By PETER SEGALL, The Bakersfield Californian The Tribune Content Agency
Bakersfield is considering putting more than $1 million in facade improvement grants into a stretch of 19th Street downtown that officials hope will help revitalize the beleaguered area.
On Wednesday, the City Council will consider awarding several grants for different facade improvement projects for downtown properties, including several along 19th.
"The grant is really a huge help to make the project viable," said J.P. Lake, a local investor and potential recipient of a $500,000 grant for the property at 1219 19th St.
Investors can be wary about putting their money into depressed areas, Lake said, and grant opportunities like the ones offered by the city can make the prospect more attractive.
Lake said he was put in contact with his building's previous owner through the proprietor of Radio Sandwich, a tenant occupying one of the storefronts at the property. Lake was already preparing to remodel the building when he became aware of the grants.
The project isn't contingent on the grant, Lake said, but it will certainly help. The plan is to make the area more attractive for other businesses and investors.
Currently, much of Lake's building is unoccupied, with trash piled up behind a metal grating protecting the storefronts. Across the street is a pawn shop, tattoo parlor and an adult theater.
Lake is working with Elevate Architecture to redo the entire facade of the building, which will be done in a mid-century modern design that will include an awning that stretches all the way around the corner onto L Street.
That's just for the outside of the building. Inside, the plan is to remodel much of the building to create a much larger space where Lake said he's working with a local entrepreneur who wants to open a climbing gym.
The building's current tenants, Radio Sandwich and Kuma Sushi, plan to remain.
Lake has already filed for permits, found a general contractor and is looking for subcontractors. If the grant is awarded Wednesday evening, Lake said he hopes to start work Thursday morning.
Down the street in the 1000 block of 19th, real estate partners Tomás delToro-Días and Branden Dailey are hoping to receive a grant of nearly $775,000 for a series of properties between N and O streets.
One of them is the Toucan Building, a former pet store that caught fire on Labor Day. Despite the fire, Dailey and delToro-Días hope to turn the site into a co-working space.
Like Lake, Dailey and delToro-Días said they want to help spur redevelopment downtown rather than focus on new construction on the outskirts of the city. Several new apartment buildings downtown are increasing the need for services, and the pair see an opportunity to bring life back to an area with several empty storefronts.
"It's a catalyst for change," delToro-Días said of the investments. "We're already investing down here anyway because we have our shipping container park that we're developing just one block over, and then there's a brewery going in down there and a bar going in."
The hope is that, by helping a few businesses establish themselves, others will look at the area with renewed interest.
Dailey said investors each had a different reason for wanting to put their money downtown. But for himself, it was seeing other cities' downtown that had a vibrancy Bakersfield lacked.
"For me, I go to all these conferences and you walk around downtown after you go to the convention center," Dailey said. "You walk to this restaurant, that restaurant and Bakersfield didn't really have that."
A third grant for $123,091 is also being considered for 19th on the other side of L Street, in the 1500 block. That grant application is from a company called Wall and 19th LLC. Attempts to reach the company's registered agent, Shahed Rowshan, were unsuccessful.
City documents for the project list similar uses for the grant money, including "exterior facade improvements, including signage, awnings, railings/gates, doors, lighting, painting, windows, mounting/framing/leveling and eligible related labor and materials."
City documents for all three projects indicate the improvements are expected to increase sales and property taxes.
Money for the projects came from an American Rescue Plan Act grant that must be spent before the end of the year.
"I think those funds were aimed at trying to help small businesses get started, creating new jobs," Lake said. "I think it's fulfilling the stated purpose."
Councilman and Vice Mayor Andrae Gonzales, in whose Ward 2 the projects sit, said downtown redevelopment is a high priority for the council.
"While it may seem purely superficial, it actually helps spur a lot of excitement and enthusiasm around the building and it causes the public and the passersby to really look at the building in a whole new way," Gonzales said.
He said many downtown businesses were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and that the city has made a priority of trying to revitalize downtown.
Gonzales added that the city set up seven economic opportunity areas in 2016 that use tax dollars generated in those areas for improvements.
Those grants can fund not just facade improvements but also other investments designed to bring more people into downtown.
"It's really been amazing how it has caused people to start reimagining what they can do with their buildings," Gonzales said. "Not just these award winners, but the ones, the other ones that applied and who are now looking at their building and seeing, 'What can I do to really make my building more productive?'"