Commerce Gives New Life to P.B.

The Goodwill store on Garnet Avenue is a sign of the times in the beachfront community of Pacific Beach. The once-drab yellow exterior has been painted a bright white, and the old sign has been replaced with a crisp, stylized logo in white and blue.

The “junkier things” that used to fill the front window have been replaced by more attractive merchandise and “the place is now much more organized,” according to store manager Raul Gloria.

Five years ago Garnet Avenue was a motorcyclist’s heaven, with a string of four motorcycle dealerships peppering a four-block stretch of the street that runs through the heart of Pacific Beach.

Those dealerships have all disappeared, and Pacific Beach now boasts a growing number of eateries, watering holes, shops and clubs that might once have taken root in La Jolla or Mission Beach, Pacific Beach’s glamorous-but-crowded neighbors to the north and the south.

“Pacific Beach’s time has come,” stated Pacific Beach Town Council Executive Secretary Mary Wilding, who has watched a growing stream of business and commercial arrivals that includes Steamers restaurant, The Improv nightclub, and Boney’s Market.

Pacific Beach, which is part of the City of San Diego, has even grabbed at least one La Jolla merchant: When the cramped Pier 1 Imports store in La Jolla was relocated to a larger Pacific Beach building on April 9, the store manager projected $600,000 in annual revenues. But business was better than anticipated, and that estimate has been increased to $850,000, according to Manager Rick Ferguson.

Many Pacific Beach observers credit Diego’s, an upscale bar and Mexican restaurant that opened in 1980, with initiating Pacific Beach’s transformation from a quiet but deteriorating community to a neighborhood in flux.

“A few years ago I wouldn’t have pictured a place like Diego’s in the area,” said Vern Taylor, owner of The Taylor Co., a development firm and major landholder in Pacific Beach for 60 years. He described the club as a “positive influence and a credit to the area.”

“To a certain extent the ‘follow the leader’ theory is true,” said Diego’s owner, Michael Mangnanti. “Just look at the businesses that have gone in since we’ve been here. (Business people) wait until someone else is a success before they commit themselves.”

In addition to shoppers with money to spend, Pacific Beach offers down-to-earth rents, compared to La Jolla. Those who lack the capital to set up shop in La Jolla “go down a notch and come to P.B,” said Wilding.

“We think P.B. is the only place to go,” said Mangnanti. “La Jolla is too expensive and Mission Beach is too expensive. We’re sandwiched right here in the middle. And you can still rent an apartment here for $400.”

Since Diego’s opened, Pacific Beach has attracted Steamers, The Improv, Boney’s Market, Doodle Burgers, Haagen-Dazs, Mannikin nightclub, Pier 1 Imports, Roberto’s Taco Shop, Round Table Pizza, Supercuts, 10,000 Auto Parts, Walker Scott, Wherehouse Records and Upstart Crow & Co.

The Taylor Co. and Texas-based Trammel Crow are working on a $12-million development at Pacific Beach Drive and Mission Boulevard that is to become the Promenade at Pacific Beach, an 80,000-square-foot mall with restaurants and boutiques.

Both Taylor and Chris Peterson, a Trammel Crow leasing agent, believe the Promenade will appeal to people from outside the community as well as the local crowd.

In 1984 the Taylor Co. bought the failing Crystal Pier Emporium at Garnet Avenue and Mission Boulevard, which featured an open air mini-mall, and turned it into the very successful Sea Coast Square.

The Crystal Pier Emporium, which opened in 1983, was an ill-fated attempt to make a miniature version of San Francisco’s Ghirardelli Square. The few shops that managed to open were closed just months later.

Grand Central, a $1.7-million, 20,000-square-foot retail and office complex under construction at Bayard Street and Grand Avenue, is scheduled for completion this spring. The project will boast 12 retail and office units, according to Don Russell, loan officer for Curtis Coleman Co., the real estate firm that owns the mall. So far, however, only a Circle K convenience store has contracted for space.

The building at Everts Street and Garnet Avenue, which now houses Steamers, previously served as home for a string of businesses that included the Chicago Mining Co. restaurant, the Organ Power Pizza Co. and a bowling alley.

The southeast corner of Pacific Plaza, which has never been renovated, will be torn down in mid-March and replaced with a 56,000-square-foot, 35-unit retail mall, according to Bill Tribolet, vice president of Collins Development. The $5.5-million project is scheduled for completion by the end of the year.