The Scotts Valley City Council’s unanimous actions on Sept. 21 to get what has become known as the “Town Center Project” had already been decided before the meeting, according to those familiar with the process.
The council had met at least twice in closed-door sessions (allowed for discussion of real estate and legal matters), city staff had met with the developers, and City Manager Jenny Haruyama and two council members met with developers in San Diego last month at a meeting of the International Council of Shopping Centers. The deals have been in discussion stages for months.
Of course, the project to transform up to 14 acres of property in the heart of the city – most of it still owned by the city of Santa Cruz – into a retail/residential hub has been talked about ever since Santa Cruz shut down its municipal Skypark Airport in 1983.
Developers have come and gone, as the local and national economies have soared and slumped.
New and old faces are back in the game.
The new face, well-known Scotts Valley developer Corbett Wright, secured council approval of an offer of $1 million for the prime 1.52-acre former Suburban Propane site next to Chubby’s Diner on Mt. Hermon Road. In this deal, the council is acting as a “successor” agency to the defunct development agency, and the proceeds of the sale will be split among several entities, including the school district, fire district, the city and others.
Vice Mayor Randy Johnson called the pending Wright purchase “a fairly unique real estate transaction.”
Wright said he intends to put a restaurant and possible brew pub on the site.
The old face is Foothill Partners, which secured a new exclusive agreement to negotiate with the cities of Santa Cruz and Scotts Valley to come up with a plan to buy and develop from 8 to 14 acres of the old airport property, following a master plan approved by the city in 2008. That plan broadly outlines a mix of up to 180,000 square feet of retail space, and up to 250 residential units.
Foothill had signed a similar agreement in 2010, but that deal ended officially last year after no action, because it had partnered with the Pratt Company, which owns Scotts Village Shopping Center across Mt. Hermon Road. The city then agreed to negotiate exclusively with Safeway’s real estate development division, Property Development Centers. Then Property Development Centers was sold in 2015, after Albertson’s bought Safeway Inc., to Terramar Retail Centers (now TRC) a major national retail development firm based in Carlsbad, Calif.. TRC still owns “the other” former propane distribution site, the former Amerigas office on Mt. Hermon Road.
Haruyama said that while these new developments are great news, signaling both an improved regional economy, but more importantly new excitement in Scotts Valley’s vacant parcels from national retailers, the Town Center is still several years away, with many meetings, public and private, and details to work out.
City officials said Wright’s plan could begin construction next spring, depending on how it fares through the planning review, public hearings, and remediation of arsenic and other pollutants believed to be in the ground at the site.
