New development in Morro Bay to feature a hotel, restaurants, shops and 2 giant sculptures

When Cherise Hansson first set foot in Morro Bay nearly 25 years ago, she fell in love with the seaside community, she said.

“The moment that I drove down Beach Street — and you see the Rock and you see the town and the bay — I just knew that this is where I was going to be for a long time,” Hansson said.

She soon opened Under the Sea Gallery, a shop on the Embarcadero that has served the community since 1999 — and she’s getting ready to expand her business.

In February, Hansson and her husband Travis Leage are poised to open HarborWalk Plaza at 833 Embarcadero.

The 7,000-square-foot plaza will include restaurants, a children’s play area with two giant interactive sculptures, retail shops, a boutique hotel, and even a dock offering gondola tours of the bay.

“There needs to be more family-friendly areas to just enjoy and hang out,” Hansson said, so she’s glad to provide that service with the plaza.

Morro Bay to get new hotel, restaurants

The Hansson family broke ground on HarborWalk Plaza in January 2022. They expected to open the development within 18 months, but shipment delays for electrical equipment postponed their grand opening to mid-February, according to Hansson.

The HarborWalk Inn will include eight boutique hotel rooms on the second floor of the building — each with a view of Morro Rock. The rooms are decorated in the theme of different sea creatures, from dolphins to sea turtles, Hansson said.

The first floor of the building will house a convenience store and check-in area for the inn.

“We’ll have all the amenities that a hotel would want, but it also has all that novelty and snacks and, you know, gear that people on the Embarcadero would appreciate,” she said.

Across the street beside the bay, Hansson plans to open a small takout restaurant with ice cream and snacks.

The plaza will also include a higher-end restaurant called Umi Seafood Bar and Grill, according to Hansson.

The restaurant is designed for guests to enjoy Morro Bay’s temperate, seaside weather — with an outdoor deck and wall-length folding glass doors that offer ”an amazing, wide-open view of the Tock” from inside the restaurant, Hansson said.

Each building in the plaza is LEED Certified and features eco-friendly elements. For example, the deck chairs are crafted out of polywood, which is lumber made from recycled products. Meanwhile, the hotel’s soap dispensers are made from fish nets found on the ocean floor, and the plaza is partially powered by solar.

“There’s a lot of eco-friendly design that we put into the building,” she said.

Additonally, the east side of the plaza will have a children’s play area complete with two coin-operated rides and massive sculptures of an otter and an octopus.

The artist Peter Hazel created the sculptures, according to Hansson. The octopus, which is 13 feet tall and 18 feet wide, is named Taki, while the 4-foot-tall sea otter is named Molly, she said.

“It’s just going to be such an awesome spectacle and a hands-on, fun, interactive thing for kids and adults,” Hansson said. “I think everybody’s going to want their picture next to it with the Rock behind them.”

Meanwhile, from its bayside location, the plaza will offer access aquatic recreational opportunities.

The plaza’s 70-foot dock will have two tenants: Morro Bay Boat Rentals and Central Coast Gondola.

The boat rental will open in February, but the gondola boat tours are already up and running.

Fourth-generation San Luis Obispo County resident Stephen Anastasia, who goes by Stefano on the gondola, gives tours of the bay while serenading his guests in Italian.

Hansson said the plaza will align with Morro Bay’s transition from a fishing village to a town with more tourist attractions and recreation opportunities.

“What I’ve seen is an evolution towards more, you know, ‘get your feet’ wet kind of activities for the water in Morro Bay with kayaking, paddle boarding, hydro foiling, and now we’ve got the gondola — becoming more of an interactive bay for the public to go and enjoy,” Hansson said. “ I think our two tenants on the dock are going to be really good at utilizing it for that kind of service.”