From: Steven Susko
Sent: Wednesday, May 8, 2024 9:30 AM
To: Chuen Wu <[email protected]>
Subject: Town Center Development
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Dear Santa Maria City Council,
I hope you are doing well. I wanted to reach out and give you a quick update. Boot Barn is intending to vacate their Main and Broadway location by the end of the summer. After over 20 yrs in the location, I am sad to see such a strong tenant leave. I was hoping they would see the future vision you have put together for the downtown and stay, but as you know, they already moved forward with another location. After testing the market and weighing my options, I am currently working with the Vernon Group to move forward with the development of the property. To be honest, there wasn’t very much interest from other similar credit tenants to replace Boot Barn.
The downtown area has not been as vibrant as it has been in the past. Boot Barn has been bordered by vacant buildings (for example the old Brick’s Restaurant) and this has caused a few issues with homeless, general maintenance, appearance, etc. As any of you have noticed when visiting the Boot Barn, they do not enter from the front door at the corner of Main and Broadway, but rather from a secondary door at the back of the building facing their parking lot. At one time, this was a top store in the Boot Barn chain from a sale per square foot metric.
I know there is a Town Center Development Agreement hearing tonight. I wanted to reach out and send this email in support of the Vernon Group's project. I am excited with their vision for the downtown area and it will add much needed life back into the area. I believe their vision will encourage more local business and retail activity. Parking is different in downtown urban areas vs suburban areas and dispersed parking throughout the downtown with more local residents will encourage more pedestrian activity and foot traffic to support retail and local business.
As a private owner, I am excited to put my own capital investment in the downtown area. I hope other private owners feel the same way and the city does everything in its power to encourage investment. I recently viewed a number of historic pictures of the Main and Broadway intersection. At one point this was truly the town center and with some love and investment, I believe it can be that again.
Thanks for listening and feel free to reach out at any time with questions.
Thanks
Steven Susko