Why do Developers Want to Kill the Civic?

October 12, 2025

Dear Friend of the Civic Auditorium,

The developer group Santa Monica Forward — which advocates for more development, everywhere, all the time — just released a hit piece saying Santa Monica “deserves better” than a fully-restored Civic Auditorium at NO COST TO TAXPAYERS.

They falsely claim that making a deal with the very creditable industry leaders who want to restore the Civic (RPG) would somehow cost Santa Monica money. But the fact is, RPG has already committed to financing the rehab and operation of the Civic 100%. And as we’re pretty sure SMForward knows, that commitment would be put in writing when the City negotiates and signs a contract with RPG.  

SMForward also pretends that if the City walks away from this deal, Santa Monica could simply find another suitor for the project. Having spent years looking for such a suiter, Save the Civic knows this is, at best, magical thinking.

More likely, Forward knows what we know: if the City blows this opportunity, the Civic will likely sit abandoned a few more years — removed from landmark status (as Forward proposes!) — and replaced with what Forward really wants and even suggests in its hit piece: “hotel development” or “mixed-use”.

Killing the Civic advances developers’ dystopian dreams — where every corner, every neighborhood, every street in Santa Monica has either a hotel or massive mixed-used building — a homogeneous landscape that replaces everything unique in our city.

It’s no mystery what developers want for our Civic Auditorium. The only mystery is why on earth our city would give it to them.

Santa Monica “deserves better” than allowing special interests to decide which cultural landmarks live or die.

We’re closer than ever to a fully restore Civic Auditorium at NO COST TO TAXPAYERS. Let’s make it happen!

Save the Civic Steering Committee

https://www.savethecivic.org