Downtown players ponder Modesto's next phase

By ADAM ASHTON
aashton@modbee.com
and BEN van der MEER
bvandermeer@modbee.com

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Empty buildings border the Gallo Center for the Arts on its 10th Street side two weeks before it makes its long-awaited debut.

They could represent opportunities for a booming downtown, or they could signal that the neighborhood's redevelopment will continue in fits and starts.

"As an immediate jolt in the arm, that won't happen," said Peter Zeff, a broker at PMZ Real Estate who is looking for long-term tenants to fill former restaurants on 10th Street across from the arts center.

The arts center's opening gives downtown one more highlight to cement its presence as a regional entertainment draw with a mix of restaurants, clubs, art galleries and two movie theaters.

That's a far cry from the downtown of the 1980s, which mostly shut down after 5:30 p.m, said Brad Hawn, a city councilman and organizer of the annual Art and Wine Festival.

Hawn doubts retail shops will return to downtown in the manner they were before Vintage Faire Mall opened in 1977, but he said that isn't the gauge for success. He sees a downtown in transition with a booming night life scene combining with a growing arts community anchoring this phase of its rebirth.

That presents opportunities and challenges for him and other city leaders who are out to craft a downtown management plan that could lead to restrictions on entertainment venues.

"Instead of looking at right now, we as a community need to look at 20 years from now," said Chris Ricci, a concert promoter who started drawing thousands of music fans downtown to the annual Xclamation Festival, which started in 2000.

Ricci, Hawn, Zeff and others who have a stake in downtown's success said it needs one more significant feature to create the kind of livable environment that can lure new types of commerce -- housing.

"It's just time to have some housing downtown so people can have that option to live, work and play all within a few blocks of each other and not to have to get their cars out and drive all over the place," said attorney Bart Barringer.

Barringer and his partner, Jim Mayol, want to develop an eight-story office and condominium tower at 14th and J streets. The city Planning Commission is scheduled to consider their plans Monday.

Their proposal is one of two that could yield market-rate condominiums in the city center, while a third project aims to create affordable housing just outside the downtown on Ninth Street.

"The type of housing that is being provided is the type that will benefit downtown and it will beautify one of the corridors to downtown," said Ryan Swehla, a Modesto liaison for EAH, the San Rafael affordable housing developer behind the Ninth Street project.

Swehla, 28, grew up in Modesto but can't remember visiting downtown often in his youth. He and his wife, Kim, frequently spend time there now at restaurants and coffee shops.

"Obviously, with the Gallo center, it's going to create all the more reasons to go downtown," he said.

But housing isn't the only change people soon could see downtown.

Sandra Veneman moved her Chartreuse Muse art gallery from H Street to 10th Street near the Gallo center.

She and her partner chose the new building, which once housed Roger's Jewelers, to take advantage of extra space, but they'll make a few adjustments to attract the arts center's audience, such as staying open a little later Fridays and Saturdays.

"The Gallo center is going to bring exactly the kind of clientele that's going to want to come into our gallery," she said.

Changes for eateries