Redevelopment of old Santa Maria Mervyn’s/Fallas building begins, project seen as catalyst for downtown revitalization
Dave Alley
SANTA MARIA, Calif. – A groundbreaking ceremony was held this morning to mark the beginning of the redevelopment of a high-profile building in Santa Maria that is seen a potential catalyst for the long-planned revitalization of downtown area.
The multi-story Heritage Walk Lofts project is located in Santa Maria Town Center West in the well-known building that formerly housed Mervyn’s and Fallas department stores.
Santa Barbara-based The Vernon Group is planning to turn the two-story 85,000 square foot building into a 104-unit residential complex called Heritage Walk Lofts.
“It’s six years in the making,” said The Vernon Group President Brett Vernon. “Honestly, today is such a huge milestone.”
The project is the first in a number of developments The Vernon Group has proposed for the downtown area that is centered around Broadway and Main Street.
“It’s an adaptive reuse,” said Vernon. “They’re going to be loft style apartments where each loft has a second story in it. A lot of them have spiral staircases going up or really going for that loft style and embracing it. There’s going to be a courtyard in the middle that’s private to the residents and a breezeway access into it. There’s going to be residents on both the inside and the outside of the building, and it’s primarily just for residents here to start the initial migration of of people living downtown.”
For many in the city, especially longtime leaders like Mayor Alice Patino, the project is seen as transformational and a potentially the start of the long-planned revitalization effort to remake the downtown area.
“This is huge for the City of Santa Maria,” said Patino. “It is a big day. We have gone through focus groups. We have gone through meetings of the Planning Commission and at the City Council level to get this finally off and rolling.
In addition to Heritage Walk Lofts, The Vernon Group has also proposed a project called the Alvin Newton Apartments that is planned for the lot next door to Bank of America, which is located adjacent to the Santa Maria Town Center mall.
A third proposed project is the Perlman Apartments, an affordable housing development that would be located directly across the street from the Alvin Newton Apartments on the site that is the current home of Perlman Park.
Another residential project called Crossroads would be build catty-corner from the Perlman Apartments on the lot that formerly was the site of Boot Barn.
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