut of an annual fundraising event, recognition of the efforts of community members who have contributed to the success and significance of the Santa Monica Pier, and the creation of a “Friends of the Santa Monica Pier” to better support improvements to the Santa Monica Pier and its visitor experience.
The Santa Monica Pier is approximately the size of a 3-block city street, upon which are an amusement park, an aquarium, a trapeze school, four retail shops, seven restaurants, 13 licensed vendor carts, and one iconic 103-year-old antique carousel that is housed within an official National Historic Landmark. Fishing and street performance add to the daily scope of activities on the Pier, as well as frequent brand activations, art installations and free-and-open-to-the-public programming. All of these and our iconic setting drew an estimated 11-12 million visitors throughout the past year.
During the past year the Pier Corporation adopted a new mission statement, vision statement, and company values, then developed a 3-Year Vision Plan and 10-Year North 2 Star Goals for the organization. Fiscal Year 2025-2026 will see the implementation of the 3- Year Vision Plan driving towards our long-term goals of stronger financial stability and a greater leadership role both on the Pier and within the community while simultaneously maintaining its focus on the overall Pier visitor experience.
To those who joined us on the Pier last year and to those we’ll see in the coming year:
thank you for sharing this special place with us.
Sincerely,
Jim Harris
Executive Director
Santa Monica Pier Corporation
3 Santa Monica Pier Corporation Mission Statement
The Santa Monica Pier Corporation curates the pleasure pier experience for locals, visitors and admirers.
Santa Monica Pier Corporation Vision Statement
The Santa Monica Pier Corporation (SMPC) is the preeminent pleasure pier advocate. As the 501(c)3 organization responsible for the Pier experience, we preserve and develop the memorable character of the iconic Santa Monica Pier and its unique feeling of escape and excitement. We acknowledge and cultivate the nostalgia of locals and visitors alike while asserting its Southern California beach culture identity.
The SMPC champions the following:
1. A brand experience centered around wellness, environmental stewardship, historical integrity, and leisure
2. Access to a welcoming & belonging Pier community
3. Recognized excellence in the civic nonprofit sector
4. Leadership in envisioning the future management of the Santa Monica Pier Santa Monica Corporation Company Values
The Santa Monica Pier values the following:
• Inclusion
• Stewardship
• Collaboration
• Community
• Preparedness
• Health
• Resilience
• Boldness
4 Santa Monica Pier Corporation Board of Directors
Board Chair Vice-Chair Secretary/Treasurer Carter Rubin Randi Parent David Newberg
Julieta Giner Misti Kerns Nicholas Rolston Peter Trinh Santa Monica Pier Corporation Staff Members
Executive Director: Jim Harris
Operations Director: Aurora Piña
Activations Manager: Anne Railsback
Business Development Manager: Dana Moorehead
Marketing & Brand Manager: Kayla Nieto
Events & Filming Specialist: Leo Erickson
Facilities & Weekend Specialist: Corey Hart
5 Map of Santa Monica Pier 2025
1 2
3 4
5 7
8 9
14 15
16 17
18 18
20 13
11 10
12 21
19 6
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WWW.SANTAMONICAPIER.ORG
Soda Jerks Ice Cream
Seaside on the Pier
Currently Available Under RFP
The Albright - SM Pier Seafood
Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.
Pier Burger
Snackville at Pacific Park
Mariasol Cocina Mexicana
Heal the Bay Aquarium (under the Pier)
National Landmark Looff Hippodrome with
Merry Go-Round
Pier Shop & Visitor Center
66 to Cali
Blazing Saddles Bike Rentals & Tours
Heal the Bay Aquarium Gift Shop
Oatman Rock Shop
Marlene’s Beachcomber
Playland Arcade
Santa Monica Trapeze School
Pier Gear
Pacific Park
Santa Monica Pier Bait & Tackle
- Parking Lot
- Safety & First Aid
- Public Elevator
- Bike Path - Volleyball Courts
- Wheelchair Access
Electric Vehicle
Charging Stations
- Public Restrooms
- Bike Racks
- Fishing Deck
- Parking Pay Station
- Original Muscle
Beach -
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6 Accomplishments of the Recent Fiscal Year 2024-2025
Throughout Fiscal Year 2024-2025 the Santa Monica Pier Corporation continued its postpandemic recovery and rebuilding process, recording its most successful year of growth in Pier Corporation-produced events and in facility rentals to outside organizations for events and filming. Other revenue sources including corporate partnerships, sponsorships, and donations fell short of projected expectations for the fiscal year, yet each of those sources did grow considerably from Fiscal Year 2023-2024. The organization also turned its attention to the future with the creation of a 3-year vision plan and 10-year North Star goals and the development of a task force focused upon the upcoming Pier Bridge Replacement Project.
