A little dab does a center

Paul Clinton

A little prompting can bring the desired result.

The owner of a Mesa Del Mar shopping center has finalized a revamp

of a building that city officials had complained was an eyesore.

Work wrapped up this week on El Camino Plaza, which is on El

Camino Drive near La Salle Avenue.

“We had to get that place up to a C or B,” said Jim Golfos, a code

enforcement officer. “It had gotten to a D.”

Golfos had considered fining center owner El Camino Partners

because of the volume of complaints from residents in the Mesa Del

Mar neighborhood.

With Golfos’ prodding, overseers Alden Management Group launched a

face-lift in April of a 25,000-square-foot shopping center built in

the early 1970s.

The group, working from a budget not to exceed $75,000, repainted

El Camino Plaza, repaved the parking lot, fixed wood trim with

extensive dry rot and added new signage.

“I think the center looks much, much better,” said Mohammed

Baghdadi, a vice president with the group. “These weren’t major

renovations, but it looks much better for the community. Now we have

a package to sell.”

Right now, about a quarter of the center is vacant. The buildings

eastern end has four empty storefronts.

While the center’s wood-shingle roof didn’t need upgrades,

Baghdadi said, much of the rest of it did require upgrades.

It began with the choosing of a new color scheme -- employing

creme, light brown and green instead of faded blue and white -- for

the exterior. New green-and-white signs were added above the roofline

to make them more visible.

El Camino Partners purchased the center about two years ago with

plans to tear down the center and build housing, Golfos said. Those

plans never came to anything.