Harbor Merchants in a Fight to Stay Afloat

After more than three years of trying to make ends meet, Marina Ice Cream and Candy owner Phil Woolf closed his doors on New Year’s Eve. He emptied the ice-cream bins and taped a “For Sale” sign in the window. And now he is packing up his candy jars and espresso makers and preparing to retire.

“You have to cut your losses,” Woolf said. “There is no future here. But this was the most fun I’ve ever had and I’m gonna miss it.”

Marina Ice Cream and Candy is one of about nine businesses in Fisherman’s Wharf--a shopping center inside Channel Islands Harbor--that has had to shut its doors over the past two years. Throughout Oxnard’s harbor area, many restaurants and retail stores have not been able to make enough money to keep themselves and the county’s Harbor Department afloat.

The harbor, never a major tourist destination, now draws crowds only for annual events such as the boat show. Although yacht clubs, marinas, shops, restaurants and hotels still line Channel Islands Boulevard, the harbor is struggling to survive.

County officials say they are doing everything they can to help. Last May the Board of Supervisors approved a master plan to renovate and revitalize the harbor. And now the Harbor Department is trying to publicize it as a “destination point.”

But merchants are frustrated. They say the county is moving too slowly.

” We don’t have time to wait for a master plan,” said Dennis Costa, co-owner of the Salty Dog Gift Emporium in Fisherman’s Wharf. “We need some Band-Aids now.”

Ruth Shepler, deputy director of the county Harbor Department, said while she sympathizes with small businesses, the department isn’t responsible for protecting them from bankruptcy.

“They want us to bail them out because we’re government,” Shepler said. “But we can’t do that because the reality is that we’re a business.”

Income at Harbor Off 18% Since ‘89-90

She said her department, which survives on state loans and harbor rents, must focus on paying its own bills.

Income at the harbor has dropped 18% since the 1989-90 fiscal year, according to a Harbor Department report presented last spring. The marina has a 20% boat slip vacancy rate, restaurant income has declined 40% and retail sales are down 23%.

Shepler attributes much of the economic decline to a policy that required the harbor to help support the Parks Department with $800,000 in annual subsidies. The supervisors ended that policy in 1996. And in the 1997-98 fiscal year, the harbor made a profit for the first time in several years.

Harbor officials hope the master plan will continue to help pull the harbor out of the red. According to revenue projections, rents, which now total less than $3 million per year, could rise to more than $8 million by 2022. The city of Oxnard tentatively approved the plan in November, and the California Coastal Commission will hear a report at the end of the year.

Under the master plan, the Harbor Department will pursue two development projects, one on the east side and the other on the west. The east side project is expected to open by 2004, and the west side between 2006 and 2008. Also, officials plan to connect the two sides with electric trams, water taxis and pedestrian paths.

On the east side, the county plans to build a one-stop boating center, including a public boat launch and sportfishing services. The county also plans to expand Fisherman’s Wharf to include a surf and dive shop, movie theater, family restaurant, coffee shop and post office. On the west side, the Harbor Department will open a marine education and research center and a community center.

Harbor Department Director Lyn Krieger said the department has already started on the community center, which will host special events and sailing and kayak classes. She expects it to open in spring 2000.

Nearby residents in the Silver Strand Beach community criticize the plan as the county’s way to turn the harbor into a center packed with trendy coffee shops, movie theaters, hotels and traffic.

“We don’t want shopping-by-the-sea,” said Lee Quaintance, a Silver Strand resident and president of the coastal Beacon Foundation. “We think the harbor is a success . . . as a small boat harbor.”

Quaintance said the new plan would block views, limit public access and change the character of the harbor.

Short-Term Plan for Harbor Is Cited

Supervisor John K. Flynn said while he supports the master plan, he doesn’t see it as the answer to the harbor’s problems. He said the county needs a short-term plan to attract tourists to Channel Islands Harbor.

That can be done, he said, by offering visitors more things to do, such as whale watching and Channel Islands trips. Flynn said he recently formed a group of tourism experts to brainstorm ideas.

The Harbor Department is also developing a short-term plan to market the harbor.

For 2 1/2 years, Channel Islands Harbor Marketing Inc. was responsible for running the visitors’ center, planning special events and promoting the harbor and its businesses. Steven Walton, who ran the company and also owns Fisherman’s Wharf, said he did everything he could to bring people to the harbor, including advertising in local media.

But county harbor officials said the company focused too much on special events, and didn’t publicize enough of the day-to-day amenities. So the Harbor Department cut the company’s funds last year and regained control of the visitors’ center, now temporarily housed in the Maritime Museum in Fisherman’s Wharf.

The county is now seeking someone to run the center. Until the county finds someone, museum docents are answering tourists’ questions and handing out Channel Islands brochures.

Mark Bacin, executive director of the Maritime Museum in Fisherman’s Wharf, said he wants to work with county officials and merchants to turn things around.

“Everyone is frustrated,” Bacin said. “But there are two things we can do about the problem. We can sit and complain about it, or we can figure out what to do to help solve it.”

Merchants say in addition to marketing, someone needs to fill the vacancies--about 35% at Fisherman’s Wharf and 30% at Harbor Landing, according to their respective owners.

Costa said his business at Salty Dog has dropped 25% since Pacifico’s seafood restaurant closed in October. Although he advertises his stores in local newspapers and hotels, Costa said he relies on “walk-by traffic” from nearby restaurants.

“I still believe it’s a diamond in the rough,” Costa said. “If the county and the city realized what they have, it would be a great economic impact for both.”

Although he sometimes goes a few days without selling anything, Costa said he is not ready to give up. But he said he would be encouraged if new retail shops and businesses opened at the wharf.

But wharf owner Walton simply cannot persuade restaurant owners to rent space at the wharf. He said he called 450 restaurants, and that each one turned him down. He blamed the harbor’s location--on Oxnard’s edge and far from the freeway. He also criticized the county for not following through on the master plan. Prospective tenants, he said, tell him to call back when the master plan is done.

At Pirates Grub & Grog in Harbor Landing, waitresses rushed about to deliver orders to customers. Owner Jerry Wood said he has benefited from restaurants closing across the bridge. But in the long run, he said, the fewer people who visit the harbor, the less business he gets.

“I’ve talked to a lot of people in Oxnard who don’t even know there is a harbor here,” Wood said. “The city of Oxnard and the county of Ventura have to work together to make this harbor better.”