In what promises to be one of the best returns on investment ever for a rebranding effort, the City of El Segundo changed the name of Sepulveda Boulevard to Pacific Coast Highway. The cost for the 14 new highway signs was $15,000.
“El Segundo has more Fortune 500 Company headquarters in its five square miles than any other city in California, except San Francisco. But during the 2008 recession, when we tried to recruit new businesses, they didn’t know where El Segundo was,” Mayor Drew Boyles disclosed during the unveiling ceremony last June.
“Now they know. We’re on the beach,” he said.
Continental Development CEO Richard Lundquist said he proposed the name change 25 years ago. But steps to change the name didn’t begin until 2013 when then-Mayor Bill Fisher reactivated the city’s Economic Development Advisory Council.
Councilman Don Brann noted that Pacific Coast Highway is a “magic name around the world.” He expressed hope that Manhattan Beach would follow El Segundo’s lead. Pacific Coast Highway starts at Dana Point in Orange County and runs north through Hermosa Beach. But in Manhattan Beach, the street name still changes to Sepulveda Boulevard.
“I’m looking forward to no longer having my phone tell me, ‘Turn left on SU PUL VEEDA,’” Brann said.
