Revolution Sweeps Through the Chamber

By JOHN HARLOW | Editor-in-Chief

For more than a quarter of a century, Pacific Palisades Chamber of Commerce has been a clubhouse for local entrepreneurs, a think tank, gossip shop and warm home away from home with the beloved Executive Director Arnie Wishnick and his assistant, Marilyn Crawford.

Now, as the town’s entrepreneurs gird themselves for the opening of Rick Caruso’s Palisades Village project (we are due to learn the date this week), the Chamber is about to be remade—both philosophically and literally.

Work is due to start on refurbishing the Chamber offices on Antioch in March. It’s the first major upgrade in a quarter of a century.

Thanks to $27,000 in donations from local businesses, who wish to keep a low profile, every area from flooring to the bathroom will be upgraded.

A honeycomb of offices will replace the original open-plan layout.

“Thanks to careful planning, we will get $50,000 worth of work done with this new money, which does not dip into Chamber coffers,” an insider said last week.

During the six-week restoration, Wishnick will relocate to a space at Rodeo Realty and then return as what is being informally termed “executive director emeritus” or something similar.

He told the board last year he wanted to step back in 2018. He will retain a seat on the board but will no longer be paid.

That may not be such a hardship: Wishnick gently rejected plans by a former board member, Brett Bjornson, to raise money to tide him over the next few months.

During his 25-year tenure, Wishnick, a former banker, voluntarily gave up much of his salary during lean times at the Chamber.

That is another reason why Wishnick has long been known as the “heart” of the Palisades, a deeply respected and affectionately regarded businessman who will hopefully return to his previous post as a film reviewer for the Palisadian-Post at the new Cinépolis theater.

During the refurbishment, the Chamber plans to employ a headhunter to find a “new Arnie” within 30 days.

It will be someone who can market Chamber services to new arrivals, including the 40-plus Caruso clients—some were born digital and have never run a brick-and-mortar retail business before.

The new full-time head of the Chamber will take the title of president from the current elected president, Realtor Susan Payne, who will become Chamber chair.

On Feb. 16, after several Chamber board members resigned for a variety of reasons, the rules were changed to allow resident Sam Lagana, Rams announcer and associate vice principal at Pepperdine University in Malibu, and former sports entrepreneur Bob Benton to join the board at the next meeting.

This is on Friday, March 2.

Benton has been on the board before, but after finally deciding against reopening his sports business in Palisades Village, friends say he has energy to spare.

The Chamber feels it needs to hit the refresh button.

It is a venerable institution: Founded in 1949 with 60 local merchants, it grew to a 400-strong membership. They each paid between $375 and $500 per year for advocacy, networking breakfasts and educational seminars.

But the rise of digital commerce, the long decline of the Village retail area before Caruso transformed it and the aging of the average Palisades—at the same time as incoming (younger) Palisadians worked more often outside of town—challenged the Chamber’s identity.

Membership has fallen to around 318 due-paying businesses, led by the real estate sector (31 members), medical and eldercare (35), and food-related services (20).

Benton and Lagana represent “old new blood” to stabilize the Chamber during this transition.

But the arrival of 40 new members with post-millennial work styles could shake up the Chamber even more dramatically than the new paint.