Downtown’s New Look Loses Some Old Faces
In the name of progress, somebody always loses. Just ask the typewriter manufacturer, or anyone whose home was razed to make way for a freeway.
And among merchants in downtown Ventura, the casualties are mounting as the city’s original business core experiences an economic rebirth.
Nostalgic Memories, a longtime secondhand shop on Main Street, closed its doors in March after 21 years of operation. A sandwich shop down the street, the Lunch Basket, cleared out during the summer after 14 years downtown. And Books On Main, a purveyor of rare, used books, shuttered its shop 10 months ago. All three retailers were hit by sharp increases in their rent.
After years of deterioration, city officials launched a multimillion-dollar redevelopment project to improve the city’s sagging downtown. The changes have resulted in higher property values and an improved tax base as well as polishing the area’s appearance.
But those changes also have emotions running high among owners of the affected businesses.
“I couldn’t do any of the move,” said Vicki Avants, whose monthly rent on the former site of the Lunch Basket tripled from $1,300 to $3,900. The cafe is now in midtown. “I was too emotionally distraught. I loved being downtown.”
The rent hikes are due in part to new landlords buying buildings downtown and then trying to recoup their investments. An improving Southern California economy has helped push up rents, said David Kleitsch, Ventura’s economic development manager.
But some merchants fear developers’ rent increases are designed to displace small, independent retailers and gradually turn downtown into a tourist destination similar to Santa Monica’s 3rd Street Promenade or Old Town in Pasadena. In the process, the quaint, unique flavor of the historic area will be destroyed, merchants say.
“Downtown Ventura had a life of its own,” said Keith Burns, the former owner of Books On Main, which went out of business. “After it becomes downtown Moorpark or downtown Simi Valley, where will the civic pride be? When it’s all finished, it will no longer have an identifiable and distinct core.”
City officials and downtown landlords counter that no one envisions Main Street lined with a Gap, a Banana Republic or a Barnes & Noble bookstore.
“I don’t see a situation where national retailers are going to be replacing local businesses,” Kleitsch said. He said the county’s population of 742,000 could not now support the sort of retail that exists in Santa Monica and Pasadena.
Ventura Councilman Brian Brennan said the city’s redevelopment is distinctive and isn’t trying to imitate another city.
Bret Richmond, who owns several downtown buildings, said he invited Borders Books and Barnes & Noble last year to open stores in the area, but they declined, citing insufficient demand. Richmond said he now hopes for a mix of upscale restaurants, bars and specialty retailers that already have stores in the region.
But city officials concede if downtown really took off as a major tourist destination, national retailers may begin to consider Main Street.
Franchise retailers, such as Quizno’s, Ben & Jerry’s and Kelly’s Coffee, have trickled into downtown, which is proof enough for some that the downtown of antique shops and thrift stores is on its way out.
“It will just be another cookie-cutter city,” said Paul Willoughby, who closed Nostalgic Memories when his rent was quadrupled to $4,100 a month. “I expect blight in 10 to 20 years.”
Other merchants see downtown being divided into separate sections, with the east end occupied by chains and the west filled with independents.
Steve Brandt and Cathy Barnett, partners in Main Street Jewelers, cherish their recent move to the west end of the street, closer to the San Buenaventura Mission. “This part is the more essential character of downtown as it was,” Barnett said.
Despite the problems, Main Street continues to draw independent businesses. Mike Burroughs recently moved to Ventura from Manhattan Beach to manage Classic Travel Agency and said he loves working downtown.
“It reminds me of Manhattan Beach 30 years ago,” Burroughs said. “It’s an old-fashioned beach town.”
