An artisan food row. A new ballpark. What businesspeople dream for downtown.
Business owners and others with a keen interest in downtown Modesto met Thursday morning to talk about what's good, what's needed and what they'd like the area to become.
Among them were co-owners of a new business that appears to be right in line with what experts say draws people to downtown areas: a variety of shops, services and other attractions, presented in an inviting way.
The Denn Power Pilates opened at 1211 J St. five months ago. Its all-glass, well-lighted storefront — with windows that are not tinted — creates the interaction between businesses and visitors that's important to helping the area thrive.
"I was so excited to see the Pilates studio," Lynn Dickerson, CEO of the Gallo Center for the Arts, said during table discussion at Thursday's Downtown Modesto Partnership gathering. About two dozen people met at the Greens on Tenth restaurant to share ideas on the downtown.
"We don't really have anything like that," Dickerson said of the studio, adding that downtown primarily is offices and restaurants, with a small amount of retail and services. "The more variety we get, the bigger the draw."
Pilates instructors and business partners Danielle Lau and Jennifer Romero opened The Denn in the site of a salon previously owned by Lau. Euphoria Salon & Skin Care was in business eight years, Lau said.
When seeking a home for the salon, she said, she looked at a few sites around Modesto, including Frontier Town at Tully and Standiford, but decided the urban look and feel of downtown was the best fit. And staying downtown with The Denn was natural, she and Romero said.
"We considered other places, but we love downtown and want to see it succeed," Lau said, "and I think just for our clientele, I think they enjoy coming downtown."
Still, there's much to improve, they and others at the "visioning" meeting said.
"So often it's a ghost town," Romero said. "I would like to be able to come on weekends somewhere downtown that's kid-friendly and safe." And open at night. She said she and others have gone into downtown after night shows at the Gallo Center for the Arts and found little open.
Meeting attendees voted electronically on several questions posed to them by the DoMo Partnership. Ninety percent agreed with the statement, "Parking structures, surface lots and building vacancies create a lot of dead space, reducing the joy of the journey" through downtown.
The great majority also agreed that there either are not enough open-space areas downtown or that what exists is poorly designed and utlized. And on the subject of parking, most said they usually have to circle a block once or twice before finding a spot, or park a block or two from their destination and walk.
With her table-mates, Dickerson shared her two big dreams for downtown.
One is that 10th Street becomes the "artisan food capital of the Valley," she said, with spaces occupied by such local producers as Fiscalini Cheese Co., Almondipity and Sciabica Olive Oil. Have sidewalk dining that's welcoming to people with children and dogs and it could be a destination spot, like having the 1st Friday Street Faire every day, she said.
The second dream is that the Gallo family creates an E.&J. Gallo Winery museum, gift shop and tasting room downtown, Dickerson said. "We have the world's largest winery here, and nothing to show visitors," she said. The winery could display a wealth of memorabilia, including its long history of ad campaigns, since it was founded in 1933.
Dickerson said the former World Savings building at 10th and I would be a great spot for it. It has set empty the entire 10 years the Gallo Center for the Arts has been open, she said.
She noted that the building's owner, like so many downtown property owners, has not attended DoMo meetings to shape the future of the area. She and others at the table said property owners need to get involved in the discussions.
David Boring, president and creative director of Never Boring Design, shared a dream of his own. "I'd sure love to see a ballpark where everybody in Modesto knew where it was," he said. It would bring thousands more people into the area and would be a good fit with mixed-use development that including residential construction.
"Create some urban living space," he said. "That's the other problem — we have people who want to live downtown and can't. If you have a 24-hour downtown living presence, you create more activity. You'd be more comfortable bringing family down on a weekend if there are already people who live down here."
DoMo Partnership CEO Josh Bridegroom, who led Thursday's visioning meeting, will repeat the presentation on Tuesday, Sept. 26, at 6:30 p.m. at Camp Four Wine Cafe, 1509 10th St.
"We’re hoping that through the course of additional meetings," he said, "we're going to have hundreds of participants tell us how they want to see downtown look and operate."
To learn more, call the Downtown Modesto Partnership at 209-303-0411 or go to domopartnership.org/events/visioning-series.
This story was originally published September 7, 2017 at 2:19 PM with the headline "An artisan food row. A new ballpark. What businesspeople dream for downtown.."