Smoky Hollow

Smoky Hollow is the light industrial district in the middle of El Segundo, between the residential streets to the north and the Chevron refinery to the south. It is 120 acres, just over three percent of the city, and it is where the breweries, studios and creative offices have ended up.

It is also the rarest thing in South Bay micro-market names: one with a real, adopted, published boundary.

Where is Smoky Hollow?

Between El Segundo Boulevard and the residential neighborhoods to the north, running east from downtown El Segundo to Indiana Street and Sepulveda Boulevard.

El Segundo Boulevard and Franklin Avenue run east to west the length of it. Main Street sits just to the west, which puts downtown amenities inside walking distance of the western half.

The Specific Plan gives the area as 0.18 square miles, or 120 acres, out of a city of 5.5 square miles.

Why is it called Smoky Hollow?

Because of the refinery. The Standard Oil refinery formed the backdrop to the district as its building boom began in 1949, and the name stuck to the low ground beneath it.

The name was not inevitable. When the Specific Plan area was being named, the El Segundo Herald ran a cartoon inviting readers to pick between three candidates: Smoky Hollow, Sleepy Hollow and Brickyard West.

Smoky Hollow won. It is worth knowing that Sleepy Hollow was genuinely in the running, because there is a Sleepy Hollow neighborhood in Torrance, the one known for its Christmas lights, and the two get mixed up constantly. They are different places in different cities.

What was Smoky Hollow before?

Aerospace and manufacturing. The district developed rapidly after the Second World War, pulled by local aerospace employers, and was largely built out by the early 1960s.

Northrop Grumman has had a presence in El Segundo since 1932. The district filled with manufacturing, distribution and industrial service businesses serving the airport, the aerospace and defense industry and the refinery next door.

One thing that happened here is worth repeating. In 1958, International Rectifier, a Smoky Hollow company, built what is described as the first solar-powered automobile in the world, converting a 1912 Baker electric car using more than 10,000 individual solar cells mounted on its roof.

Then the Cold War ended. Post-Cold War defense cuts contracted the regional aerospace industry, large-scale manufacturing left, and by 2000 limited demand and ageing buildings had run the district down.

What is Smoky Hollow now?

The decline is what caused the revival. Falling property values and rents made the district affordable, and demand for creative office and flexible research and development space did the rest.

What draws businesses here is precisely the old building stock: mid-century industrial forms, many over fifty years old, mixed with newer construction. Incubator, creative and knowledge-based companies want exactly that, and the Specific Plan was written in 2018 to encourage the transition while keeping the mid-century character rather than erasing it.

The breweries are the most visible part of that shift. Boardroom Brewery is in Smoky Hollow, and the reason El Segundo has four breweries while Manhattan, Hermosa and Redondo have none is that El Segundo kept this district. More on that on the South Bay Breweries page.

Is the east side different from the west side?

Yes, and the difference is in the block pattern.

The east side has larger blocks and parcels and medium-scale buildings originally built for manufacturing, with a typical building footprint over 10,000 square feet. Sepulveda Boulevard separates it from the large corporate campuses and multi-story buildings beyond.

The west side has a finer street grid, smaller blocks and smaller buildings, with a typical footprint of just over 3,000 square feet. It is also the half within walking distance of Main Street.

That distinction matters if you are looking at space here. The two halves suit different tenants and trade differently.

What should you know if you are buying near Smoky Hollow?

The district sits between two very different neighbours, and both are worth understanding before you commit.

• To the south is the Chevron refinery. It is a heavy industrial site and it is not going anywhere. Visit at different times of day and in different wind conditions.
• To the north is residential El Segundo. Homes back onto a district that is actively redeveloping, which brings construction over a period of years and changes what is next door.
• Zoning within the plan area varies. The Specific Plan sets different standards across the district. Confirm what applies to a specific parcel rather than assuming the district is uniform.
• This is a plan in progress. Adopted in 2018 and still working through. What sits next to a property today is not necessarily what will be there in five years, and that cuts both ways.

None of that is a reason to avoid the area. It is a reason to ask El Segundo Community Development what is approved nearby before you write an offer, which is a short conversation with a clear answer.

Continue exploring

History, boundaries and acreage from the City of El Segundo Smoky Hollow Specific Plan, adopted 2018. The naming cartoon described above is credited within that plan to the El Segundo Herald. Verified 15 September 2026.