A highly important part of the Pier Corporation’s efforts toward curating the Pier visitor experience has long been the creation and production of free public events. For 35 years (from 1985 to 2019) the organization produced the Twilight Dance Series (later known as Twilight Concert Series), widely recognized as one of the Los Angeles area’s premier summer events. The Pier Corporation has continued to conceive of and produce a yearround slate of free public events including the Pier 360 Beach Festival (since 2010), Wellness & Waves (since 2012), Dia de los Muertos on the Pier (since 2020), Locals’ Nights (since 2022) and several others. Fiscal Year 2023-2024 saw the growth of each program, as well as the addition of some new programs:
Pier 360 Beach Festival
The Pier’s official “kickoff to summer” event has become the Pier Corporation’s marquis free public event, featuring paddleboard races, swim races, beach volleyball competitions, lifeguard competitions, skateboarding, roller skating, live music, Polynesian dance performances, and a popup Museum of Beach Culture which shares the history of ocean/beach sports and the Santa Monica Pier’s vital role toward the development of each. In June 2025 the event expanded that history museum into the Merry Go-Round Building and added a strongman competition that recalled and honored the iconic original Muscle Beach.
Wellness & Waves
Originally branded as Roga (Run + Yoga) and rebranded Wellness & Waves after the pandemic, this event grew from its traditional two 8-week sessions per year to this year’s 26-week run of Saturday mornings of run, yoga and mat Pilates.
Dia de los Muertos on the Pier
Arguably the most beautiful couple of days on the Pier each year, this traditional Mexican celebration grew from a modest celebration inside the Pier’s Merry GoRound Building to 2024’s full 2-day festival utilizing both that building and the Pier Parking Deck. The Mexican Consulate General attended this year’s event was so impressed that they have committed to support and participate in the 2025 event.
Locals’ Nights
7 An invitation to the local community to come celebrate their pier, this event featuring live entertainment and activities and classic car shows provided by Santa Monica individuals and organizations continues to evolve and grow in popularity year-over-year during its September-through-May third Thursdays. “Save the Pier!” Play
Honoring the efforts of the dedicated community members who stood up to City Hall and literally saved the Pier from demolition in 1972-1973, this 1-hour-long melodrama celebrated its 10th year of production with the addition of a handful of new musical numbers.
Holiday Cheer on the Pier
Continuing the tradition established in 2019 of celebrating the winter holidays by decorating the windows of the Merry Go-Round Building for the holidays and featuring an evening of performances by Bob Baker Marionettes, 2024 saw an expansion to three weekly marionette performances and the addition of children’s story time readings. The event also crossed over with the December Locals’ Night, which featured a holiday sand sculpture (resurrecting a nearly forgotten Santa Monica tradition).
SAMO Pride “Fierce Fables”
The Pier Corporation partnered in June 2024 with The Crow Comedy Club to introduce a new addition to the City-wide SAMO Pride celebration with “Fierce Fables” – a Saturday morning children’s event inside the Merry Go-Round Building featuring Drag Queen Storytime and Face Painting. The concept continued for SAMO Pride 2025, but with a modification to the name to “Fabulous Fables” and expanded its footprint and offerings with the creation of a small fair.
Santa Monica Pier 115th Birthday Celebration
A celebration of the culmination of the Pier’s first 115 years in September 2024 featured an outdoor screening of the movie Barbie. The celebration drew greater than usual press attention and, as reported by Los Angeles Metro, was the catalyst for a 68% increase in ridership to the downtown Santa Monica area on September 6 (event date) proving the Pier’s ability to draw attention and people to Santa Monica.
As stewards of the preservation and sharing of the Pier’s 115-year history, the Pier Corporation has recently developed two highly informative and enjoyable programs: A Walk Through Pier History, a ticketed walking tour program launched in the summer of 2023; and A Talk Through Pier History, a free monthly live slideshow/lecture presentation which debuted in February 2024.
The Pier Corporation also rents out the Pier’s public spaces for private events and filming base camps on behalf of the City of Santa Monica, creating income opportunities for the Pier Corporation and for the City. Income from these venue rentals has grown immensely during the post-pandemic years, due in part to the Pier being a spacious outdoor venue as 8 well as the organization’s marketing efforts to establish the Pier as a premier event venue.
