The city’s RDA has preliminarily considered offering to fund the
expensive costs for commercial kitchen equipment to entice the
opening of a new restaurant or two in the downtown area. It goes
along with city leaders’ hope of making that area more pedestrian
friendly while trying to spur economic growth.
HOLLISTER
Eyeing the future of downtown, the Hollister Redevelopment Agency is working on plans to help fund a kitchen as an incentive for a new restaurant or two downtown.
At this point in time, it is “merely just conceptual,” said Bill Avera, Hollister’s development services director. He said there are no specific guidelines set for such an incentive such as a dollar amount or other attached requirements.
With the city attempting to spur downtown growth through the Downtown Strategic Plan and with the new bypass rerouting traffic, Avera said there will be an emphasis on making downtown more pedestrian friendly. This idea fits into that objective, he said.
“The goal is to get a new restaurant or two downtown in he next couple of years,” Avera said.
If an interested restaurateur wants to move into a vacant space downtown, the property owner normally would put up the often hefty cost to build the kitchen and charge the renter for it over time.
“Commercial kitchens can be a huge capital investment,” Avera said.
The RDA is getting involved, Avera said, because there are more than enough downtown vacancies. Plus, “it would give reasons just to be downtown,” he said.
Several things need to happen before it becomes reality, he said. Avera said there would have to be an agreement for involved property owners to have a restaurant in their empty spaces and there would have to be approval from the city council.
Avera said there has been some interest from local property owners upon hearing of the idea. He also presented it to the RDA board, made up of council members.
“What I took to the agency board was providing a funding source for being an opportunity to get a restaurant in various spaces (downtown),” Avera said, adding that after presenting the concept to the RDA board, he felt there was some interest from its members as well.
Although a corporate chain restaurant definitely would be welcomed in a space downtown, Avera said local restaurateurs would be more likely to take part.
“I think we are projecting, based on the information we have, we are probably looking at local restaurateurs and people in the area.” Avera said, “people who are already operating a restaurant.”
Other motives to keep the focus on a local scale include the fact that many large, chain restaurants aren’t looking to expand these days and they usually like to have their own space with plenty of parking, which the downtown couldn’t offer.
“We are looking for people who fit well into that downtown niche,” Avera said.
