The Family That Owns Bruce’s Beach in California Is Selling It Back to LA County for $20 Million
One of California’s most famous properties is heading back to the hands of local officials.
Just six months ago, Los Angeles County signed off on an unprecedented deal that returned two parcels of waterfront property in Manhattan Beach to the descendants of Willa and Charles Bruce. Over a century ago, the Black couple began turning Bruce’s Beach into a bustling resort loved by the area’s Black community, but the family was pushed out by white residents in the early 1990s. Now, the family is selling the land back to the county for nearly $20 million.
More from Robb Report
This Giant Bluefin Tuna Just Sold for $275,000 in Japan. Here's Where You Can Order It.
This $20 Million Turks and Caicos Penthouse Has a Terrace Bigger Than Your Mansion
The board made the headlining decision in June 2022 in an effort to “right the wrongs of the past,” as Anthony Bruce, the family’s spokesman, saw it. As part of the agreement, the Bruce family had a two-year window in which they could require the county to buy the land back at its value, reports the Los Angeles Times. They’ve now decided to take the county up on the offer. The family’s attorney, George Fatheree, said in an interview the sale was not unexpected and the family always wanted the option to resell the property to local officials.
“What was stolen from the family was the property, but what the property represented was the ability to create and preserve and group and pass down generational wealth,” Fatheree told reporters. “By allowing the family now to have certainty in selling this property to the county, taking the proceeds of that sale, and investing it in their own futures—that’s restoring some of what the family lost. I think we all need to respect the family’s decision to know what’s in its best interest.”
Still, other factors may have contributed to the decision. None of the family members, for one, reside in Southern California. The land is also not zoned for public use, not development, which means the family might have to suit up for a years-long permitting fight before they could break ground.
County Board of Supervisors Chair Janice Hahn, who helped initiate the transfer, recognizes the sale not as an abrupt change but rather as an example of reparations at work. “They feel what is best for them is selling this property back to the county for nearly $20 million and finally rebuilding the generational wealth they were denied for nearly a century,” Hahn told the Los Angeles Times in an interview. “This is what reparations look like and it is a model that I hope governments across the country will follow.”
LA County’s return of the land to the Bruce family is the first example of the government returning property to a Black family after acknowledging it had been stolen. The transfer initiated last year was seen by many as a potential turning point in a country that has historically confiscated land from racial minorities to prevent the accumulation of generational wealth. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the bill that allowed the transfer, Senate Bill 796, into law, and LA County has since been leasing space on the property from the Bruce family for $413,000 a year since the deal was made.
The Bruce family and LA County have until the end of January to close the sale, Fatheree says.
Best of Robb Report
Sign up for Robb Report's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