This category has become the primary revenue source for the Pier Corporation during the post-pandemic era.
The Pier’s success at attracting events has led to venue rentals comprising nearly twothirds of our revenue. The Pier Corporation wants to make sure we maintain a diversified stream of income in order to ensure stability and to avoid risks caused by event disruptions such as those experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic. Venue rentals were reduced to nothing, as were corporate partnerships and sponsorships which were attached to Pier Corporation-produced free public events. At the same time, the City of Santa Monica faced its own financial crisis and was forced to cut grant funding for the Pier Corporation from $750,000 to $150,000 per year.
During the development of the organization’s 3-Year Vision Plan and 10-Year North Star Goals the primary focus was to diversify funding sources and build up a reasonable reserve fund to protect against disruptions to our core revenue sources. The result has been the organization putting more focus into exercising its 501(c)3 nonprofit status and developing programs and initiatives which will encourage support from the greater Pier-loving community. Among those is the production of the Pier Corporation’s first-ever fundraising event, which was originally slated to take place in March 2025, within Fiscal Year 2024- 2025, but due to the recent, tragic Palisades Fire, has been delayed and rescheduled for September 2025 and as such is now part of the Work Plan for Fiscal Year 2025-2026.
Throughout this recent fiscal year, the Pier Corporation has paid close attention to developments and events that will undoubtedly have substantial impacts upon the Pier’s businesses and the Pier visitor experience. Included among those are the Pier Bridge Reconstruction Project slated to take place in Fall 2025 through December 2027, the FIFA World Cup held at Sofi Stadium and the NBA All-Star Weekend held at the Intuit Dome in 2026, the National Football League Super Bowl at Sofi in 2027, and the Summer Olympics held throughout Los Angeles in 2028. The Pier Corporation formed an ad hoc Pier Bridge Task Force in partnership with City Staff and representatives from the Santa Monica Pier Lessees Association in 2024 to keep up to date with developments and planning for the Pier Bridge Reconstruction Project and plans to continue with that committee model for future impactful events.
In summary, the Santa Monica Pier Corporation has built upon its core responsibilities to the community, to the City, and to the Santa Monica Pier and is currently taking steps toward becoming more sustainable and more valuable to its locals, its visitors, and its admirers.
9 The Year Ahead: Fiscal Year 2025-2026
Fiscal Year 2025-2026 will be a year of noticeable change for the Santa Monica Pier Corporation as it works to assist the City of Santa Monica with the expansion of economic opportunities, further enhances its own programs, creates new meaningful and impactful ways to share the Pier experience, and takes a great leap forward toward establishing its identity as a leading, impactful nonprofit organization.
The upcoming year’s highlights will include:
ASSIST THE CITY IN EXPANDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES & PLANNING Pier/Beach Zone
In 2024 the City Council directed City of Santa Monica Staff to bring more events – particularly large-scale events – into Santa Monica. City Staff has been considering revising policies for events on the beach in order to make it more attractive to event producers. In parallel, throughout 2024-2025 Pier Corporation Staff has been meeting with members of City Staff about the prospect of the Pier Corporation assuming marketing of and management of events on the beach areas immediately north and south of the Pier. The purpose is two-fold: The Pier Corporation already has a successful marketing and management program for its unique events venues and can best drive revenue to both the Pier Corporation and the City, and the Pier Corporation can best assure that events booked on the Pier-adjacent beach areas will not conflict with events on the Pier. The hurdles to achieve the Pier Corporation assuming management of this “Pier/Beach Zone” are relatively small: Some changes to the City’s short-term privatization of and signage restrictions are needed, and the Pier Corporation’s role of management of the beach areas needs to be added to the organization’s Services Agreement with the City.
Create Opportunities for Larger Concert-type Events on the Pier In 2013 the City of Santa Monica placed a cap of no more than 500 attendees for all concert-type events at the Pier not produced by either the City of Santa Monica or the Santa Monica Pier Corporation. With the aforementioned City Council direction for more events, and with many people expressing desire for the return of concerts to the Pier, the Pier Corporation will reach out to the City to help determine the best path toward returning large-scale concert events on the Pier Parking Deck. We will pursue this in a way that enhances the visitor experience, support the Pier’s business tenants, ensures the Pier remains a good neighbor, and achieves public safety requirements.
