Ask Lookout: Is the old (but new) shopping center on Mission Street close to reopening?  

Since early 2023, the shopping center at the corner of Mission and King streets on Santa Cruz’s Westside has seen various stages of demolition, construction and remodel. Since last summer, the last two businesses operating out of the then-half-functional center — Arrow Surf Shop and La Cabaña Taqueria — vacated the building as construction moved forward.

Now, just over a year on, will the Mission Street shopping center be open anytime soon? The answer is yes — kind of.

Some semblance of life should be coming back to that block at Mission and King in the not-too-distant future. The structure is starting to look a lot more like a complete shopping center, with a new dark green paint job marking a fresh start for a location that has seen its fair share of tumult — most of which many Westsiders probably remember well.

Once a few coats of stucco and paint are added to the exterior, the structures will be essentially complete, principal architect Bill Kempf told Lookout this week. But there’s still more work to be done before it’s ready for its debut.

“The entire parking lot will be redone, which means restriping and new landscaping,” he said. “At the current pace, I’d probably say we’ll be finishing up by the end of summer, around August or September.”

Kempf added that the center will see some new amenities along with the much-needed facelift, including a more open-space-oriented design. He said the building will essentially be split in half, with retail spaces to the left and the right of a new outdoor seating and dining area for La Cabaña Taqueria — which will be returning to its old location — and any other businesses that end up at the 2332 Mission St. address.

That raises a question that those living on the Westside probably have asked themselves: What’s going to be in the center when it comes time to open? Turns out, that’s a good question. Kempf said tenant conversations have been “pretty quiet” so far.

Erik Barbic, commercial real estate broker with Sherman & Boone Real Estate who is the agent for the building, confirmed that La Cabaña Taqueria will return, and the business is finalizing plans to do so. He said that Arrow Surf Shop will indeed also be coming back from its current spot on Delaware Avenue. But otherwise, he said he does not want to rush the process.

“We’re trying to find tenants that will complement the area, and not just throw anyone in there,” Barbic said. 

A few potential tenants have fallen through, too. Barbic said that both Pizza My Heart and an auto parts shop were in conversations for taking over spaces in the complex, but those are off the table now: “The economics just weren’t working out.”

And although Barbic would like to nail down tenants as soon as possible, it will still be some time before the center is fully operational.

“[Pacific Gas & Electric] is not a quick process,” he said of getting utilities in place. “So, even if [tenants] were ready, PG&E won’t be.”

The redo marks a rebirth for a once-familiar fixture of the area. Its woes began in August 2017, when the Bay Area-based independent media collective IndyBay reported that Roger Grigsby — the owner of O’Mei, the center’s well-regarded Chinese restaurant — had donated to well-known racist and former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke’s 2016 Louisiana U.S. Senate campaign. Amid staff and patron furor, the restaurant shut down just a week later. 

Then, years later in 2022, a fire broke out in the westernmost suite in the complex, where the antiques store Shen’s Gallery used to sit. While Shen’s had moved to Pacific Avenue prior to the fire, and no other businesses in the center were directly affected, the blaze still caused about $6 million in damage. Kempf he’s still somewhat bummed out about that fire.

“It was really unfortunate,” he said. “That portion of the building was beautifully framed.”

Now, however, that damage is nowhere in sight and the external structures are close to complete, said Kempf.

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