Digital visitors bureau One Laguna closing
One Laguna, a digital visitors bureau that opened last year in downtown Laguna Beach, has halted operations, the facility’s founder announced this week.
Allan Simon, chairman of Firebrand Media LLC, wrote in an email on Monday that the facility was closing immediately.
The email — sent to hosts on KX@OneLaguna, the online radio station that operated out of the building at 225 Forest Ave. — expressed regret at the closure and explained that One Laguna had not caught on the way its creators hoped.
“The simple fact is that the One Laguna concept did not work,” Simon wrote in the email. “We believed that the residents and visitors to our facility would shop Laguna merchants from a central, high-tech facility which would double as an enjoyable respite location for adults and children alike.
“We did not market the concept very well, and so we are walking away from the plan, to cut our losses.”
Simon, reached by phone Thursday, said the closure may be temporary and that he hoped to have One Laguna, and its radio shows, operating again in the near future.
“I really have no comment on the matter because so many things are changing,” he said.
Asked whether the facility had officially closed, Simon replied, “For the next 24 hours, that’s correct.”
When One Laguna debuted in February 2014, it offered a multimedia guide to the city that included touch screens, directories and high-definition monitors. Among its attractions were the Social Wall, which integrated live feeds from social media, and Wish You Were Here, an interactive photo booth.
Downstairs, the building provided space for LCAD on Forest, an art gallery overseen by the Laguna College of Art + Design. Jonathan Burke, the college’s president, said having an exhibition space in downtown Laguna had been a longtime dream.
“It was a great gift and a great experiment for the college too,” he said. “I have long desired an exhibition space in downtown Laguna Beach and really wasn’t sure it would be created and what it would feel like and whether people would come and visit. It was really Allan’s generosity that allowed us to see what would happen if we did have a presence in Laguna, and it was a resounding success.”
When LCAD administrators heard that One Laguna was planning to close, they went scouting for a replacement location and ultimately found one at 374 Ocean Ave. The new location, called simply the LCAD Gallery, was set to open Thursday night.
In addition to the art gallery, One Laguna hosted the radio station in partnership with KX 93.5 FM. By this week, the lineup featured more than half a dozen shows, including “The Launching Pad,” which celebrated creativity and innovation, and “Spoken Word/Spoken Song,” which spotlighted poetry and song lyrics.
John Gardiner, the co-host of “Spoken Word/Spoken Song,” said he was surprised — and more than a little upset — when Simon’s email landed in his inbox Monday.
“Our one-year anniversary would have been next weekend,” Gardiner said. “We were coming right up.”
Still, all may not be lost for fans of the online shows. Tyler Russell, the founder and program director of KX 93.5 FM, said he hoped to transfer at least some of the KX@OneLaguna programs to the regular station.
“We’re hoping to accommodate as many shows as we can on the FM side of it,” he said. “But it’s unclear which, and how many, at this moment. Some people have put in almost exactly a year now of great audio content, so we’re hoping to move as much over as we can.”