The site, in honor of late city official Shaun Lumachi, will help serve those who are looking for 'what's next' in their entrepreneurial journey

Monday marked the physical revival of former City of Long Beach official Shaun Lumachi’s legacy when the City partnered with Long Beach City College (LBCC) and co-working office brand Blankspaces to break ground on an innovation center in his honor in the downtown area that is projected to be completed in the spring.
And perhaps it wasn’t a revival, as Lumachi was seemingly alive with all of those who remembered him and his passion for business— famously always asking “what’s next?” in search of the next great challenge.
So, when 1st District Councilmember Lena Gonzalez introduced the idea to the Long Beach City Council in November to name the innovation center after Lumachi, it seemed like a no-brainer.
“[He was] a dear friend and a mentor,” Gonzalez told the Signal Tribune after the event. “I couldn’t think of another name to name this amazing center other than his, because he embodied everything regarding support for business, entrepreneurs, mentoring people— everything that this center will be.”
The Shaun Lumachi Innovation Center, 309 Pine Ave., will offer a co-working space for aspiring entrepreneurs and small-business owners. Resources, including consulting services and business-accelerator programs, will be open seven days a week, 24 hours a day. The site is intended to make it easier to grow a business in the city.
Lumachi passed away in 2011 in a car accident while representing the City’s Workforce Investment Board on a business trip in Florida.
Gonzalez’s office released a bio a few weeks ahead of the event detailing Lumachi’s career in Long Beach. Lumachi was vice president of Government Affairs for the Long Beach Area Chamber of Commerce in 2002. In 2007, Lumachi co-founded the online publication the Long Beach Post with Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia. Lumachi then was part of the City’s Workforce Investment Board until his death.
“It’s very humbling and very exciting at the same time,” said Deziré, Lumachi’s wife, after the event to the Signal Tribune. “I think he was such a big advocate for not only Long Beach, but everybody that was here, especially small business, entrepreneurs, anyone who was just looking to ‘what’s next.’ I think that was how that slogan became so popular for him. He was always like, ‘Let’s find the solution, and let’s move onto the next thing and what’s bigger and better.'”
LBCC joined the project as part of its mission to promote economic growth.
“Our mission includes economic development for our city,” said Reagan Romali, president and superintendent of LBCC, at the event, “so that our region is prosperous, our cities thrive, our businesses thrive and that our students find gainful employment in the city of Long Beach.”

Romali said LBCC’s services will include business advising, programs featuring international trade and e-commerce and access to capital that will support existing and emerging entrepreneurs and businesses.
The Los Angeles Regional Small Business Development Center, which is headquartered at LBCC and helps facilitate the school’s economic mission, serves Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.
Romali said the development center has assisted 4,100 clients, helped launch 325 new businesses and generated 1,400 local jobs in the past year.
Jerome Chang, founder and architect of Blankspaces, said at the event that he is excited to welcome the space to business owners, including recent graduates and those seeking to return to the Long Beach area.
“People have often gone to Starbucks to do their work,” he said, “and we hope that we can be a [similar] type of public entity.”
Garcia said Blankspaces will create the space, which will include two floors and a complete redecoration of the facade.

At the event, Garcia said Lumachi was like a twin brother to him, describing Lumachi as a person who would bring grief and pain, just like most brothers, and who would enjoy trying new things.
“We were incredibly, incredibly close,” Garcia said. “He did so much. There was no one that, I believe, really valued or understood what the future of innovation was than Shaun Lumachi. I’m really glad that this space will continue to produce and support the next Shaun Lumachi [and] support the next Shaun on their journey.”
Garcia did have one request for the center, which was “somewhere in this space, we’re going to put a big ‘what’s next?’ on the wall.”
Deziré recalled that, one of the first few times she went out with Lumachi, she was slightly intimidated by his ambitious approach on life. But, she wouldn’t have had it any other way.
“In one of our first few dates,” Deziré said, as she chuckled to herself. “I was nervous. At the end of the date, I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh. I don’t think I am worthy enough of this human being. I don’t think I’m thinking big enough. I don’t know what’s next. I don’t know what I’m going to do in five minutes, let alone five days, five years.’ And he was so goal-oriented and just so fixated on what’s so bigger and better. I’m just lucky that I had somebody like that in my life. That helped me be a better person. I think we did that for each other, with our unique attributes, and there was nobody else like it. I’m very thankful I had all those years together with him.”

Video by: Denny Cristales | Signal Tribune