An 18-story building proposed downtown promises to be a project ‘Santa Cruz has never seen’

On March 4, the Monday before primary election day, the City of Santa Cruz planning department received a pair of applications for a downtown residential project behind the clock tower. Developer Tim Gordin of local outfit Workbench knew his firm’s proposal was going to be unprecedented in Santa Cruz.

At 18 stories and 192 feet tall, Clocktower Center would be the tallest building in Santa Cruz County. Proposed for 2020 North Pacific Ave., the high-rise would take over the lot now occupied by the Rush Inn dive bar and the old Santa Cruz County Bank building. 

Gordin, who, with Workbench, has projects throughout the greater San Francisco Bay Area, said the Clocktower Center represents a taller and denser direction for development in Santa Cruz. 

“This is something Santa Cruz hasn’t seen yet, but that I’m sure we’ll see more of,” Gordin told Lookout. “In relation to the built environment, the visibility and the discussion it’s generated, this is probably the most transformative project we’ve ever proposed.” 

According to property transaction records, Workbench purchased the lot for $4.4 million in July 2023. 

The Clocktower Center proposal comes as the dust is still settling around Measure M, the defeated primary election ballot initiative that sought to restrict developers from building taller than existing height limits without first gaining approval from voters. 

Measure M’s authors, grassroot organization Housing for People, were motivated by stopping the city’s downtown expansion plan, which at one point toyed with 15- and 17-story buildings surrounding a new Santa Cruz Warriors arena in the south of Laurel Street area. The Santa Cruz City Council later voted that no building in the project should rise above 12 stories; the Santa Cruz Warriors then announced in late February that the project’s buildings were unlikely to rise above eight stories.

More than 60% of voters rejected Measure M’s proposed limits on development; however, the idea stirred a heated community conversation around the direction of Santa Cruz and whether even the new six-story Anton Pacific building at the corner of Pacific Avenue and Laurel Street indicated the city was growing too quickly for its own good. 

Although that initiative was defeated, the Clocktower Center would trump any of the development possibilities talked about during the Measure M debates. Gordin acknowledged that an 18-story building would be “transformational” and probably “the tallest one proposed in Santa Cruz so far,” but that the community was ready for it.

“Measure M was defeated. What that tells me is that we have a lot more support out there for this kind of development than what is maybe known,” Gordin said. “I feel like we’re in a good place for it. Although there was a loud minority supporting Measure M, the results showed that it was still only a minority.” 

Workbench’s project proposes to stand taller than any prior proposals and the city’s tallest building — the 10-story Palomar Hotel. Yet, it will not require any zoning changes or height variances, thanks to new and enhanced state density bonus law that allow projects to multiply their size by offering a certain level of affordability.

Gordin’s firm has submitted two Clocktower Center proposals. The 18-story version began as a four-story project with 130 housing units, with 26 reserved for low-income tenants, meeting the city’s required 20% affordability rate. However, that project seeks to take advantage of two state density bonuses that allow it to double the housing to 260 units, with 40 total affordable units, or 15.4%. Invoking the density bonus law effectively waives any restrictions on height. Gordin said in order to make 260 units, with 40 affordable units, work economically on a small lot, 18 stories was required. 

Workbench also submitted an alternative proposal that began as a three-story, 90-unit, mixed-use residential project. Taking advantage of the density bonus law allowed it to balloon to an eight-story, 174-unit building, with 24 (13.8%) affordable units.  

The projects were submitted under a 2019 state law that allows Workbench the flexibility to adjust its proposed square footage up or down by 20% between now and when it submits its formal project application to the city.

By submitting the two proposals, Workbench retains the ability to adjust the project’s size anywhere between 20% smaller than its eight-story vision to 20% larger than the 18-story version.

Gordin expects to submit a formal project application to the city in three months. 

Residents who spoke with news outlet KSBW appeared outraged by the size of the project, and said it threatens Santa Cruz’s beach town feel. Gordin said he and his team knew what kind of reaction the project would get from some segments of the community, but determined that the city was not only ready for, but needed a project such as the Clocktower Center. 

Gordin grew up in an affordable housing project in Nebraska with three siblings and a single mother. He said affordable housing can change people’s lives and that Workbench was committed to solving the region’s housing crisis. He said he hopes the Clocktower Center proposal can show other developers that projects offering affordable housing can be economically feasible.

“I do hope this can have an effect of being duplicated and copied, and that [other developers] can look at this as an example of what can be done,” Gordin said. “But it’s less about whether it’s three stories or 40 stories. This is a project that will impact people’s lives. I think this project will stand for itself, as a beautiful building that creates housing; a landmark that people can look to.” 

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