Establish the Pier as an Entertainment Zone
In September 2024 Governor Newsom signed SB-969 allowing municipalities to designate “Entertainment Zones” in public spaces in which restaurants and bars can serve alcohol that may be taken outside of the serving establishment. The Pier is ideally set up as a location that Santa Monica should designate as such an area. The 10 Pier’s best asset is its outdoor, open-flow atmosphere, and it is already set up with designated, securable entry/exit points where the management of open containers remaining within the venue can be achieved. The Pier Corporation will work with City Staff to explore the possibility of establishing and managing the Pier as an “Entertainment Zone”.
Preparations for High-Profile, Extremely Large-scale Events in Los Angeles During the next three years the Los Angeles area will host the FIFA World Cup (2026), NBA All-Star Weekend (2026), NFL Super Bowl LXI (2027), and the Summer Olympics (2028). Their presence within the Los Angeles area and the popularity of the Pier as a tourist attraction will bring large numbers of visitors to the Pier, as well as the prospect of a lot of interest in events and parties associated with each of the high-profile sporting events. The Pier Corporation Board of Directors will create a committee including representatives from City Staff and the Santa Monica Pier Business Association to plan for the potential impacts each of these large-scale events will have on visitorship and rental revenue.
PIER CORPORATION PROGRAMMING
The Pier’s Regular Annual Events
The Pier Corporation will continue with its annual slate of events throughout the year, including Locals’ Nights, Wellness & Waves, “Save the Pier!” Play, Dia de los Muertos at the Pier, Holiday Cheer on the Pier, SAMO Pride “Fabulous Fables”, and the Pier 360 Beach Festival, each with new enhancements and expectations of increased attendance and enjoyment.
History Program
Programs that share the Pier’s history will continue to evolve in order to satisfy an increasing appetite. Already the Pier Corporation has been approached by Air B&B Experiences about a special, “exclusive” hybrid version of A Walk Through Pier History and A Talk Through Pier History, which is now in-development and will be launched in mid-2025. Additionally, Pier Corporation Staff is preparing a new, regular-running series of short history videos released on a weekly or bi-weekly schedule.
NEW ENHANCEMENTS & OPPORTUNITIES FOR PIER VISITORSHIP & ENJOYMENT Pier Day(s) with Hearts and Hands of Hope
In the fall of 2025, the Pier Corporation will partner with nonprofit organization Hearts and Hands of Hope to create and execute the very special experience of bringing underserved children who have never been to the Pier to come enjoy it for the first time. The event, currently under the working title of “Pier Day” (subject to change), will include rides and games at Pacific Park, rides on the Merry Go-Round, and lunch provided within a dedicated venue space on the Pier Parking Deck. 11 Expectations are that this will become an annual event and, depending upon budget, funding opportunities and overall response to the initial event in fall 2025, may be done more than once annually. The Pier Corporation recognizes the potential for grant funding, donations and sponsorships specifically toward this event, and will pursue accordingly.
Launch of New Pier App
Pier Corporation staff has been developing and is almost ready to launch a Pier App which may be downloaded onto a personal electronic device (phone, Ipad, etc.) and will feature a Pier directory of businesses, a schedule of events, business specials, merchandise promotion & sales, and other useful information for interested visitors.
The app is also expected to be a modest revenue generator for the organization.
THE PIER CORPORATION AS A LEADING NONPROFIT
A PIERfect Benefit
Originally scheduled for March 2025, the Pier Corporation’s first-ever fundraising event, “A PIERfect Benefit” will now take place on September 6, 2025. The event will be held inside the National Landmark Merry Go-Round Building (official name: Looff Hippodrome) and will feature unique entertainment, a live auction and a silent auction, a special observance of the “Golden Hour” (sunset), and the presentation of the “Santa Monica Pier Award” to two individuals in recognition of their contributions to the success of the Pier. The event, as well as the award, will become an annual fundraising tradition.
“Friends of the Santa Monica Pier”
The Pier Corporation is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that can - and does - accept donations in return for tax-deductible benefits to donors. However, since the organization’s board of directors is appointed as volunteer advisors by the Santa Monica City Council, they are not a fundraising board. The organization plans to create a new 501(c)3 organization with a separate “give or get”-style board of directors assembled specifically for fundraising to help support the Pier Corporation a well as to fundraise for projects mutually identified by both organizations such as Pier-specific enhancements (art, statues of Pier heroes), projects (helping fund needed City CIPs on the Pier) and initiatives (ambassador program) that will help to assure the best Pier visitor experience possible.