Phase 1 of Retail Center Is 97 Percent Leased After Slow Start
San Isidro Plaza and Village is revving up as a hub of activity on Santa Fe’s South Side.
“I just signed a lease yesterday,” said Leonardo Razatos last week of his plans to open the third of the “sister restaurants” that started with the Plaza Café downtown. “As far as I can tell, most of the businesses there are going pretty well.”
Just in case the name doesn’t ring a bell, here’s a reminder: San Isidro Plaza is the retail development tucked between Airport, Cerrillos and Zafarano roads and anchored by Regal Cinema and Lowe’s Home Improvement.
The Village part of the development refers to houses and apartments being built behind the retail center with the idea that all will be linked by bicycle and walking paths.
Lowe’s opened in the shopping center about two years ago. Jeffrey Branch, owner and developer of the complex, said that since then, things may have moved a little more slowly than expected.
But Branch adds philosophically, “Realistically, it’s going at the pace it needs to go.”
A status report:
Phase 1 of the 255,000-squarefoot retail development is 97 percent leased, although some businesses won’t open until remodeling or new construction is completed, according to Branch. “It will be fully occupied probably in March,” he said. Razatos, for instance, doesn’t anticipate opening until February, serving breakfast, lunch, dinner, with a menu leaning toward New Mexico food and Southwest flavors, he said.
Almost 200 Centex-built condos and homes have risen behind the plaza at the northern end of Zafarano Road, with some already occupied. Branch said he’ll break ground early next month for a 127-unit apartment complex, with work beginning around November or December on about 300 additional apartments, he said.
The first signs of the retail plaza’s second phase, which will include about 100,000 square feet, are visible across Zafarano with a Starbucks, both drive-through and walk-in, already open. Sunflower Farmers Market, a grocery store that advertises itself as having lower-cost, quality foods and is owned by the same folks who started Wild Oats, already has committed to serving as an anchor for that site, according to Branch. It will be joined by Good Feet, which sells shoes and arch supports especially suited to people with foot problems, he said.
According to the Sunf lower Web site, its San Isidro store will open next summer, while it also plans a store in DeVargas Center opening early in ’09.
Branch said the feedback he’s getting indicates the businesses in the plaza are doing well. “Twenty thousand people a week come to the movie theater,” he said. “They walk out, say, ‘Let’s eat something.’ There’s American, pizza, they’ve got choices.”
That idea of linking a movie and a meal explains the large number of restaurants at San Isidro. Already, there’s Josh’s BBQ; Tribes Coffee House; Wild, Wild Wok; Cleopatra’s Café and Patsy’s New York Pizza, while signs indicate that Tacos Los Idolos and El Milagro New Mexican were “coming soon.”
Branch said he also is joining with a partner to open Santa Fe Capitol Grill, which will serve American contemporary food. Along with the Plaza Café, it will open next year, he said.
Wild, Wild Wok, which moved from Eldorado’s Agora about a year ago, is getting more customers at its new location, according to Hollie Ambrose, who coowns it with husband and chef Wil Stubenberg. She’d like to see more, though, complaining that the plaza developed slowly in the year the business has been at San Isidro and that many Santa Feans don’t even know the plaza is there.
“It hasn’t really solidified as a place,” she said. “It needs to develop a cohesive identity. I’ve been telling the developer we need to advertise the center as a whole.”
She said the economic downturn may have slowed things down, with some surveys showing people are eating out 35 percent less often. The upside, she said, is that people who usually go to more expensive restaurants are trying out alternatives such Wild, Wild Wok’s Asian fusion cuisine. “A more well-heeled crowd is coming in,” Ambrose said.
Zeinab Benhalim, owner of Tribes, said business has been “fantastic” after moving to San Isidro Plaza 14 months ago from the coffeehouse’s prior location downtown. “Every month, it’s growing 20 to 30 percent,” she said, estimating that about 80 percent of her customers are locals. Since she opens at 7 a.m., she said, not all her customers are moviegoers.
She’s expanded to 2,500 square feet, compared to 2,000 square feet downtown. With kitchen space, she’s been able to increase the menu offerings, including goods baked on-site, Benhalim said.
Razatos said he was at t rac te d to t he site “because the growth is on the far south side of town.” The theaters and planned housing development make it likely a lot of people will be coming through the plaza, he said. His business will be a full-service diner — stressing the diner atmosphere — with a bakery and bar, Razatos said.
Except for the big anchors and an AT&T store, all the shops in the plaza are locally owned, either as independent businesses or franchises, Branch said. This wasn’t necessarily deliberate, he added. Branch said he had talked to some chains, such as Chili’s, about locating in the plaza, but they all raised Santa Fe’s Living Wage ordinance as a reason they weren’t interested.
“The chains won’t come,” he said. They want to have the same prices on their menus no matter where the store is located, Branch said, so they wouldn’t be able to maintain their profit margins with a higher minimum wage in Santa Fe.
That could turn out to be a boon for independently owned businesses, he added, that can be more flexible.
Other businesses located there were targeted partly to appeal to women, who marketers say tend to favor Lowe’s as a home improvement resource, Bench said. The nonfood stores include Quaucalli, a Mexican import shop; Kate Brennan Shoes & Such; California Nails, a mani-pedi salon; and Massage Envy, a franchise that encourages “memberships” with reduced-cost monthly massages. Postal Connections, a shop with postal boxes and shipping options, will open soon.
A Burger King will be moving into a space next to the Shell station on Cerrillos, Bench said. In the second phase of the retail development, he’s been trying to attract a book store, furniture store and sports shop, Bench said.
