FY2026-2027 Work Plan
for
Santa Monica Pier Corporation
FY2026-2027 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 2025-2026 Page 6 VI. The Year Ahead: Fiscal Year 2026-2027
a. Being the City’s Partner Page 10
b. Pier Corporation Programming Page 10
c. Growing New Traditions Page 11
d. Continuing the Vision Page 11
1 FY2026-2027 Work Plan
Letter from the Executive Director
There are a lot of great, new and invigorating things happening in Santa Monica, and the Santa Monica Pier remains consistent and strong as a focal point for not only the local community, but for national and worldwide admirers as well.
On behalf of the Santa Monica Pier Corporation (Pier Corporation), I’m delighted to share our work plan for Fiscal Year 2026-2027. This document summarizes the Pier Corporation’s accomplishments during Fiscal Year 2025-2026 as well as the organization’s strategic work plan for Fiscal Year 2026-2027.
It’s time to put the narrative of “recovery” that has consumed everyone for the past several years behind us and instead focus on what the Santa Monica Pier offers: Enjoyment! And so, our work plan will focus on:
- Supporting the City’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, opportunities and creative marketing for Pier visitorship and enjoyment, and;
- Enhancing the Pier Corporation’s reputation as a vital community nonprofit organization through steps including 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 capital improvements to the Santa Monica Pier and its visitor experience.
Another key focus for the organization will be the ongoing Pier Bridge replacement project that began in late 2025 and will continue through 2027. While this may seem alarming, the simple and easy truth is that everyone will still be able to access the Pier the same way that they always have. The more things seem to change, the more they really remain the same. 2 The Santa Monica Pier is approximately the size of a 3-block city street, upon which are an amusement park, an aquarium, four retail shops, seven restaurants, 13 licensed vendor carts, and one iconic 104-year-old antique carousel that is housed within an official National Historic Landmark building. Fishing and street performance add to the daily scope of activities on the Pier, as well as frequent brand activations, art installations and freeand-open-to-the-public programming. All of these and our iconic setting drew an estimated 11-12 million visitors throughout the past year.
Our organization’s Mission Plan is simple: The Santa Monica Pier Corporation curates the pleasure pier experience for locals, visitors and admirers to enjoy this incredible space.
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 Manager: Leo Erickson
Facilities & Weekend Specialist: Corey Hart
Office & Events Administrator: Catherine Cabrera
5 Map of Santa Monica Pier 2025
6 Accomplishments of the Recent Fiscal Year 2025-2026
For the Fiscal Year 2025-2026 the Santa Monica Pier Corporation committed to a plan of reimagination in order to change the perception of the organization and to begin best emphasizing its nonprofit status. For decades public perception has been that the Pier Corporation is a branch of the City of Santa Monica. The Pier Corporation is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, modestly funded by the City, which has long curated the pier visitor experience for locals, visitors and admirers such that everyone – the City, the Pier Corporation, and the Pier’s business community - greatly benefits. In Fiscal Year 2025- 2026, the Pier Corporation took very proactive steps to emphasize its unique and important role.
In September 2025 the Pier Corporation held its very first fundraising event – A PIERfect Benefit. Originally scheduled for March 2025, the benefit was postponed due to the tragic Pacific Palisades Fire. Our organization internally deliberated whether the timing was proper to even try to launch a campaign to announce its nonprofit status after such a tragedy, the organization pressed forward with a plan to proceed on a date closer to the Pier’s original opening date (September 9, 1909) and incorporate anniversary messaging.
Recognizing that the January Palisades Fire tragedy would remain in people’s minds, A PIERfect Benefit scaled down financial expectations and even donated a percentage of our ticket sales and donations toward victims of that tragedy. The greatest success, though, was the attendance, recognition, and reception of the organization’s first big step toward changing its public perception.
Just over a month later the organization took an even bigger leap forward in emphasizing its charity status with Youth Day – an incredible October Saturday in which 250 children from underserved Los Angeles-area children were brought to the Pier to enjoy a free day of amusement park rides, antique carousel rides, food, entertainment and fun. For many of these children it was the first time that they had ever even seen the Pacific Ocean. The impact of this day is immeasurable and inspirational.
