Santa Monica Airport stops operating on December 31, 2028. Under the current timeline, the Great Park that replaces it will still be on paper for years after that. One piece of the future is already open, though. Two places opened this October inside a single restored building at 3200 Airport Avenue, and they sit on the stretch of land the draft park plan sets aside for food, performance and cultural events.
That makes the south side of the airport the one part of the conversion you can use today. In practice the park's southern edge has already started, while the runway, the meadow and the ballfields wait for environmental review, detailed design and funding.
One Building, Two Openings, Three Weeks Apart
Matilda's opened first, in early October, in a restored 1940s administrative building at the airport. Restaurateur Sean Martin took over the building in 2022. According to Eater LA, lines ran about 45 minutes in the first weeks, and the bakery posted an apology on Instagram on October 12 thanking people for waiting. Founding baker Francois Pied told the outlet he was still processing the response. Lead baker Abel Pulsifer came from Brooklyn's Radio Bakery. Croissant dough ferments for at least 18 hours, and the filled versions take four days. The menu also covers sausage rolls, seasonal Danishes, ham-and-Comté sandwiches and coffee from Caffè Luxxe. One unusual feature is a butter tasting menu of eight varieties served with bread, ranging from Échiré from the Loire Valley to a goat butter and a plant-based option. The dining room covers 1,800 square feet, and a 1,000-square-foot terrace adds to it. Matilda's is open Wednesday through Sunday, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Stiletto, Martin's second project in the building, opened October 21. It takes its name from the Douglas X-3 Stiletto jet at the airport museum next door. Chef Patrick Powell, who was born in Ireland and cooked at Chiltern Firehouse in London, calls it a modern steakhouse built around live-fire cooking. Eater LA reported that about 70 percent of the produce comes from local markets. The main room seats 100 and the marble bar seats 38, and the bar has a burger you can only order there. An 80-seat outdoor terrace is scheduled for summer 2027. Powell told Eater he hopes the place becomes somewhere neighbors drop in regularly, and that "the most important thing is a room full of people having a good time."
The two businesses already lean on each other. Dinner at Stiletto starts with a Matilda's baguette and butter. A bakery that opens at 7 a.m. and a dinner room in the same building mean someone is now at 3200 Airport Avenue from morning into the evening, five days a week at the bakery alone.
The Draft Plan Already Has a Place for This Edge
On October 17, four days before Stiletto opened, the City presented its draft Illustrative Master Plan for the airport conversion at a community event. That started Phase 4 of the project, which also covers phasing, implementation and cost estimates. Santa Monica Next reported that the plan splits the site into eight districts: Immersive Nature, Active Sports, Arts & Culture, Urban Edge, The Stroll, The Lawn, The Meadow and The Heart.
Urbanize LA's summary of the plan by design firm Sasaki explains why the new restaurants matter. The quieter uses go on the western side: a dog park, a flex lawn, a 1.5-acre wildflower meadow, an arboretum, water features and a nature education center, all connecting to Clover Park and Ocean Park Boulevard. Sports go on the eastern side, near the existing Airport Park at Bundy Drive, with multipurpose fields, baseball diamonds, a climbing wall, basketball courts and a recreation center. The existing structures along the north side would become about 500,000 square feet of leasable space that could generate revenue. The southern edge along Airport Avenue is planned for food, performance and cultural events.
Matilda's and Stiletto sit on that southern edge. The draft can still change, but it gives the Airport Avenue frontage the same job these two opened to do. The 200-acre site is limited to recreation and public open space under Measure LC, which Santa Monica voters approved in 2014. Where the plan does call for food, it puts it on the street these two businesses already face.
The rest of the plan moves much more slowly. Urbanize LA reports environmental review from spring 2027 through summer 2028, detailed plans through 2029 and into the early 2030s, and construction after that as funding allows. The City's 2023 project scope called for an implementation strategy that would look at ways to begin on-site activations on the day the City takes possession of the land, January 1, 2029. Until then, the runway stays an airport.
What the Campus Offers Before 2029
The new restaurants share the campus with places that have been here longer. The City's airport page lists a restaurant, theater, art studios, event venues and an interim open space that residents can use. These are the ones with posted schedules:
- Museum of Flying. The museum home of the Stiletto's namesake jet expanded its hours on September 24 to Thursday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., the Santa Monica Daily Press reported. It has five hands-on exhibits and a full-motion MaxFlight simulator.
- Airport Park. This four-acre city park at Bundy and Airport Avenue has a synthetic-turf field, a playground, picnic and barbecue areas, and separate off-leash areas for large and small dogs. The park is open 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. The dog areas keep shorter hours and close for weekday maintenance.
- Clover Park. Just north of the airport, this park covers more than 17 acres with soccer, tennis, baseball, volleyball, picnic areas and a playground. It's open daily from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. The draft plan's western districts would connect to it.
- Santa Monica Airport Antique & Vintage Market. It runs in the interim open space at 3233 Donald Douglas Loop South on the first and fourth Sunday of each month, never on a fifth Sunday. The organizer lists hours of 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., admission of $5, free parking on site, and leashed pets welcome.
The schedules overlap most on Sundays. On a first or fourth Sunday, the market, the bakery and the museum are all open at once.
Sunday, November 22, in Order
November 22 is a fourth Sunday, so it's a market day. Visit Santa Monica lists that market from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., an hour later than the organizer's posted start. Arriving after 8 avoids that question.
- Matilda's, first. It opens at 7 a.m., and the first weeks showed that lines form. Earlier is better.
- The antique market, mid-morning. It's a short walk to the white tents in the interim open space off Donald Douglas Loop South.
- Museum of Flying, after 10 a.m. The X-3 Stiletto is on display here, and the full-motion simulator is part of the visit.
- Airport Park or Clover Park, afternoon. Both are open until 11 p.m. Airport Park has the dog areas.
After that, the next market dates under the same first-and-fourth-Sunday schedule fall on December 6 and December 27.
The Dates That Shape What Comes Next
The draft plan is open for public comment now, and the next steps happen within weeks of this post:
- November 16, 18, 19 and 23. The project site lists a draft round of commission reviews: Sustainability, Environmental Justice, and the Environment on the 16th, the Planning Commission on the 18th, Recreation & Parks on the 19th, and the Airport Commission on the 23rd. Meeting times will be confirmed closer to each date.
- December 6. The Phase 4 survey on the draft plan closes.
- January 2027. The Santa Monica Daily Press reported that the plan goes to City Council in January, after the November commission reviews.
- Spring 2027. On October 13, the City Council voted without opposition to have the city manager come back with a study session on how a nonprofit Great Park Conservancy could help build and maintain the park.
According to the Santa Monica Daily Press, Councilmember Dan Hall described the conservancy study in terms of three questions:
"Who governs, who pays, and who answers to the public?"
Hall told the council that building the park is a capital program, but keeping it running is an ongoing operating problem, and he said private money is "ready to be committed." Those questions are mostly about the park that comes after 2028. The Airport Avenue edge, which the plan sets aside for food and culture, opened for breakfast this October.
If you're curious what the airport conversion could mean for the value of a home near Sunset Park or Ocean Park, Lisa B Realty can put together a confidential valuation that factors in the draft plan's timeline. Request yours with Get My Valuation.
