Queen Bee Moves to SDSU Area

A long-running arts venue in San Diego is leaving North Park.

Queen Bee’s Arts & Cultural Center will move to a former pawn shop and music equipment rental store on El Cajon Boulevard near San Diego State University. The move is scheduled for the spring of 2027. Alma Rodriguez, the founder, says the timing feels like a coincidence that was not planned.

The new site is the same location where Rodriguez previously operated Hot Monkey Love Cafe for nine years. She closed that business in 2009 to open Queen Bee’s in North Park. Todd Stemmerman and his brother Scott own the El Cajon Boulevard property. Stemmerman noted that Rodriguez used to rent gear from them for bands she booked. He said the timing worked out because he is retiring and she needed a new space.

Rodriguez plans to open the new venue as an 18-and-up club on June 1. She will need a cabaret license to do so. The new lot is 5,000 square feet, with half the space indoors and half outdoors. Her current North Park location is 8,000 square feet and mostly indoors. She expects to downsize the operations. The new site has air-conditioning, which the North Park building lacks. She plans to run a cafe during the day and host live music at night.

The relocation follows a legal battle with the family of Allen Hitch Jr., the venue’s previous owner. Hitch died in 2023. His heirs claimed Rodriguez manipulated him into signing a lease that would let her buy the building below market value. They also accused her of taking items from his home and wrongly collecting $410,000 from one of his bank accounts. Rodriguez said Hitch left her the money. She called the other charges false and absurd in a 2024 interview.

Rodriguez said the legal fight consumed her energy, especially after her daughter Anna died in a car accident in 2024. She said she took a settlement offer to focus on her family. Shannon N. Taylor, the attorney for the Hitch family, said the legal matter is resolved and the building was sold. She did not provide further details.

The property at 3925 Ohio Street has changed hands twice in two years. A company called 3925 Ohio LLC bought it in 2024 for $3.4 million. The lender foreclosed on the property this year. It sold at auction last month for $2 million. The new owner, whom Rodriguez knows only as Jay, has not released his full name or plans for the building. He did not respond to phone messages from the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Rodriguez has a verbal agreement to stay in North Park until the spring move. She said rent there is too high. The new owner wants $4 per square foot plus triple net expenses. When she opened the venue in 2009, rent was 82 cents per square foot. She said the North Park area has changed and it no longer makes financial sense for her to stay.

Rodriguez is currently splitting her time between Queen Bee’s and a nonprofit named for her daughter. She is planning the venue’s annual gala for December 12. Gregory Page, a San Diego Music Awards winner, will headline the event. She said the new Queen Bee’s will be smaller and more focused on quality than on high volume.