Santa Cruz Changes: 43 - 1500 Capitola Road

This site, near the 17th Avenue intersection, has not been one to catch the attention of passing drivers. The one residence was mostly hidden by trees. 

The view at right, from summer of 2017, is pleasing to the eye for all the greenery, but this sidewalk sees few of the pedestrians who would be able to appreciate it. 

Today, however, there's a busy construction site. A recent Sentinel article described what's happening:

"Dientes Community Dental Care’s new 11-chair clinic. . .at 1500 Capitola Road. The project at the site is a collaborative initiative which also includes a 20,000-square-foot, two-story Santa Cruz Community Health facility that will provide medical, behavioral health, and specialty care with a focus on pediatrics, and 57 affordable residential units by MidPen Housing."

The view at left shows the current state of affairs, from that same sidewalk. This project, and the proposed Kaiser Health project profiled in last week's Changes, show that the health care industry is experiencing a growth spurt in Santa Cruz County.

Santa Cruz Changes locations can be found on this Google Map.

Santa Cruz Changes: 42 - Kaiser Medical Offices

Moving out of the City of Santa Cruz into the Live Oak area, Kaiser Permanente has applied to Santa Cruz County for permits to build a medical office building at 5940 Soquel Avenue. 

This stretch of Soquel Avenue, between 17th and 41st Avenues, is a frontage road on the south side of the Highway 1 freeway. Looking at the photo (above right) of the current uses there, it's hard to imagine a transformation to what's shown in the design rendering (below right).  

Looking at a somewhat similar existing development two parcels to the west (left) is the nearest comparable site. The Kaiser building, however, like most current development proposals, is twice as tall. 

The project is still in the planning approval process. Here's an excerpt from the planning staff description: "The proposed project would be comprised of a new four-story medical office building measuring approximately 60 feet in height to finished roof and approximately 74 feet to top of mechanical screens on the rooftop. The proposed building would provide approximately 160,000 gross square feet of medical office use for specialty outpatient services. The expected number of on-site staff, at peak, would be approximately 300 persons.

    The proposed project would also include the construction of a four-story parking garage across an internal roadway west of the proposed medical office building. It would accommodate five levels of parking, with 730 new vehicle parking spaces." 

Santa Cruz Changes locations can be found on this Google Map.

Santa Cruz Changes: 41 - Calypso

Here's another big rental-housing project that's currently in the City of Santa Cruz planning pipeline, at 130 Center Street - across from the Washington Street corner of Depot Park. Odd naming aside (Calypso?), it's another Swenson project, similar (but much taller) to the Swenson rebuild of the St. George Hotel. Like the St. George, all of the apartments will be single room occupancy (SRO). Unlike the St. George, these 233 studios will come in three distinct sizes. The U-shaped building will surround a central courtyard, elevated one floor above street level. 

The elevation view above is from Center Street. The neo-Spanish styling is similar to the condos on Pacific Avenue, which can be seen in the background at right in the current view from the same direction (shown below).

The project will replace two auto-related businesses: Chris Bordner Auto Body, and the Hertz rental lot. Another business in this row, Scott's Body Shop (visible at far left above), is not included in this project, and will remain between the apartments and the Blackburn House apartments. 

2024 update: although only minor construction has begun, it appears that the Scott's Body Shop lot has been added to the project. That business is now closed.