Donut Holes to Fill Vacancy in Long Beach

West Park Avenue resident Tim Kelly will literally bring the backroom donut-making process to a West End storefront.

The Long Beach City Council last week granted Kelly a waiver for off-street parking requirements so that he can move forward with The Little Donut Co., the name of his new non-franchised donut and coffee shop at 891 W. Beech Street, where in the front window he’ll create dough with holes.  

“The donuts will actually be made in the window by a machine, so you can actually see the donuts being made fresh,” Kelly said at the council’s April 3 meeting at City Hall.

Kelly said that he expects his shop will have about eight tables, depending on the construction in the 630-square-foot vacancy that once housed an attorney’s office, and his doors will be open for business daily from roughly 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. He also plans employ eight people and hopes to attract customers who come mostly by foot and bike. 

“It’s going to be a nice, small local shop,” Kelly said when asked about expected traffic at his shop. “But we’ve all seen Beech Street in the summer. It’s congested. So parking is at a premium down there. Who’s ever down there and passes my shop, I’m hoping stops in. But I don’t see my shop being a carbon footprint.”

The new store, located on West Beech between Wyoming Avenue and Alabama Street, will lease for $1,750 per month, including taxes but excluding utilities, according to the building’s owner, Denis Ziman, CEO of the Bronxville-based Urban USA Real Estate. The donut shop will fill one of two vacancies at the building that is also home to the women’s boutique Rose & Eye.

The remaining vacancy, a 1,390 square-foot corner unit, Ziman expects to lease for $4,200, and this spring he plans to modernize the building’s exterior with a new façade and a canopy.