Bushard's Pharmacy has been on Forest Avenue since 1946. It still sits in the building Joseph Bushard put up, in its original footprint, and it has never been remodeled. Marisa Fader, his granddaughter, runs it now. After construction started earlier this year, she spent months looking at "the fence and the jackhammer" on her block. Since July, when the Coast Highway end of the new plaza opened, she told the Orange County Register that the change has been easy to see: "We've seen an uptick in people shopping and eating and enjoying the promenade."
Most of that uptick came during summer, when downtown would be busy anyway. The harder stretch for the permanent Promenade on Forest is the one starting now. The city's free concert series wrapped up Aug. 30. Downtown streets around the plaza are about to be resurfaced. The next big date on the calendar is Hospitality Night on Dec. 4, which will be the first one with Forest Avenue rebuilt as a plaza. For the next six weeks, the people using lower Forest will mostly be the people who live here.
From $250,000 to $7.2 Million
The plaza started as a pandemic stopgap in June 2020. That temporary version cost about $250,000, and $10,000 of it went to security, the Register reported. The permanent conversion of Forest Avenue between Glenneyre Street and Coast Highway cost $7.2 million, which City Manager Dave Kiff called under budget. The Daily Pilot puts the total at an estimated $7.3 million, including the $5.5 million construction contract the City Council awarded to Superb Engineering in January.
The extra money paid for a plaza that replaces the street rather than sitting on top of it. Roadway, curbs, sidewalks, and parking spaces were taken out. In their place:
- Rustic tumbled brick paving and a fountain inspired by a kelp forest
- Two specimen oaks and ten 48-inch-box eucalyptus trees, plus planting, irrigation, light poles, bollards, and umbrellas, according to the city's project page
- A nautilus bench, bike racks, and more art pieces added in the final week before opening
- Tile work by local artist Marlo Bartels
- Conduits for an audio system and Wi-Fi, so the plaza can host a show without trucking in gear
The eucalyptus removed over the summer had been unstable or sick, Kiff told the Register. He said the new landscaping is better suited to a "saline" environment and that decomposed granite should help with drainage. A few items were still open the week of the ribbon cutting. According to the Register's Sept. 24 story, some interior brickwork needed finishing, the Wi-Fi speaker system needed to be switched on, and the Coast Highway end needed a few adjustments. So if a corner of the plaza looks unfinished on your next walk, that may be why.
The Summer Stage Was Paid For by Visitor Season
The plaza's first programmed season lined up with tourist season. The city's Promenade on Forest stage series ran free from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from July 10 through Aug. 30, 2026. Performers included Beth Wood, Telephone Tag, Upstream, Jodie Siegel, and Adam Lasher. Lodging establishments and the city paid for it.
That's a reasonable funding model for summer, when hotel guests fill the tables. It also means the plaza's built-in reason to visit on a weekend evening ended when the hotels' busy season did. The ribbon cutting on Sept. 25 came almost four weeks after the last set. The 133 Band played afterward while people ate under the umbrellas.
Mayor Mark Orgill has described a quieter kind of use. He connects the promenade to Vision Laguna 2030, a plan created around the turn of the millennium with about 2,000 residents, which called for a gathering place like this one. Here is what he told the Register:
"It's nice to see it starting to come to fruition with different groups trying to use it. Reading circles, kids at the high school talked about using it as a meeting space. There are a couple other groups I see meeting there now and it's becoming a place where people see others they might not run into in a year."
Talking to the Daily Pilot, he compared it with the town's other venues. At the Laguna Playhouse, he said, "you're in seating," and at the Cultural Arts Center you're "primarily seated." On the promenade "you can listen to music and you can socialize at the same time. You could be at one of the restaurants." Moulin, which the Register describes as a Parisian-style cafe, planned free crepes for the opening party. It turned 10 that night, and its staff handed out baked goods. Alessa Italian had diners at its tables. Bushard's turned 80 the same evening. On a weeknight in November, those businesses give people a reason to come down.
