Gene Pedrotti, Ace Hardware owner, to speak to Economic Development Board

By Keri Luiz
Assistant Editor

Gene Pedrotti, owner of Pedrotti Ace Hardware, will offer his observations on the status of doing business in the Southampton Shopping Center on Wednesday at the regular meeting of the Benicia Economic Development Board.

He’ll have a lot to say.

“Gene will be providing the EDB a firsthand impression of his observations and interactions of being a merchant at the Southampton Shopping Center,” said Mario Giuliani, Benicia Economic Development manager.

“There are a number of issues troubling to merchants,” Pedrotti said Monday via email.

He said among those are vacancies, especially those that occurring after the departure of long-term tenants; the condition of the shopping center; and the lack of retail companies there.

“All of these affect the perception and pull, or lack thereof, of the Southampton Center,” Pedrotti said.

“In presenting our concerns to EDB representatives at a special outreach meeting in May, we discovered that many of these concerns mirror those of the board.”

At the May meeting, a forum organized by Giuliani and EDB member Duane Oliveira, merchants and company owners spent much of their time talking about the shopping center’s owner since 1998, Weingarten Realty, a Houston, Texas-based firm.

Bill Hunter, store director of Raley’s Supermarket, told Giuliani he would characterize the center as “below average.” Business, Pedrotti said, had slowed, causing some of the smaller businesses to curtail their hours and some long-term tenants to mull departure.

Since then the situation has not improved, Pedrotti said this week.

“The current trends are most worrisome,” he said. “Whether you are a merchant, the city, or a resident, all of us have a vested interest is seeing the Southampton Center succeed.”

In other business Wednesday, the board will hear a report on the status of the proposed Business Improvement District.

The City Council will consider Tuesday whether to award a $19,000 contract, to be paid with telecommunications lease revenue, to Civitas Advisors to complete the formation phase of the BID process. The EDB will hear a report on the Council’s action on the matter (read about it by CLICKING HERE).

This second contract would cover the cost of the formation phase instead of having the BID absorb those costs as originally agreed, Giuliani wrote in a July 3 report.

“The receipt of this new revenue presents a unique opportunity to build momentum to achieve a key economic development goal, the formation of a BID,” he wrote. That district may be organized during the next few months, he wrote, if its formation is approved.

He wrote that staff first is recommending that the city pay for the formation of the BID, then underwrite the installation cost of tree lights, to be put in place Nov. 30 in time for Benicia’s holiday activities.

“The city would then be reimbursed for the cost of installation the following spring when the BID began collecting its assessment,” Giuliani wrote.

He wrote that the BID is projected to raise about $30,000. However, the cost of light installation is $53,000.

Covering the cost of the BID’s setup and the balance of the lighting costs will demonstrate great support to those business owners that are leading the BID effort,” he wrote. “It will bolster the campaign to get a BID approved by giving those businesses within the BID area an immediate benefit and relieving the BID of the nearly 2.5 years it would take to pay off the cost of formation (Civitas Advisors) and installation (tree lights).”

Also Wednesday, EDB members will talk about the Downtown Mixed Use Master Plan and review how retail business is regulated in the downtown shopping areas of other communities.

“Following discussion at the previous EDB meeting, it was requested that staff place, on a future agenda, an item for members and the public to discuss retail regulatory controls,” Giuliani wrote in a report to the board. “In preparing for this discussion staff has not investigated or obtained any new or additional information other than to retrieve data reviewed in 2002 Bay Area Economics.”

That information was gathered when Bay Area Economics was drafting a 2002 downtown market study.

Referring to the 10-year-old document, Giuliani wrote, “As one will notice, there are a variety of communities that have some retail regulatory control.”

In preparation for Wednesday’s meeting, Giuliani provided members with copies of Benicia’s 2007 Downtown Mixed Use Master Plan (DMUMP).

According to the DMUMP, its purpose is to “seek to implement vision for mixed-use development as it was defined in the 1999 Benicia General Plan, which encourages ‘a mix of compatible adaptive reuse of historic buildings, and introduction of new, compatible mixed-use buildings.’”

The General Plan states that design standards should be developed “to ensure that mixed-use development is compatible with and contributes to the character of the street, the Downtown, and adjoining neighborhoods.”

The vision stated in the downtown Master Plan is to “present a vision for the Downtown Mixed Use Project Area that comprises a large portion of the Downtown Historic District. It provides strategies for improvements in the First Street Historic District in the context of its existing historic fabric.

“The Master Plan seeks to present sensitive and place-specific design recommendations that relate closely to existing conditions, and aims to promote healthy growth and continued reinvestment in the area in the spirit of community sustainability.”

The EDB will also hear Benicia Main Street’s bimonthly report highlighting their activities during the past 60 days.

Among the items they will describe are the Benicia Certified Farmers Market, the first Cash Mob that took place May 19, and the Wine Walk of June 9. They’ll also address the upcoming Fine Art and Jazz Festival (July 28-29).

If You Go
The Economic Development Board will meet at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Commission Room at City Hall, 250 East L St.