July 4,2014
With the exception of the old Surplus City site Downtown Visalia can hang out its ‘No Vacancy’ sign out this week says Downtown trade group president Don Sharp. Sharp will be celebrating Downtown Visalians 51st anniversary this week at their annual luncheon.
The event was on July 22, 2014 at the Visalia Marriott .Troy Korsgaden, a fellow member of Downtown Visalians was a featured speaker. Sharp says they honored Downtown business owner Joaquin Cantu with the President’s Award for tackling a robber and holding him until the police came back in April.
Surplus City Purchase
While there have been vacancies the opportunities don’t last and new investment continues to pour in. Downtown did lose the Surplus City store this past winter but a group of local investors has now purchased the building and plan a major renovation says local contractor Basil Perch. ”They don’t want to talk about it much until the deal closes August 13th.” The 10,000 sf space will be for lease and could accommodate either retail or office.
Downtown Visalia is clearly successful for a number of reasons including long time stewardship by the Visalia City Council (that includes Don Sharp) to keep the district as the center of the town. It all adds up from its fame as the best cluster of restaurants in the county to its growing number of lively retailers – the county’s financial hub and the presence of Kaweah Delta hospital and Family Healthcare Network and others adding thousands of healthcare employees who work in the district.
Engineers Too
Besides these tenants and the banks ,insurance firms and stockbrokers there is assemblage of talented engineering firms some with good size staffs who have Downtown addresses. Sharp points to Provost and Pritchard,Quad Knopf who recently renovated a Downtown building and has a staff of over 60; Four Creeks Inc.,Teter A&E, Keller & Wegley, TPG Consulting,Omni-Means,Forester Weber and Justin Moreno.
Wine Bar & Residential
One empty store front that will be filled now is the former Links clothing store that new owners Sam and Marlene Sciacca say will be filled this December by a wine bar pending a Conditional Use Permit approval along with a salon. Sciacca,who is also developing residential units on the upper floors of the historic Main St building says Blend Wine Room of Kingsburg will be opening along with a 4 partner salon next door. As for the 6 residential units in the works Sciacca says 3 have signed leases and demand is strong for the rest that overlook Main.”I can tell you 2 units have been leased by nurses at Kaweah Delta and the third to a school teacher who all want to be able to walk to work.” He adds that “by the end of the year we should have construction complete and all the units spoken for.”
This would be a big boost to those who see more live-work units in Downtown.
Boutique Boom
Downtown has been seeing more retail operators coming in from other shopping centers attracted by the strong walk-in traffic and the parking district says Sciacca who also own Chelsea St Boutique on Main.
A few examples – Envie is opening at 125 N Encina across from Tommy’s with a mens and women’s clothing store; Also Bling who opened at Willis and Main,Lulu’s Boutique who opened on Church St, and the expansion by Tazzaria downstairs where the new Sports Bar is located.
Also on the hush hush, the corner of Locust and Main could soon get a new eatery sources say.
Not that Downtown always wins. D&E Motorsports recently decided not to move into the former Caskey building on east Main after construction costs and red tape seemed to be too much. Instead they chose to open at Hwy 99 and Betty Drive in the past few days in the former Visalia RV space.
“We just could not make it happen with the city”says owner Jeff Merrill.”We needed to relocate and we worked with the city for 6 to 7 months and could not get a final answer to issues.We went in for meeting after meeting and finally gave up.” Merrill was going to buy and renovate the old warehouse building.The city disputes this saying Mr Merrill simply did not want to pay to sprinkler the old Caskey building but still hopes to work with him.