Manhattan Beach Real Estate Blog

Are You Renovating Your Manhattan Beach Home?

Fixtures hanging in Lightopia

If you’re thinking about renovating your home in Manhattan Beach and need to purchase new lighting, Lightopia is a great local business you can support with your purchase!

Lightopia is a full service lighting retailer that represents some of the most unique and celebrated lighting designers from all over the world. They also focus on architectural lighting design for new home and remodel projects, helping clients lay out all types of lighting and educating them on the advantages of lighting's new darling technology, LED.

The owner’s interest in lighting started by being introduced to a cousin Greg Kay, who started Tech Lighting and has owned a showroom in Chicago for over 25 years. Something about the relationship between art and technology and the physics of light is what drew them in.  Also, the green part of promoting energy efficient lighting and educating the public on benefits of this technology is also great.

Fixtures in Manhattan Beach Location

Owner Kenneth Vick moved to Hermosa Beach in 1997 and worked at Sangria restaurant on the weekends while working full time at Morgan Stanley in Manhattan Beach. Their first store opened in Laguna Beach and proved to them that a smaller beach community with a clientele focused on quality lighting would work.

Lightopia is a proud member of the Manhattan Beach Chamber of Commerce and helps support all of the great projects to promote the city and business.

What the owner’s love most about their business is working with...

ManhattanBeachHomes.com Welcomes New City Manager

Mark Danaj New Manhattan Beach City ManagerAfter helping Mark & Kate Danaj find their new home in Manhattan Beach, we had the pleasure of doing a quick Q&A with Mark to learn a bit more about him and his new role as Manhattan Beach City Manager.

Mark and his wife, Kate, moved down from Northern California with their sons Gabriel, Joshua and dog Rockne. When asked why he chose Manhattan Beach specifically, Mark said he was drawn to the area because of its dynamic, urban coastal community that has an iconic past. He believes that there’s a lot to build upon as well as a lot of opportunities to do something differently. Mark and his family can’t wait to immerse themselves in the Manhattan Beach community. 

Speaking with Mark about his plan and vision for Manhattan Beach moving forward was not only exciting but incredibly inspirational as well. 

Q: What are you most excited about for your new role?
A: I’m very excited to become a part of the city organization and work with the mayor and different council members. I want to honor the past successes of physical sustainability, quality programming, environmental awareness and conserving the coastline, while at the same time exploring new ways to digitize the city and engage the community online and via apps. 

Q: What’s one thing people might be surprised to know about you?
A: I began my public service career as a lifeguard on a lake in suburban Chicago. Although I didn’t know it at the time, in hindsight it influenced my career greatly moving forward.

Q: How/why...