Patricia Hilliard sits behind her desk in the Santa Maria Town Center general manager’s office. Ansel Adams photographs dot the walls. Blueprints, lease paperwork, and all manner of this-and-that related to running the Central Coast’s largest enclosed retail center fill the room.
The Santa Maria Town Center boasts 268,000 square feet of gross leasable space. With approximately 80 tenants, Hilliard figures the mall is currently at about 86 percent capacity. That number is up considerably from a low of 67 percent, so owner Greg Kozak of Architectural Ventures—who bought the mall in June 2008—and his crew must be doing something right.
Right down to it: What have they been up to? First, there’s the aesthetics. Workers have made little touches, like new landscaping outside, automatic doors, and Italian tile. The list goes on.
Then there are the new stores on the way: Lost World Pets and Coffee Diem are slated to open soon, along with several others yet to be revealed. Hilliard doesn’t like to jinx things by naming names before the leases are signed.
But it’s not all about retail, she says. In the face of economic gloom and doom, how is the shopping center coping? With kid-centric activities, it seems.
“Instead of strictly shopping, we want to be community oriented,” she says. “During times like this, parents will usually cut back on spending for themselves, but try not to cut back on their kids.”
To that end, there are plans to open a karate and ballet studio. And for the adults, Hilliard says there’s a fitness gym planned for upstairs.
Speaking of coming attractions, what about … ? Hilliard doesn’t even let the question get all the way out.
“We’re still planning to get a theater in here, and that’s all I want to say about that right now,” she says with a good-natured laugh. Fair enough. On to the 25-cent tour.
Even a short walk around the center reveals that Hilliard wasn’t kidding. The old concrete planters where the clock used to be are gone, replaced now with comfortable seating.
The first stop on the tour is in front of a window filled with copper kettles from the 1600s. It’s Gerald’s Chocolate Candies, and Hilliard picks up the story.
“When we heard that See’s was leaving, I started shopping for a new chocolate shop,” she says. “I walked into Gerald’s [Chocolate Candies] in Arroyo Grande, and Gerald Reed was sitting there hand-dipping chocolate.”
Needless to say, she had found her chocolate shop. Linda Wickliffe spoke about the sweets.
“The formula was originally copyrighted in 1927, and we try to keep it as close to the original as possible,” she says. “No powdered milk, no powdered nothing. No quickies!”
Next is Simplice’s Italian Eatery, through which Paul Ruberto has been cooking up pizzas and pasta for the last 16 years. When the previous Italian place couldn’t afford to make the move to the new food court, the mall’s new owner bought the Italian eatery and put Ruberto in charge.
So in the 16 years he’s been doing this, what’s the biggest change Ruberto has noticed in the mall?
“The amount of traffic increased,” he says without having to think about it.
And there’s the clock. The new food court across from Sears is surrounded by a live hedge. Right now, it’s anchored by long-time tenants Hot Dog on a Stick and Sake Sushi, but that’s going to change, says Hilliard: No fewer than five new eateries are going in: Subway, Taco Roco, Dairy Queen, and “a burger place and a chicken place.”
With everything that’s been changing at the mall, Hilliard isn’t unjustified in asking people to come in and take a look.
“We really want to encourage people in the community, if you haven’t been here in a long time, to please come back,” she says. “If you’re here once a week, you’ll see something new each time. We’re moving that fast.”
Contact Staff Writer Nicholas Walter at nwalter @santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Mar 19-26, 2009.