Move Sets Stage For Centennial Plaza Concept
December 9,2016-
Owner of local favorite DiStasios restaurant Ken MacMillan has purchased the 4000sf Old Paris building at 450 Morro Bay Blvd and will be converting it into new location for his Italian eatery. The move could also help set in motion more changes to come along the Embarcadero in Morro Bay.
“We hope to be in there by this summer” says MacMillan who runs the family owned restaurant with son Mark MacMillan.
“ We have 14 Italian restaurants in California run by members of our extended family.” His brother started landmark Rosa’s Restaurant in Visalia, for example
He says the DiStasios name comes from his mother’s side of the family.
MacMillan says the time consuming part of the conversion of the Old Paris retail building will be “starting from scratch to build a kitchen.”
“We will still specialize in Italian dishes and seafood specialties with dining inside and on the patio.”
MacMillan tried to buy his current building but was frustrated by the city who ended up with it and says now – they have other plans.
The city wants to redevelop this part of the Embarcadero into a new plaza with multiple developments in the Distasios space, the parking lot across the street and below – toward the water – down to the plaza and lot there.
The concept is called Centennial Plaza that has ben the subject of some preliminary public hearings September.
“One idea for a new user in Centennial Plaza might be a multi-vendor marketplace like the Oxbow Public Market in Napa California” says city Community Development Director Scot Graham.
“The designer of the the Oxbow store actually lives in Morro Bay part of the year and has offered to build a similar store here.” Graham says there are multiple developers interested in a big project in this space that could include a hotel and even convention space.
But the city has had big ideas before say critics – noting that the Distasios building sat vacant for 13 years.
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