Harbor Site Reeling Them In--Finally : Retail: Village center merchants credit new officials with luring crowds after years of management troubles and dwindling sales.

The Trevetts had such a blast visiting Ventura Harbor two weeks ago that last week they returned to do it again.

Mom, Dad, twin pre-teen daughters and grandmother, visiting from Houston, all crammed into the family car and scurried right out of broiling Lancaster, heading straight for the sprawling Ventura Harbor Village.

“It was packed the last time we were here,” explained father Jamey Trevett, 36, slurping a scoop of ice cream nestled in a waffle cone. “There were people flying kites, people in powerboats. That’s why we came back. There were things going on.”

Ahh--music to the merchants’ ears.

After years of dwindling sales and slow foot traffic, the community of specialty shops and seafood restaurants along Ventura’s lone harbor has suddenly latched onto a spark of vitality.

Every weekend this summer, Harbor Village has been jammed with hundreds of tourists and locals dining at the eateries, shopping at the boutiques and renting the paddle boats that once lay idle on the docks.

Some merchants would point to the economy, which they say is finally picking up after the devastating recession that left hardly anybody with pocket cash to blow at the harbor.

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But many would also credit the new manager, Oscar Pena, and his marketing director, Judie Amendola.

Almost since Harbor Village opened for business 11 years ago, merchants have grumbled that management ignores their needs and fails to market the shopping center effectively.

But Pena, hired by the Ventura Port District two years ago to be a buffer between the government agency and shopkeepers, really listens to the tenants, local merchants say. And Amendola, who came on board last October, organizes small, colorful events every weekend that attract droves of customers.

“This is the greatest entrance to summer I’ve ever seen,” said Patrick Ryan, the manager of Village Kite and Toy Store. “Every weekend is perfect.”

Today, for example, is the second day of a pirate festival Amendola organized for the village, arranging for an old-fashioned ship to sail back and forth just off the shore. Themed food and drink booths crowd the lawn, and swarthy actors sporting three-cornered hats and eye patches strut about the walkways.

The biggest hit so far this season, Amendola and shopkeepers agree, was the Children’s Festival the last weekend in June.

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“It drew hundreds of families here to see the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, and then the families stayed all day,” Amendola said.

Pena explained the key to his marketing director’s success. “Judie now has entertainment spread out in different parts of the village, so it forces people to mingle around,” he said.

The retail hub of Ventura Harbor, the village is owned and operated by the Ventura Port District. But it wasn’t supposed to be that way.

Ocean Services Corp., a private development company, offered nearly 15 years ago to build a Mediterranean-style shopping center and aquarium at the end of Ventura’s Spinnaker Drive.

The company broke ground on the project in 1981, financing the construction with money generated by selling bonds in the port district’s name--bonds that held the district liable in case of default by Ocean Services.

In 1984, Ocean Services filed a lawsuit accusing the port district of violating its lease by failing to dredge the harbor, raising the rent and blocking its development plans with other landowners.

In 1987, $5 million in debt, Ocean Services filed for bankruptcy.

Banks soon foreclosed on the loans that built the village--indeed, until the port district took over as sole owner a year ago, Great Western Bank owned half the buildings in the shopping center.

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Last year, the port district itself, having lost the lawsuit against Ocean Services, filed for bankruptcy in the face of a $15.6-million debt it could not pay.

In the meantime, merchants were left with more questions than answers. Where was the aquarium and all the tourist attractions Ocean Services promised them when they signed their leases? Why were their rents so high?

Where were the freeway and street signs, directing people to their out-of-the-way center? What about some more marketing or some better advertising?

Frustrated by the lack of progress, merchants filed suit against the port district and other entities for failing to finish what Ocean Services started.

Even today, with operating costs scaled down significantly since the port district and the bank stopped duplicating maintenance and security expenses, with a promising marketing strategy beginning to show results, many store owners are still grumbling.

“The port district is always going to be the way it is,” said Steve Gates, the owner of the Spinnaker Seafood Broiler, which opened at the village eight years ago. “It’s a government entity.”

Specifically, Gates would like to pay less rent and get more directional signs out on the roadways. He would also like to have more contact with Richard Parsons, the district’s general manager, to tell him what’s really on his mind.

But Parsons said he prefers to leave day-to-day management of Harbor Village to Pena.

“That’s what we hired Mr. Pena for,” said Parsons, adding he visits the Harbor Village nearly every day to meet with Pena and discuss developments at the shopping center.

Many village merchants say that Pena is quick to consider their concerns.

“He’s here almost every day,” said James Smith, owner of Ventura Dive and Sport. “He has his finger on the pulse.”

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Pena acknowledged that when he took over management of the village two years ago, the shopkeepers’ morale was in shambles.

“We were the first people to sit down with the tenants and resolve some of their problems,” he said. “Really, much of it was just listening to them.”

On the tenants’ advice, Pena recalculated some rents and lowered upkeep expenses all around by searching out the best bargains for all the services. This year, again trying to respond to the tenants, Pena and Amendola are sketching out a new logo for the village and working to get the long-awaited signs displayed on nearby streets and the Ventura Freeway.

Pena said it may be impossible to win over every shopkeeper.

“For the most part, in a popularity contest, the landlord loses,” he said.

But even longtime Harbor Village critics like Gates, who has done his share of griping against the port district, are gradually converting to optimism.

“(Pena) is a great guy and he does a great job,” Gates said. “It’s going to turn around, slowly but surely.”