Efforts to designate the “World Famous V.I.P. Records” sign a local historic landmark are moving forward as its owner scouts out a new location to anchor the Central Long Beach icon.

Talks about what to do with the sign have been underway for several years, following the 2014 closure of the record shop Kelvin Anderson had been managing since he bought it from his brother, Cletus Anderson, in 1979.

Cletus owned a chain of V.I.P. stores across the Southland, but the Long Beach location is by far the most famous, earning worldwide recognition for its ties to Snoop Dogg and Warren G, among other local artists who got their start in a small recording studio in the back of Kelvin’s shop.

He built the studio in the early 1990s as a way to keep youth off the streets, he said, as gang violence in Long Beach had reached new heights. Kelvin stayed in the same location on Pacific Coast Highway for more than three decades and he hoped to remain there for a few more. But that’s not going to happen.

A 7-Eleven is readying to open its doors in the shuttered record shop’s stead, in a move that fueled tensions in the community.

A petition started months ago that sought to block the convenience store from opening garnered a few thousand signatures, and, as a result of public pressure, V.I.P. claims 7-Eleven agreed to move to a neighboring storefront and allow Kelvin to keep the original location. But that deal fell through, and 7-Eleven decided in September it would support the community through a $50,000 donation to Long Beach Poly High School while simultaneously severing ties with V.I.P., according to an email obtained by the Press-Telegram.

That news came as a shock to V.I.P. president Shirin Senegal, who was handling the negotiations, but, she said they have decided to move forward with preservation while pursuing a lawsuit against 7-Eleven for breaching a “good faith contract.”

In the meantime, however, Kelvin is set to go before the city’s Cultural Heritage Commission on Nov. 13 to seek a recommendation for the sign to become a local historic landmark, a directive the City Council pledged $80,000 to support back in May.

“It’s time for us to move on to bigger and better things,” Kelvin said on Friday. “I have assembled a team that will find a new home for the sign and anchor it over a new V.I.P. experience that I will provide jobs and economic opportunity for our community and move toward building equity in Long Beach.”

Assisting V.I.P. in the process has been Jan van Dijs, a noted Long Beach contractor and restoration expert. Van Dijs said on Friday that he is working on a plan that explains how V.I.P. would take the sign down, restore it and put it back together, in line with preservation standards.

“There’s some urgency to get control of the sign but, on the same token, we don’t want to dismantle it and not have a plan,” van Dijs said. “So, that’s what I am working on. I am trying to be an asset and a resource for them.”

With regard to the historic significance, he explained how architecturally, the mid-century modern, Googie-era sign is valuable on its own. But, couple that with the cultural elements of black history and its ties to West Coast Rap, and you have something really unique.

“It’s a sign but it’s also a symbol, and it means something to a lot of people so it should be preserved,” he said.

Long Beach Economic Development Director John Keisler said in a recent interview that the city stands behind efforts to preserve the sign, and is doing its part to help facilitate that effort.

“We’re very hopeful we can get the sign historically designated,” he said of the Nov. 13 hearing. “We believe that will not only preserve an important legacy of the city but it could also lead to other opportunities, funding or otherwise, to preserve the sign.”

Senegal said the team has submitted a proposal for a nearby property where they could potentially build out a new business topped with the sign. That decision may be a few months out though, she said.

Long Beach Advanced Planning Officer Christopher Koontz, who oversees landmark applications, said the Cultural Heritage Commission will hear a presentation on designating it a historic landmark on Nov. 13, and, from there, a recommendation will be sent to the city council in January for consideration.