Capitola Mall owners meet with county residents
Merlone Geier discusses her project plans
SANTACRUZ>> While the planned CapitolaMall project is a concern to Capitola residents, it affects the Santa Cruz County community as a whole, said 1st District County Supervisor John Leopold on Tuesday at a mall redevelopment meeting.
“The community needs to weighinwhether they live inCapitola or not,” Leopold said.
Mall owners Merlone Geier Partners met with Santa Cruz County residents at the Simpkins Family Swim Center in Santa Cruz to discuss the changes the mall owner envisions. About 40 people attended the meeting.
Merlone Geier, a private real estate investment company, purchased the mall from Macerich Co. in April 2016. Merlone Geier plans to tear down the mall and create an open-air town center with new features that include outdoor gathering areas, a main thoroughfare, shopping, affordable housing and an entertainment venue such as a movie theater. Merlone Geier now owns about 65% of the mall property, excluding Macy’s, Target and Kohl’s, according to Stephen Logan, vice president of development at Merlone Geier.
Leopold, who organized the meeting to inform non- Capitola residents about the project, said that while the Capitola Mall is in the 1st District of the county, the city of Capitola will make all landuse decisions about the mall.
The Capitola City Council has expressed a desire for a hotel onsite, whichmay affect the amount of housing, according to Logan. He saidMerlone Geier won’t know about the fate of a hotel until the formal application of the project is submitted.
“Once final product approval happens, it’ll probably take us six to nine months to go through construction documents, then we would start construction probably summer of 2021,” Logan said. And then our completion would be somewhere in the summer of ‘24. And so it’s a lengthy process, to build today.”
After Logan’s presentation, many attendees asked questions regarding traffic, the types of housing planned, parking for both housing unit residents and shoppers, aswell as height restric
tions for the buildings. Logan said the parking structure at Target will remain in place during and after changes are made to the mall.
Logan said a traffic analysis for the project will be conducted in the next nine to 12 months to determine traffic impacts. He said Merlone Geier will continue to study tax revenue fromthe project, as well as howto provide recreational space for children whomay live in the residential units. Some attendees asked why the percentage of affordable housing for a project is set at 15%. Logan said a developer needs a certain amount of market rate housing to make construction affordable, limiting how much affordable housing can be offered. At 15% of its more than 630 planned residential units, about 95 of the units would be considered affordable.
At the meeting, Leopold encouraged attendees to reach out to the Capitola City Council about the project.
LindaWilshusen, a Live Oak resident and commissioner on the city of Santa Cruz Water Commission, said she was glad Merlone Geier said yes to the meeting and were able to answer questions. Wilshusen said she is supportive of housing and densifying urban areas to allow for alternative modes of transportation.
Live Oak resident Bobbie Crafford said she understands the mall project is trying to bring younger people in to the area for retail and recreational activities but doesn’t think it will be very customerfriendly. She said access to multiple retail locations sounds like it will be more difficult.
Merlone Geier plans to submit a formal application of itsmall plans to the Capitola Planning Commission in February or March. Merlone Geier then expects the environmental review process and community outreach to start in February orMarchand continue into the fall.