The Plaza's First Off-Season Starts With Downtown Roadwork
If you head downtown this weekend, how you get there matters more than usual. The city's Downtown Zone 4 Street Overlay and Walkway Improvements Project began Oct. 12 and is expected to run into December. Slurry sealing with lane and road closures is scheduled for Oct. 26 through Nov. 2, weather permitting, which puts this week inside that window. CT&T Paving is the contractor. The scope also includes replacing concrete walkways and driveways and restriping. The city's project map, updated Oct. 19, shows which blocks are affected.
Coast Highway has its own work coming. Median planting and irrigation between Montage Resort Drive and Catalina Street is set for late fall 2026. Expect temporary lane closures Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
That makes the trolley worth a look. The non-summer schedule runs Sept. 8, 2026, through June 25, 2027. Coastal service runs daily, with hours that vary by day. The Canyon Route runs weekends from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. out of Lot 16/Act V, where parking costs $5. Lot 16 is closed to the public on weekdays. Parking spaces on lower Forest were removed for the plaza, so a weekend Canyon Route trip from Act V may be the simplest way to get to Moulin.
December 4 Puts a Stage on Forest Avenue
The roadwork is scheduled to wrap up in December, and Hospitality Night follows. The city and the Laguna Beach Chamber of Commerce co-sponsor it on the first Friday of December. The city's 2026 page lists Friday, Dec. 4, from about 5 to 9 p.m. The schedule is tentative, and it has the evening split between two places.
| Time | What | Where |
|---|---|---|
| 3:00 p.m. | Downtown street closures begin | Portions of Forest, Ocean, Beach, Glenneyre and the Peppertree Lot |
| 4:00–11:00 p.m. | Free trolley and neighborhood on-demand service | Citywide |
| 5:00–5:30 p.m. | Thurston Middle School Band | Peppertree Lot |
| 5:30–6:05 p.m. | Ukulele Academy | Peppertree Lot |
| 6:10 p.m. | Santa lights the tree | Peppertree Lot |
| 6:15–7:30 p.m. | Laguna Community Concert and JaZz Band | Peppertree Lot |
| 6:30–6:45 p.m. | Anneliese School | Main stage on Forest Ave. |
| 7:00–9:00 p.m. | Susannah B & the Lowkeys and Earl Thomas | Main stage on Forest Ave. |
| 5:00–9:00 p.m. | Business open houses | Downtown |
The early part of the evening is family time around the tree in Peppertree Lot 2, where Santa arrives at 6:10 p.m. before heading to his Beach House at 6:30 to hear wish lists. The second half moves to the main stage on Forest Avenue, which runs until 9 p.m. Laguna Beach Presbyterian has its art market, La Playa Tamales, cookies and cider, and caroling from 5 to 7 p.m. The free trolley runs two hours past the last song. If you live in the canyon or up on the hillside, you can leave the car at home for the whole night.
The Rest of the Season, All Within Walking Distance
Several recurring events between now and Hospitality Night are a short walk from the plaza:
- Laguna Art Museum Art + Nature Celebration Week, Nov. 1–9. It overlaps with a Laguna Beach Live Chamber Singers concert, "Brushstrokes," on Nov. 1 at 3 p.m., according to Visit Laguna Beach.
- First Thursdays Art Walk, Nov. 5 and Dec. 3, 6 to 9 p.m. It's free and monthly. December's walk is the night before Hospitality Night, so downtown has back-to-back evenings that week.
- Laguna Craft Guild at Main Beach, Nov. 15, starting at 8 a.m. It sits at the foot of the plaza's Coast Highway end. The listing says rain dates fall on the following weekend.
- Sawdust Winter Fantasy, Nov. 20 to Dec. 20. It runs Fridays through Sundays, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
The city's posted stage series covers July 10 through Aug. 30, so until it returns, lower Forest Avenue's calendar runs on its neighbors.
If you've been watching the plaza fill in, our team at Green Group Real Estate is following the same block. We're glad to talk about how changes to downtown Laguna Beach, like this one, show up in everyday life and in the decisions homeowners make. Contact Us anytime. Coffee at Moulin is a good place to start.
