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.
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