Dexter Filming Locations: The Shootout Apartment House

             

The location: The Shootout Apartment.


Q. What is it supposed to be on the show?

    A. An apartment house or motel.


Q. Where is it supposed to be on the show?

    A. Somewhere in Miami.


Q. When did we see it on the show?

    A. In Episode 3 (of Season 4), "Blinded By The Light".

    It is the apartment of Nikki Wald, the distaff half of a criminal couple who have been robbing & killing tourists.

    Angel and LaGuerta go there to question Nikki, after learning she was once the girlfriend of suspect Johnny Rose.

    While they are upstairs, knocking at her apartment door, Nikki & Johnny unexpectedly show up in the alley below.

    When they are spotted (and they spot the cops), Nikki & Johnny begin shooting. Angel & Maria take cover and return fire, but the couple manage to escape, speeding away in a car.

    (Later, Angel baits Nikki by planting a story about Johnny having a sexually transmitted disease. It works. When she sees the headline and decides he's been unfaithful, she shoots him to death, and is later captured herself in an alleyway.
    )


Q. What is it actually in real life?

    A. An apartment house. But nowhere near Miami.


Q. Where can I find it in real life?

    A. You'll find this twin apartment house at 3701 & 3709 Pacific Avenue, in San Pedro, CA.

    That's at the southwest corner of Pacific Ave and 37th Street. The scenes were shot in the patio space / walkway between the two buildings.

    It's just a few blocks north of another apartment house where (last season) they filmed the scenes between Debra and the young pimp, Javier.

    And it's only about a mile southwest of the jumper's warehouse, as the crow flies. (Of course, if the crow is driving a car around these streets, it's more like two miles.)

    In the scene, Angel & LaGuerta go upstairs to apartment 3711 1/2.

    After the shooting, they chase the pair of shooters into the alley behind (west of) the apartment house.

    They apparently added the coral pink stripe of paint along the top floor, and on the stairs - no doubt to make it look more like Miami.

    (And they appear to have faked the shot of the car speeding away, since the buildings seen aren't visible near the main location.)



    I shot the photos below in November 2009, looking west from Pacific Ave.

    [ Warning: These are private apartments.  Do not trespass on their property, knock on their doors,
    or do anything else that might disturb the residents. ]


    Here is an aerial photo of the apartment house. And here is a map link.



Q. How the heck did you figure out where it was?

    A.  At first, I thought this would be an easy one.  After all, you can read some of the numbers right on the doors: 3709, 3711, etc.

    I knew that they had filmed down near the Belmont Pier (in Long Beach) again this season, and there is a 3700 block right next to that pier.  So I spent a lot of time searching in that part of Long Beach, but was surprised to find that the apartment house wasn't there.

    I then checked the area around their Hollywood studio, but the street numbers didn't match.

    Finally, I thought about San Pedro. I knew that they had filmed the jumper scenes down at a warehouse in San Pedro, for the same episode. And I knew that they tend to "cluster shoot", so I checked to see if there was a 3700 block nearby. Sure enough, I found 37th Street in San pedro, and followed it until I found the right 3701 address on Pacific Ave.

    I then went there in person to make sure it matched, and to shoot the photos you see above.




 
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