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.

Santa Cruz Changes 116: More big holes downtown

 

Changes to note this week are mostly negative. PacAve lost its only Michelin-rated restaurant when Alderwood Pacific closed its doors a few months ago. 

Now the original Alderwood on Cedar Street has also closed, leaving a high-end void in the local restaurant scene.

The closing of New Leaf Market last October left Trader Joe's as the only downtown grocery store, and it seems unlikely that the next tenant in that space will come from the grocery business. 

Meanwhile, there are three big departures in PacAve retail. The closure of chain-clothier Forever 21 has been expected since the 2021 bankruptcy announcement, but two other closings are more surprising. The downtown surf-style clothing shop of the local O'Neill company is shutting down, as is its competitor across Pacific, Rip Curl. A third surf-style store remains on that corner - Pacific Wave (pictured above). 

Those large retail and restaurant empty spaces join many others (some of them brand new) along PacAve and elsewhere downtown, and so may be hard to fill.

One bright spot: as PacAve stores selling new clothing close, a number of used-clothing stores have opened, including Freestyle Clothing Exchange, which opened last year in the same building that O'Neill is leaving.  

Santa Cruz Changes 115 - 2025 on the Santa Cruz Wharf

2025 could be a year of major changes for "Stubby" (aka Santa Cruz Wharf). Most of what remains will reopen to the public today at 7 am, with a ceremony at 10 am. Wharf businesses will presumably reopen as well. Beyond today, however, the wharf's future beyond the shortened status quo remains an open question.

Safety engineers confirmed that most of the wharf structure remains sound, except for the remainder of the narrow end section that broke away on December 23. So no more urgent fixes are needed for now.

The city's longer-term plans for rehabilitation and/or expansion are, however, far from settled. The 2014 version of a Wharf Master Plan was blocked by a citizens' lawsuit in 2022. 

A revised Master Plan was approved by the City Council in January, 2024, but implementation was delayed by a Coastal Commission decision that sought to protect under-wharf-nesting seabirds until 2024 hatchlings left the nests. The delay meant that deck and piling repairs needed to begin the Master Plan program were delayed until October, when the building formerly home to the Dolphin Restaurant was torn down. That work was continuing when the December 23 damage occurred.

Max Chun at Lookout Santa Cruz has more on this story.