Scaled-Down Billiard Parlor Opens Next to Hawthorne High School : Recreation: Previous plans were for the biggest 24-hour pool hall in the nation. Educators and parents still aren’t happy.

A Torrance developer who angered parents and school officials six months ago when he tried to build the nation’s largest 24-hour pool hall next to Hawthorne High School has opened a smaller pool hall at the same location.

The developer, Jerry Jamgotchian, president of Equity West Development Co., opened South Bay Pool on Saturday. The 4,000-square-foot billiard center in the 5100 block of El Segundo Boulevard includes 20 pool tables, a soda fountain and seven television sets with satellite hookups, he said.

Jamgotchian said he obtained building permits through the city’s Building and Planning departments and was not required to appear before the City Council or the Planning Commission.

Last fall, Jamgotchian tried to open a 25,000-square-foot pool hall at the same site but eventually withdrew his plans amid vehement opposition from residents and school district officials, who said the hall would have promoted gambling, loitering, gangs and the sale of liquor to minors.

Jamgotchian said his new pool hall should raise less controversy because it does not serve alcohol and is open only to customers 18 or older.

Despite his assurances that the pool hall and the school can coexist, some residents, school officials and City Council members still say reading, writing and arithmetic don’t mix with pool.

“I’m sure it’s going to cause some problems,” said Centinela Valley School District board member Pam Sturgeon.

Although Jamgotchian said he will strictly enforce the age limit for his patrons, Stennis Floyd, a longtime resident whose son graduated from Hawthorne High last year, said the pool hall will tempt students to skip class and loiter there.

“His only business around here is the 18-year-olds,” Floyd said.

Councilman Charles (Chuck) Bookhammer said Jamgotchian assured him that the pool hall would not promote loitering and truancy. But Bookhammer remains skeptical.

“I wish there was something we could have done to stop it, because I don’t think it’s the appropriate place to be,” he said.

Sheila Stachowiak, president of the Centinela Valley Council of PTAs, said many parents are upset about the pool hall. She said it will promote crime in the neighborhood.

“It is not a positive element,” Stachowiak said. “They don’t need that. They have enough problems without creating more.”

School board President Ruth Morales said she opposes the pool hall because it will promote gambling and loitering and disrupt students’ education.

Jamgotchian disagrees, saying he has had no problems keeping students from entering the pool hall or loitering around the parking lot. “We just turn them away. No problem,” he said.

He said the perception that pool players are low-life thugs who carry a pool cue in one hand and a bottle of booze in the other is a stereotype of yesteryear.

“That’s the old and this is the new,” Jamgotchian said.

His preferred customers, he said, are young professionals and aerospace workers, 25 and older. “We are changing the image of billiards.”

The 25,000-square-foot pool hall that Jamgotchian tried to open last fall was to include 56 pool tables, a bar, several large-screen television sets and a food court with five booths.

Jamgotchian had the permits needed to open the hall but withdrew his plans two weeks before he was scheduled to meet with the Planning Commission to request a liquor license. He said he backed down for business reasons, which he would not discuss. He retained ownership of the building and allowed Treasure Hunt Inc. of Vernon to develop a discount store there.

Jamgotchian said he persisted in trying to build a pool hall in Hawthorne because South Bay residents need an inexpensive entertainment alternative to movies and bars. The new pool hall, in the same building, is sandwiched between the discount store and an auto parts store.

“I wish (the pool hall) could have been larger, but you can’t get everything in life,” he said.