Coming to grips with
the 400 block
By Marty Richman
The City of Hollister Redevelopment Agency (RDA) is trying to
figure out what to do with the 400 block of San Benito Street in
the downtown area. If you’re not using a map, the area under
discussion is the empty lot at the corner of San Benito and Fourth
streets. It’s the one that is in front of, I mean in the back of,
or maybe it’s on the side of, the Briggs Building. For the life of
me I still can’t figure out which side of the parking garage is the
front; perhaps modern buildings do not have fronts
– all sides being equal.
Coming to grips with
the 400 block
By Marty Richman
The City of Hollister Redevelopment Agency (RDA) is trying to figure out what to do with the 400 block of San Benito Street in the downtown area. If you’re not using a map, the area under discussion is the empty lot at the corner of San Benito and Fourth streets. It’s the one that is in front of, I mean in the back of, or maybe it’s on the side of, the Briggs Building. For the life of me I still can’t figure out which side of the parking garage is the front; perhaps modern buildings do not have fronts – all sides being equal.
 In order to get the 400-block project moving, the city has invited developers to send in proposals. I have a proposal, but I’m not a developer, so I’m hopeful the RDA or a developer will read this article and adopt my idea.
 The difficulty in trying to figure out what should go on the 400 block is that, right this minute, there is no demand to put anything at that location. The downtown area is overflowing with empty commercial space and the local restaurants have been changing owners at a record pace; putting in either additional commercial space or another eatery seems like a futile effort without purpose. Competition is the last thing those businesses need right now.
Another idea was to build a mixed-use commercial/hotel structure, but the commercial part would have the same problem as an all-commercial space and, to make this big idea pay, the hotel would have to be a several stories high, visually overwhelming the area and making what is already a busy traffic corner too cramped and too busy by far. It could be ugly; besides, just who is going to stay there?
 To get the right answer we have to look forward to what we hope the downtown area will be like in the near future. For better or worse, the Hwy. 25 bypass is well on its way to being completed. It’s in the wrong place, an ugly scar running through the heart of a couple of nice neighborhoods and bringing them noise and pollution, BUT it will divert traffic off San Benito Street. The plan is to make San Benito Street downtown into a more bucolic shopping district. Therefore, the corner of the 400 block is the obvious entrance to this area.
 Since there is no demand for that property, we should design the property to generate demand for commercial services; it needs to draw people. The development of that property for the near future should be a multi-purpose inside/outside covered patio-like structure on approximately 75 percent of the lot. It should be well set back on the Fourth Street side to provide a seamless “outside” area.
Picture something akin to a large gazebo-like structure at ground level, probably steel with decorative finish, no more than 1-1/2 stories high (you do not want a low ceiling inside). It would be light and airy with a large open span. The retractable or removable sidewalls could be used to keep out inclement weather in winter, or stored completely to provide access to the outside for large and/or good-weather functions.
 The facility could be rented out for use by local restaurants to cater large affairs, or to have special exhibits to entice new customers. It could also be used for performances, entertainment, and awards, it would provide a covered farmer’s market, and could host many city, county or large business functions. In emergencies, it could provide a central disbursement and organization area for relief services. It would entice people to use that white elephant of a parking garage right next door. When not in use, the new structure could provide a place to just sit down, relax and, in a perfect world, there would be clean and well-maintained public restrooms in the vicinity! It would be a welcoming entrance to the revived downtown shopping area.
 This idea offers the most flexibility in an uncertain world and it’s something we can do right away to make the shopping district attractive, any takers?
  Marty Richman lives in Hollister and is a close observer of local politics.
