Developers of proposed six-story mixed-use building in downtown Santa Maria moving closer to gaining final approval

Alvin Newton Apartments — (Image courtesy of The Vernon Group)

By Dave Alley

Published September 6, 2023 11:07 am

SANTA MARIA, Calif. – Developers of a proposed six-story mixed-use building at the heart of downtown Santa Maria are moving closer to earning final approval from the City of Santa Maria.

On Wednesday, the Santa Maria Planning Commission voted 5-0 in favor of approving a Downtown Permit that is needed for it to move forward.

According to the city, since the project is over 10,000-square feet in size, a Downtown Permit is required from the Planning Commission in order for a recommendation to be given to the City Council, which will vote on a final determination next month.

Santa Barbara-based The Vernon Group is planning to build the 75,340 square foot building on .6-acre of land at the southeast corner of Broadway and Main Street, adjacent to the Santa Maria Town Center mall.

"If everything moves forward, next year we're going to be coming out of the ground with that building," said The Vernon Group Partner Brett Vernon. "It should take a couple of years to build, but really excited to have something being built, showing up on that corner there, kind of showing some growth, and letting everybody in Santa Maria know that we're serious and the city is serious about revitalizing downtown."

Plans show the new building would include 5,760-square-feet of ground floor commercial space, 82 apartment units, a rooftop deck, outdoor plazas, parking, and a firefighters' memorial.

"It's part of the concept of urban infill redevelopment," said The Vernon Group Partner David Alpern. "The city already has all of the services and infrastructure in place. We are building where the services exist. This isn't the traditional greenfield development, quote, unquote, urban sprawl. It's redeveloping what's existing and a sort of underutilized area. That's why the city identified this as part of their specific plan. It's underutilized, but it's a core central location. It's Broadway and Main Street. Let's get that going. That's kind of the thought behind this process."

Last year, city leaders approved a disposition and development agreement with the The Vernon Group, which allowed planning to continue.

In a city staff report posted on the Planning Commission agenda for tonight's meeting, it said in part, "the building orientation and design will be a great enhancement to the Main Street and Broadway intersection and would be influential in guiding the future physical form of the Downtown. This project is an example of the standard and quality that all future downtown projects should achieve."

"This really implements the city's vision for a pedestrian-friendly downtown," said Chuen Wu, Santa Maria Community Development Director. "We think of it as a project that will draw people to the location, draw people to downtown and that's what we're hoping for."

Over the past year, the project has been slightly modified, including the addition of a name. The building is now called the Alvin Newton Apartments, named after a 35-year-old Santa Maria firefighter who died in 1970 while responding to a fire at the Bradley Hotel, which was located on the property and burned down.

Currently, there is a small memorial at the site recognizing Newton, but developers plan to upgrade the memorial with several other new features if the project is approved.

"We are doing a big mosaic that's going to be facing Broadway, and then in the back, we are doing a statue base, that's going to have plaques and information around it, and then separately, the firefighters are working with a artist on a larger than life replica statue of Alvin Newton," said Vernon. "Additionally, on one of the windows on the building, we're doing a shadow box, so we're giving the firefighters access to, and they can go in there and change out different stories, or have different pieces of the memorial, or tell a story in that shadow box, which will be their space related to the memorial."

The Vernon Group is hoping Planning Commission will vote for approval tonight and push the project forward towards a vote for final approval from the City Council sometime next month.

Should the City Council give the Alvin Newton Apartment project the green light next month, developers plan to break ground within the next year.

Vernon added that groundbreaking could occur within about seven months in a best case scenario, with completion sometime two years after that.

The proposed Alvin Newton Apartments project is being voted on at the same time a separate downtown redevelopment project nears completion.

Located catty corner from the Vernon proposal is the long-planned Gateway mixed-use building that has been under construction at the northwest corner of Broadway and Main Street the past several months.