Downtown property not selling; city may consider mixed use

“For Sale, attractive downtown parcel nestled in charming western town nestled at base of Mt. Diablo. Perfect for…?” Many of you know that the City of Clayton owns the largest remaining parcel of vacant land downtown. This parcel is part of and covered by our Downtown specific plan and is zoned for retail development. It is part of the vision first set down decades ago, but has never been developed. It is now being marketed by Transwestern brokers and, despite their best efforts, a buyer/developer has not yet emerged for the hoped for retail use.
Transwestern has contacted more than 650 retailers, sent 1000 mailers, and talked to more than 400 other brokers to try and entice the purchase and development. The city council specifically asked them to approach retailers like Trader Joe’s. Unfortunately, Trader Joe’s and others have commercial studies and data on buying habits and formulas on costs that “show” Clayton does not have enough population density to support their market. Long and short of it is, retailers say we just cannot support the type of retail we want. This is further complicated by the empty storefronts we already have had in downtown for the last four years.
For both our property and the vacant storefronts, Transwestern also had some sobering news. Restaurants have a tremendous failure rate, approaching 80 percent for non-chains, and it often takes more than $100,000 to make tenant improvements to get them in the door. Again, in short, the failure rate and cost are one reason we have not had movement downtown, as well as the economy itself.
We did get two unsolicited bids involving residential over retail concepts that do not fit our current zoning. The council, therefore, has discussed and will continue to discuss our options regarding the parcel. In particular, do we change the retail vision and re-zone to allow other concepts that bring people to the downtown, but will not be wholly retail? Or do we continue to bank the land and wait for the economy and other factors to bring that retail vision in the future? We know there are people on both sides of this and we asked for public comment at our last two meetings, but received very little. So, the council has requested that Transwestern ask “what if” questions of the development community they interact with about to see if it makes sense to look at other potential uses. In other words, “if this parcel was re-zoned, what potential development do you see being attractive?” This will allow input without commitment and then we can continue the discussion.
So, while they are doing that work, the Council wishes you to weigh in as well as to the continued “vision” for downtown. Email me at dshuey@ci.clayton.ca.us and I will distribute to staff and the rest of the council and look for future meetings where we will continue the discussion. On the other hand, Crazy Horse was quoted as saying, “One does not sell the land people walk on (or put the Oktoberfest carnival on).”