And while the Pier Corporation did take these big steps in a new direction, the organization also kept true to its traditional role of keeping the Santa Monica Pier alive and interesting for everyone with a year-round slate of free events plus a full calendar of facility rentals to outside organizations for events and filming resulted in something happening virtually every week – always a reason to be at the Pier! The Pier Corporation’s efforts toward curating the Pier visitor experience continues to be the production of free public events:
Pier 360 Beach Festival
The Pier’s official “kickoff to summer” 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 7 development of each. The June 2025 event was enlivened by the edition of a Strongman Competition, a special nod to another Santa Monica original: Muscle Beach and the “Birthplace of Beach Culture”.
Wellness & Waves
Wellness & Waves, our Saturday morning fitness program featuring organized short-distance runs and alternating yoga & Pilates sessions, expanded from its original twice-yearly 8-week sessions to a full April-through-October weekly Saturday series, is a huge success due to its consistent presence.
Dia de los Muertos on the Pier
Indisputably the most beautiful annual experience on the Pier, this traditional Mexican celebration continues to grow in popularity. The Mexican Consulate General has attended for each of the past two years and considers it the most heartfelt of all the Los Angeles area’s Mexican holiday events.
Locals’ Nights
The local community celebrates their pier, featuring entertainment and activities and classic car shows provided by Santa Monica individuals and organizations. The series continues to evolve and grow in popularity year-over-year during its September-through-May third Thursdays. This year we added an outdoor screening of the film Grease that included pre-show performances from Santa Monica High School’s award-winning choir. Held in a winter month (January), it still received more media coverage than most events held at the Pier.
“Save the Pier!” Play
This annual free, fun and educational melodrama, directed by Tony Award-winning actor and one-time resident of the Merry Go-Round’s apartments Paul Sand, and staged at the west end of the Pier, honors the true story of the grassroots community effort in 1972-1973 to save the Pier from demolition celebrated its 12th year of production. Growing in popularity each year, the play enjoyed its highest total attendance to date.
Holiday Cheer on the Pier
This family-focused celebration of the holidays continued the Pier Corporation’s 6- year relationship with Bob Baker Marionettes and 4-year tradition with Santa Monica’s own Books & Cookies, yet changed venues from the traditional Merry GoRound Building venue to the more spacious location at Pacific Park, resulting in a naturally wonderful partnership to best welcome families to the Pier in the offseason.
SAMO Pride “Fabulous Fables”
Continuing our partnership with The Crow Comedy Club and with intent to expand programming for PRIDE, the Pier Corporation added a very special short play 8 provided by Santa Monica Playhouse to hold its second annual “Fabulous Fables” – a Saturday morning children’s event inside the Merry Go-Round Building featuring Drag Queen Storytime and Face Painting.
As stewards of the preservation and sharing of the Pier’s 116-year history, the Pier Corporation has recently developed two highly informative and enjoyable programs: A Walk Through Pier History (available by reservation on Saturday & Sunday mornings and Monday evenings) and A Talk Through Pier History (last Thursday of every month).
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 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 has also drawn attention as more than just a short-term rental venue, and the Pier Corporation’s current agreement with the City limits event rentals to 5-consecutive active event days. Interest in longer term venue rentals at the Pier has increased in both numbers and intensity, which has triggered the need for license agreements directly with the City.
The Pier Corporation has worked closely with City Staff to ensure that all prospective largescale and long-term events align seamlessly with the usual slate of events and activities on the Pier.
The Pier Corporation keeps 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 which began in Fall 2025 and will continue through December 2027; the FIFA World Cup to be held at Sofi Stadium in June, the National Football League Super Bowl at Sofi in 2027, and the Summer Olympics held throughout Los Angeles in 2028. The Pier Corporation continues to work directly with City Staff on developments.
