Atascadero opens tree-lined community plaza — and a new development is next
About 80 people watched as the city of Atascadero unveiled a tree-lined community plaza on Wednesday.
The downtown plaza, named The Plaza, will serve as a thoroughfare where the community can come together, Atascadero Mayor Heather Moreno said.
To celebrate The Plaza’s opening, Central Coast quartet the Jump Jax played jump blues and swing music while people danced. Local restaurants served drinks, food and desserts to attendees, and the Atascadero City Council cut a red ribbon to ceremoniously open the space.
The 15,000-square-foot plaza sits between Highway 101 and El Camino Real across from the Sunken Gardens, and is partially sheltered by a 14-foot-tall pergola shade structure, a city news release said.
Parkland facilities fees, collected through development impact fees, funded The Plaza, according to the release.
In The Plaza, the city plans to host bands and events such as the Chef’s Summer Sizzle, where local chefs cook meals with produce from the Wednesday farmers market across the street, deputy city manager Terrie Banish said.
It will offer “anything for people to come out of their homes and enjoy,” Banish said.
Students from Atascadero High School, Atascadero Middle School and Atascadero Fine Arts Academy will be free to use The Plaza too.
“I think it’s the best thing that could happen to our city,” retired Atascadero teacher Cheryl Korelich said of The Plaza. “We need some good life and clean life and just keep our city alive.”
La Plaza development under construction
Next to the community plaza, the two-building La Plaza development is under construction by Z Villages Management and Development.
The first floor of both buildings will include retail space, with the upper floors reserved for condominiums.
The building closest to The Plaza will have two condominiums on the second floor and two on the third. The second building will have 38 condominiums split between the second and third floors, with a cocktail lounge on the roof, according to Z Villages co-founder Max Zappas.
Z Villages hasn’t announced which businesses will occupy the 18,000 square feet of retail space in the bottom floor of the buildings, but the company plans to lease the space to local businesses as well as an upscale dining restaurant, Z Villages partner Zoe Zappas told The Tribune in April.
“I think something that’s missing here is a nice, high-end, quality experience,” she said then.
The $10 million project is named La Plaza after one of the first buildings in Atascadero, a mixed-use indoor mall that burned down, Zappas said.
Z Villages designed the buildings in a historical architectural style similar to that of Atascadero’s City Hall, he said.
“We wanted to bring something that was significant and beautiful,” Zappas said.
The La Plaza project started in 2017 when Z Villages founder Mike Zappas bought the land, and the first building should be complete in two to three months, with the second building complete by the end of the year, Zappas said.
Korelich said she appreciated how the building will help Atascadero remember its history and “carry on the life of the city.”
“We have a lot of history in our county, a lot of history in this town, and I don’t want to lose it,” Korelich said.
This story was originally published June 17, 2021 at 3:31 PM.
