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.