An exciting project that the Pier Corporation developed and submitted to the City of Santa Monica with great anticipation is the organization’s official is the 3-Year Vision Plan and 10-Year North Star Goals with the primary focus of diversifying funding sources and building up a reasonable reserve fund to protect against disruptions to its 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. The 3-Year Vision Plan and 10-Year North Star plan has not yet been adopted by the City of Santa Monica, only due to the misfortune of it being submitted just months before City Staff developed its own Realignment Plan. For the two plans to best and most efficiently coincide, some revisions to the Pier Corporation’s plan will understandably be required.
9 A few of the plans that were within that 3-Year Vision Plan, (and also included in the FY2025-2026 Work Plan) have been delayed for understandable reasons. Those plans include a Pier/Beach Zone cooperative management of the beach immediately next to the Pier for events, development of the Pier as an Entertainment Zone, and a “Friends of the Santa Monica Pier” raise funds for very specific Pier project needs. Yet each of those projects does, in-concept, align with the City’s new Realignment Plan, and can be achieved as we collectively move forward into the new fiscal year.
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 continues to move forward as a sustainable and valuable organization to serve its locals, its visitors, and its admirers. 10 The Year Ahead: Fiscal Year 2026-2027
Fiscal Year 2026-2027 will be a year focused on collaboration and imagination as the Santa Monica Pier Corporation works alongside the City of Santa Monica toward expansion of economic opportunities and the Pier’s governance for the future, while the Pier Corporation also continues to express itself as an important nonprofit organization which consistently creates and enhances new meaningful and impactful ways to share the Pier experience with everyone.
The upcoming year’s highlights will include:
BEING THE CITY’S PARTNER
Pier/Beach Zone
The Pier Corporation will continue to work with the City of Santa’s Staff as new imaginations and aspirations develop for the newly designated “Sandbox” area immediately south of the Pier. There are tremendous possibilities and opportunities to be explored within that space which will require communication and cooperation between the City and the Pier Corporation to assure the best Pier/Beach experience possible, beginning with the Goldenvoice music festival slated for Fall 2026.
The Pier as an Entertainment Zone
In 2026 the City established the Pier Parking Deck and the West End of the Pier as Entertainment Zones for Events. FY 2026-2027 will be the Pier Corporation’s initial year of working with the City to best execute this new designation.
Preparations for High-Profile, Extremely Large-scale Events in Los Angeles 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 (formerly Santa Monica Pier Lessees 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 11 expectations of increased attendance and enjoyment. With the adoption of the Entertainment Zones for the Pier, the organization will likely adopt a new regular event that will best utilize the Pier’s space and new status.
History Program
Beginning in July, the Pier will add a new “premium” Pier history experience with a special program in partnership with Air B&B, adding to the existing A Walk Through Pier History and A Talk Through Pier History which each have regularly increased in popularity and engagement.
GROWING NEW TRADITIONS
Youth Days with Hearts and Hands of Hope
With the tremendous success of the October 2025, Youth Day event (co-produced by Hearts and Hands of Hope) in which we bring children from underserved communities to enjoy a free day at the Pier, the Pier Corporation will produce two such events for FY 2026-2027 – one in October 2026 and one in May 2027. Our goal for this program is to ultimately produce four Youth Days a year – serving 1,000 children per year – by FY2027-2028.
A PIERfect Benefit – YEAR TWO!
Following up on the success of the Pier Corporation’s inaugural fundraising event, A PIERfect Benefit version #2 will take a significant step up as a Las Vegas Nightstyled event, but more specifically an acknowledgement and celebration of the Pier’s history with the 1930s gambling ship SS Rex and also the classic 1973 movie The Sting (starring Robert Redford and Paul Newman), which was filmed in the Pier’s Merry Go-Round Building.
CONTINUING THE VISION
“Friends of the Santa Monica Pier”
While we didn’t get this fully moving forward in FY2025-2026, it is still one of the most important concepts/projects that the Pier Corporation can achieve and will be a priority for FY2026-2027. 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 specifically for fundraising, with a separate “give or get” board of directors assembled to raise funds to support the Pier Corporation’s mission as 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. 12 Pier Governance
This has long been a topic of great interest for the Pier Corporation, and the organization will eagerly work alongside and assist the City of Santa Monica’s consultants to explore, research and help to determine the best governance model for the Pier.