Longtime commercial center sold in Cambria. What are the plans for the property?
New owners have taken over what may be the oldest shopping center in Cambria.
The 1960s-era buildings in the Redwood Center, located at 2086 to 2094 Main St., need some refurbishing, and the parking lot needs to be redone, Corban Holland of Santa Margarita and one of his three partners, Don Daniels of Atascadero, said via a conference call on Wednesday, Oct. 5.
The partners bought the center in April from longtime owner John Doherty, who lives in Oregon now.
Holland has been a sales associate at Pacifica Commercial Realty in Paso Robles since 2007. His limited-liability company involved in the partnership is Jawbone LLC, named after a favorite childhood motorcycle-riding location.
Daniels is former CPA with Arthur Anderson & Co. and a partner in the WarRoom Cellars winery in Santa Margarita. His LLC is GR Investments.
The other two partners are Holland’s parents, Carty and Sharon Holland of Garden Farms near Santa Margarita.
Holland said during a visit to the property that the partners paid $2.825 million for the center.
“This was a big purchase for us, a really big deal,” he said, but worth the risk because they all love the town and see so much future potential in the center and its environs.
What’s in the Redwood Center
Online real estate listings show the Redwood Center has 145 feet of frontage on Main Street and sits on 1.8 acres. It includes a single-story structure and separate two-story building, for a total of 14,607 square feet of developed space.
Plus, there are 43 onsite parking spaces, which are a prized commodity in parking-strapped Cambria.
The Redwood Center also has rights to 32 equivalent dwelling units of water from the Cambria Community Services District, equivalent to the average usage of 32 homes. Among the longtime tenants at the center are a laundromat and two breakfast-and-lunch restaurants, Creekside Gardens and the Redwood Cafe.
The partners are working with RRM Design Group in San Luis Obispo to “basically help conceptualize the different things we can do with the property,” Holland said. “We want to keep it like it is, but make it nicer … more aesthetically appealing but keep that funky vibe that Cambria has and that we love.”
He and Daniels said they’ve really been inspired by the artistry and ambiance that Lucky and Ashley Gracey created next door at their redeveloped Garden Shed mini-complex.
The partners have visions for the future, perhaps about adding a sushi restaurant, extending the deck over the Redwood Café and other improvements.
Group has purchased other Cambria properties
The North County partnership had purchased two other prime downtown Cambria properties before it bought the Redwood Center. They said all their buys were prompted by a need to reinvest funds, some of which were from the sale of a commercial building.
The other two properties they’d bought as a team were Hauser Bros. Goldsmiths (adjacent to the center), which the partners bought in December 2021, and Antiques on Main, bought in September 2021.
Both businesses remain open and essentially unchanged.
Daniels also bought an office condo on Arlington Street recently and is remodeling it.
Rent hikes and triple-net leases
Meanwhile, Redwood Center rents are rising to cover the buyers’ higher ongoing expenses, such as mortgage payments, soaring property taxes based on the purchase price and flood-and-fire insurance premiums that Holland said had escalated to $20,000 annually from $6,000.
Their new, so-called “triple-net leases” would also have included pro-rata shares of maintenance and other expenses for the center.
Despite that, every tenant approached by The Tribune had only good things to say about the new landlord, even owners of the two businesses that have already relocated.
Holland said that other business owners there were still considering their options.
Leticia Garcia, who’s in the process of buying the Redwood Café, just signed a new five-year lease for the space, she said that day. She’s buying the cafe from longtime owner Rick Pfannkuche, for whom she’s worked for 22 years. Garcia said Oct. 6 that she intends to keep the café and its menu the same.
Holland said he’s had reassurances that Ramon de Alba of Creekside Gardens and a couple of others would like to stay if the details can be ironed out.
Garcia and de Alba are cousins.
Meanwhile, a vendor at the Rich Man Poor Man Antiques mall said owners Myles and Jo Anna Krebs had negotiated successfully for new leases for their 5,000-square-foot space in the lower area and 2,000-square-foot antiques shop unit above the Redwood Café.
The Krebses and de Alba were not immediately available for comment, and attempts to reach other tenants weren’t successful in time to get their input for this story.
Among the center’s other tenants are Marabelle Clothing and Accessories, In This Life Custom Getaways with internet café and coffee bar, Padre Pio Roman Catholic books and gift shop, and occupants of some upstairs and storage units.
Businesses leave due to higher costs
Bob Kasper, a Cambria real estate broker who had represented Doherty in the sale of the center, was the first entrepreneur to move out.
On Saturday, Oct. 1, Kasper’s Real Estate Co. of Cambria relocated to the front part of what had been Cambria Pub and Steakhouse, 4090 Burton Drive. He said by phone from Philadelphia on Wednesday, Oct. 5, that the restaurant now has a reduced footprint, and part of that space is a bar area in which the steakhouse offers beer and ale made by 927 Beer.
The local micro-brewery also has undergone changes recently, having been ousted July 30 from its 10-year rental tap-room location on Cornwall Street. (That building has new owners.) While 927 Beer is still seeking a permanent home, at least the firm continues to brew in town, and its steakhouse outlet allows customers to continue enjoying the beers and ales.
The second Redwood Center business to close up shop — this one permanently — was Cambria Electric Bike Co., owned by two unrelated husband-and-wife teams, Cathie and Ed Herrera and Al and Robin Herrera.
Owners of the bike shop and real estate office each emphasized that they understand why rents are going up, because the new owners have higher costs and will have to pass those on to the tenants. Each of them emphasized that they didn’t have anything bad to say about the new landlords or how they’ve treated their renters.
However, Robin Herrera said Tuesday, Oct. 4, that their new monthly rent would have almost doubled, and the triple-net lease was a big concern. “We just couldn’t stay in business with the rent that high. … I could have understood if they’d raised the rates after the work was done” to repair the center.
The bike shop wasn’t supporting the two couples, nor was it intended to, but when they learned of the rent hike Sept. 3, they had to make a quick decision before the lease was set to renew Oct. 6.
The store “was a fun thing for both couples to do together,” she said of the enterprise that hadn’t provided them with any income. “We really enjoyed the customers. But we can’t lose money in the business. So, we took our bikes and went home.”
Herrera said her main concern “is not about us. Cambria is made up of a lot of little mom-and-pop shops. Tourists come here and love to shop in these little stores that can’t keep up with doubled rents. Those stores give so much to Cambria. The ocean, pines, these little shops … they’re what make Cambria … Cambria.”
This story was originally published October 10, 2022 at 1:21 PM.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misattributed quotations to one of the owner of the Cambria Electric Bike Co. The comments were from Robin Herrera. The story also gave the wrong first name for Lucky Gracey’s wife, Ashley. The errors have been corrected.
