Merchants to Put Best Face on Downtown

A faded stretch of Ventura Boulevard in Camarillo, once the commercial and social hub of the city, is about to receive a modest face lift.

The renovation effort is the idea of local merchants tired of losing business to new shopping malls on the north side of the Ventura Freeway that divides the city.

The merchants on what once was the business route for the freeway have formed the Boulevard District Assn. and plan to rejuvenate their neighborhood with new awnings, fresh paint and sidewalk benches and plants.

Their overall goal is to create a congenial neighborhood atmosphere that will make passing motorists want to stop and spend.

The merchants hope to persuade an ice cream shop to move in and maybe a small theater, like the one that used to show movies next door to the old Camarillo branch of the County Courthouse, across the street from St. Mary Magdalen church.

Merchants acknowledge that they are not likely to get back the grocery stores and pharmacies that made the boulevard an essential part of Camarillo life 30 years ago, but they hope that the new look and feel of the old downtown will induce people out of their cars.

“We’re trying to rejuvenate our heritage,” said Daniel C. Maloney of Ventura Group Architects, which rents store frontage on the boulevard. Maloney is donating designs with suggested renovations for the business owners in the area.

“If it’s attractive, it will be inviting,” he said.

He wants the city to re-stripe the four-lane boulevard that divides the old business district into two lanes, so cars will be forced to slow down. It’s an idea that has potential, City Planning Director Matthew Boden said.

The city supports the merchants in their efforts, Boden said, and will work with them to form a special assessment district to pay for improvements, if that becomes necessary.

A core group of five merchants will begin the renovations, adding bright new awnings, paint and other touches needed to create a crisp and lively look for their businesses. The five hope many of the other 144 merchants, restaurants and professionals in the district will follow suit.

Sue Hurley, owner of Beach Boulevard, a swimwear shop, is a moving force behind the boulevard association and one of the core group. She plans immediate changes for her shop front.

“We get 28,000 cars a day that go by here,” she said. “But we need something to get them to stop.”

Maloney realizes that many business owners or building owners will be unwilling or unable to spend much for cosmetic improvements on their shops.

“For those people, maybe just some new paint or new curtains will do it,” he said.

About 50 of the merchants attending a recent Boulevard District Assn. meeting endorsed the plan but delayed commitments for their own improvements until others have finished the initial renovations.

Merchants such as Mary Littell, owner of the Bookworm bookshop, say business is pretty good as is. She wants to help the neighborhood, but she will wait and see what others do first.

“I’m not planning anything right now,” she said. “But I may dress it up later if I look out of place.”

Kathleen Valencia, owner of Kassidy’s Fashions with Flair, has already redone her dress shop. It sports a new Burgundy awning outside and soft pink colors inside, with antiques and chairs for the waiting gentlemen.

“It’s old-fashioned service we sell here,” said Valencia, who claims brisk business after six years in the downtown location. “We have to work together as a group to bring back the old town.”

She said she was able to afford her renovations and to maintain a profitable business in part because her rent is comparatively low in the older boulevard district.

The same is true for other merchants, who say they pay up to $2 less per square foot than the $2.75 the new shopping centers ask.

Donna Clark, owner of Camarillo Stationers and for 28 years a merchant on the boulevard, said her business has seen its ups and downs as the economy has fluctuated.

She renovated the interior of her shop seven years ago and may update the shop’s exterior after the others have done their exterior work.

Like other downtown merchants, Clark has been approached many times by representatives seeking tenants for the new centers farther north. “I’ve thought about it,” she said. “But I guess I just don’t like change.”

Bill Justice, who owns Bill’s Custom Jewelers, is one of several merchants over the years who have opted for change. No city statistics were available on the numbers who have moved in and out of boulevard locations. But Justice, like many before him, traded his downtown location after 14 years to move to the Alpha Beta center at Arneill and Las Posas roads in October.

Business has never been better than it has since the move, said daughter Dayna Justice, who sells jewelry in her father’s shop.

“We moved because business was too slow and because we needed more room,” she said. “Everybody was moving away, and there was no foot traffic anymore.”

A study issued in January on the economic future of Camarillo disputed that notion. The report cited the boulevard as one of the most stable retail areas in town.

“Camarillo’s decision to reorient the community north of the freeway did not sound the death knell for Ventura Boulevard,” David Wilcox wrote in his report called Citywide Economic Development and Retail Strategy for the City of Camarillo.

“Fortunately, Ventura Boulevard has emerged as a viable shopping district where sole proprietors and young businesses can enjoy more modest rental rates than are available at the shopping centers across the freeway.”

Merchants in the Boulevard District intend to prove Wilcox is right.