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Santa Barbara raced toward a reopening on Thursday, a day after Gov. Gavin Newsom allowed Santa Barbara County’s restaurants to open for dine-in food.
The city plans to open a State Street promenade, closed to cars, from Sola to Haley streets beginning at 4 p.m. Friday.
It’s unclear how many restaurants will open and place tables on the sidewalks, although owners have been rushing to open their doors.
In order for restaurants to open, however, they first must complete a form that self-certifies that they will comply with the rules and restrictions set out in the county’s RISE guide.
All businesses will have to fill out the form, even if they have already been open for takeout or curbside dining, to ensure that they will comply with social distancing and other restrictions. In addition, restaurants that want to propose outdoor dining should send an email to outdoordining@santabarbaraca.gov.
“This is only going to work when people feel safe to come out,” said Bob Stout, president of the Downtown Organization and owner of the Little Kitchen restaurant and the Wildcat and Bobcat lounges.
The process is free, and there will not be any inspections, unless large modifications have been made to a business, according to the Santa Barbara Chamber of Commerce.
“Our community and businesses should be proud of how we have come together to flatten the curve,” the chamber said in a news release. “We are eager to get our county and cities open again. There is still work to be done and more phases to get through to complete opening, so we encourage you to be cautious and safe as you begin to open.”
The approval to reopen also applies to retail businesses, including shopping malls and swap meets. Bars alone are still not permitted to open.
“This is an exciting next step for our entire community, and we are thankful for the diligent cooperation of residents,” said Van Do-Reynoso, director for the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department. “As local businesses work through reopening, we encourage them to adhere to physical distancing and hygiene guidelines while educating both staff and customers of new practices.”
Commercial Leasing Sales Drop
The stay-at-home order by the government and subsequent shutdown of the economy also have hit hard when it comes to commercial sales transactions on the South Coast.
Hayes Commercial Group released a midquarter market snapshot of commercial real estate on the South Coast, which showed a steady decline in sales.
There were five sales totaling $6.3 million in April, according to Hayes. All of those sales were less than $2 million. Two of the sales were owner-user purchases. So far, the market has not seen many price reductions.
“One might expect there to be more price reductions since the beginning of April, but sellers may be waiting to see what happens with reopening measures before formally reducing price,” the report states. “We would have included canceled escrows in the table, but there haven’t been any reported, which is both surprising and heartening.”
The situation isn’t likely to change soon.
For the rest of the quarter and the third quarter, “all indicators are expected to reflect the current economic downturn, and transaction momentum may slow even more,” the report states. “The balance of 2020 and most likely all of 2021 will be a challenging time to sell commercial real estate, as the gap between seller and buyer price expectations will be large.”
Still, Hayes predicted that there will be an increase on private deals.
“We may see a relatively steady undercurrent of off-market transactions as opportunistic buyers approach owners of struggling assets,” the report states.
There also has been a slowdown in commercial leasing activity. Spaces available has expanded 15 percent since the beginning of the year and its expected to grow throughout the year.
“Industry analysts project that the economic slowdown will cause a wave of sublease listings and rent reductions, neither of which have hit the South Coast yet, but would not be surprising to see in the coming months,” the report states.
Commercial tenants will continue to struggle with how to reopen, and property owners’ patience will be tested.
“It’s no picnic for landlords either, facing decreased rental income and choices limited by market conditions and government intervention,” the report states. “Leasing activity has slowed to a crawl, compared to pre-pandemic levels, and will likely remain so through the summer.”
Buynak, Fauver, Archbald & Spray Changes Name
Buynak, Fauver, Archbald & Spray LLP is now Fauver, Large, Archbald & Spray LLP.
Tim Buynak recently moved to a solo practice.
The new name of the law firm comes about eight years after the merger of Buynak + Fauver with Archbald & Spray, and it “reflects the significant growth that has happened since then,” according to a news release.
The firm’s partners include Marcus Kocmur and Olivia Marr, associates Stacie Nyborg, Christopher de la Vega, Dallas Verhagen and Ian Midiere, and of-counsel attorneys Ken Moes and Christina Loza.
Mob Armor Expands
Santa Maria company Mob Armor, which makes face shields for use by medical and law enforcement personnel, is expanding into a 14,000-square-foot facility to increase production of protective face shields.
The protective shields will also be sold directly to the public through MobArmor.com. The company offers special discounts for medical and other essential employees.
Co-owners Trevor Orrick Orrick and Harold Westbrook approached building owner Cliff Branch and asked for immediate occupancy in a vacant space within his building and for financial concessions in order to make the expansion feasible.
The plan fell into place within 72 hours, according to a news release.
“As soon as I understood how dedicated Mr. Orrick and Mr. Westbrook were to combating the spread of COVID-19 in our local community and beyond, I was immediately on board,” Branch said.
Production is scheduled to begin next month, but advance orders are now being taken at MobArmor.com.
— Noozhawk staff writer Joshua Molina can be reached at jmolina@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
