Santa Cruz Changes 121: Bayview Hotel

The historic (1878) Bayview Hotel in Aptos has been in financial distress for decades, and that distress has been exacerbated by the recent and ongoing redevelopment work in the surrounding Aptos Village. The structure was reported sold last year, but the buyer has now backed out. 

Remaining vacant, it's easy to imagine that the building could fall victim to fire, as so many unoccupied historical structures have in the past. To name just two examples: after the 1989 earthquake, decisions to demolish rather than restore the empty St. George Hotel and the Trust building were accelerated following fires. 

Local architectural history would be dealt another blow if efforts to preserve the Bayview fail. It and the Mansion House in Watsonville (also closed at this time) were the last of a number of local hotels built in a style known as "Second Empire". Originating in Paris in the 1850s, the style features a double-pitch roof: a nearly-flat upper section, surrounded by a steeply pitched "mansard" lower section. The top level of occupiable space is within the roof, and the rooms are daylighted by rows of dormer windows.

In Santa Cruz, The Riverside Hotel (1877) was the prime example, located - as its name implies - near the banks of the San Lorenzo River in the area of today's Riverside Avenue. In the same year, the St. Charles in downtown Santa Cruz (near today's Town Clock), got a Second-Empire addition. The photo at left shows the St. Charles in 1877, shortly after the mansard-roofed third story was added.  

* Lookout Santa Cruz has been following the Bayview Hotel story, with a recent article here. 

* For more on the Second Empire style, see "Paris on the San Lorenzo: Second Empire style"

Santa Cruz Changes 120: Workforce Housing on Swift St.

In what may signal a future trend in housing, the Santa Cruz Planning Commission approved a 100-unit  development on Swift Street in the Westside area. 

The unusual aspect of this proposal is that it's "workforce housing"; that is, residency will be limited to those who fit a defined employment profile. In this case, only employees of Santa Cruz City Schools are eligible for residency. Christopher Neely of Lookout Santa Cruz elaborates:

"The term 'workforce housing' is a sort of catch-all term for housing affordable to those making 80 to 120% of the area’s median income, which in 2024 ticked up to $132,800 for a four-person household in Santa Cruz County. The city has welcomed hundreds of workforce housing units over the past decade, but only twice has housing targeted specific segments of the workforce: this latest project, and the Tannery Arts Center, which rents only to artists.

Only Santa Cruz City Schools district educators, support staff and their families will be allowed to live in the development, proposed for 313 Swift St. The developer, Santa Cruz-based Bogard Construction, in conjunction with the district, will have to enter into an agreement with the city that ensures the housing is rented only to district employees."

Neely further notes that, because of state laws enacted in the past few years, City approval of the development is not optional. The proposal goes to the City Council in March. 

Santa Cruz Changes 119: On Ingalls Alley

Here's a big one I missed in 2024. A multi-building 161-unit housing project is now under construction to the west of Swift Street, to the rear of the Delaware Avenue development described in Changes 7, and next to the Rail Trail.

Santa Cruz Local has the details:

* Three four-story residential buildings 

* One two-story building with a leasing office and a fitness center 

* One single-story building with shops.

* 161 units, including 80 one-bedroom and 81 two-bedroom homes

* Seven low-income and 12 moderate-income units.

The biggest difference from other recent local multi-family projects is that these units are already entirely leased to UCSC, for use as off-campus university student/faculty/stall housing. The project will be much larger than UCSC's other off-campus housing location, the 52-unit University Town Center on Pacific Avenue. 

Santa Cruz Changes 117: History of the Forever 21 corner

 

The closing of the Forever 21 store at the corner of Pacific Avenue and Soquel Avenue, a consequence of the company's 2021 bankruptcy, is only the latest of many changes that have happened on that corner. 

The chain clothing retailer moved into that space 12 years ago, replacing another chain retailer that also went bankrupt - Borders Books. The Forever 21 move-in produced little controversy - much different than when Borders moved in.

Borders was the first retail tenant in the 1200 Pacific Avenue building that arose in 1999, after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake damaged two 2-story unreinforced brick buildings that had occupied the prominent downtown corner since 1910. The news that Borders would be moving in was greeted by a local outcry of protest - why? Because it was thought that the presence of a major chain bookseller would endanger the beloved and locally-owned Bookshop Santa Cruz. 

Another local bookshop did close soon after - Plaza Books - but it's not clear how much Borders had to do with that. After a precarious couple of post-earthquake years in one of the temporary Pavilion tents, Bookshop Santa Cruz moved into expanded new quarters in the rebuilt neo-St. George building, where it thrived and remains today. Meanwhile, Borders followed other chain booksellers into bankruptcy.

Those who have been around Santa Cruz since before 1989 will remember the 1910 red brick Trust building and its similar-looking neighbor to the north, both of which were torn down after sustaining earthquake damage. The photo at left (SCPL) was taken shortly after the quake from the Soquel Avenue side. 

The similar-looking Pacific Avenue neighbor building is not visible from this angle.

Property owners proved unable or unwilling to renovate the two damaged buildings, while historic preservationists argued against demolition. The argument was settled some years later when a fire gutted the interior, making the remaining structure unsafe. The current building went up in 1999.

Another local history note: visible in this photo, at the right end of the ground-floor retail spaces, is the original Santa Cruz location of now-legendary Pizza My Heart. Now a long-time tenant on Pacific Avenue, the small chain of locally-owned pizza restaurants started in the tiny space on the Capitola Esplanade and remains today.

Santa Cruzans with even longer memories will remember that, before Pizza My Heart, that narrow retail space was home to Chef Tong's Szechuan kitchen. Francis Tong introduced Santa Cruz palates to Szechuan-style cooking.