Seven-story Pacific Ave. housing complex on site of Andy’s Auto is latest example of a changing city

A new housing development proposed for the corner of Pacific Avenue and Maple Street could take the place of the long-standing, but now vacant, Andy’s Auto Supply, highlighting the ongoing dramatic changes across downtown Santa Cruz.

The development at 901 and 903 Pacific Ave., referred to as “Samson Mixed Use” on the project plans from Santa Barbara-based architecture and development firm Hochhauser Blatter Associates, includes 91 residential units across seven stories and 3,133 square feet of ground-floor commercial space. The plans also include a parking garage with 52 spots.

The 85-foot-tall building would sit directly at the end of the block of Pacific Avenue that holds The Blue Lagoon bar, Surf City Billiards and Streetlight Records.

The plans don’t explicitly mention any affordable units within the project. City of Santa Cruz Senior Planner Ryan Bane did not return Lookout’s request for comment on whether there are affordable units included in the project, but Hochhauser Blatter Associates co-owner Jan Hochhauser told Lookout that 20% of the units would be affordable. That comes out to 18 affordable units.

The city is holding a virtual community meeting on the project next Tuesday, March 18, at 6 p.m. 

903 Pacific Ave. is the current site of the Santa Cruz Warriors team store, which sells team apparel and merchandise. Santa Cruz Warriors Vice President of Marketing and Communications Amanda Furtado did not respond to Lookout’s request for comment by publication time regarding whether the store will need to relocate.

Though it has been closed since 2019, Andy’s Auto Supply right next door holds over half a century of local history. Founder Andy Mekis, who died in 2011, was a prominent figure in Santa Cruz County. His daughter, writer and historian Donna Mekis, told Lookout on Monday that her father’s family had strong ties with the Croatian community in Watsonville, where he was born in 1920. He opened the auto supply shop in 1949, which first stood at the current site of Zachary’s restaurant just one block over. In 1967, the family moved the business to 901 Pacific Ave.

“Friends, family and employees went down there and moved everything in one day,” Mekis told Lookout. “It was a big group effort.”

Mekis said that auto supply store wasn’t just a place to grab parts for your car, but a gathering spot for car enthusiasts during Santa Cruz’s cruising era in the 1960s and 1970s. On weekend evenings, young men would hop into their freshly shined, souped-up cars and roll up and down Pacific Avenue as they decided where to go as the night stretched on. 

“It was kind of a hangout place where a lot of guys worked, but there were also a lot of people that just went in and saw people they knew, because there was such a car scene,” she said.

Mekis said her father also had his own quirky and inventive ways of running the business. He often exchanged goods with other people who wanted to trade for parts. For example, she said farm workers might come to the business with a load of Brussels sprouts or berries in exchange for a muffler. She also said that, at a time when there were no credit cards, her father would keep note of people who wanted credit, write their name and amount they owed on a piece of tape, and tape it to the front counter.

“It was this kind of honor system, and it worked,” said Mekis. “A lot of the men that talked at my dad’s memorial years ago talked about the trust that my dad had in them and that it was the first time they were able to think about a budget. It’s little stuff, but at the time, it was not little.” 

Mekis said some of her first memories of the place are of being excited to go in so she could grab some bubble gum from the box of Bazooka bubble gum that her father would offer to children who came to the store. She remembers how much the experience of visiting her father’s business differed from going to auto shops now.

“He kept a lot of parts in cardboard boxes that were worn because they’d been used for that same purpose for 20 years, but he knew exactly where everything was,” she said, adding that the store held old parts for old cars long before the idea of an online reseller even existed. “It was practical, and it was much more like a working man’s auto parts store.”

Mekis’ brother, Michael, took over the business from their father in 1986, but Andy still spent a lot of time around the store. Michael Mekis ran the business until 2019, when he retired. Donna Mekis said the big celebration held that year to close the books on the store showed just how much it meant to Santa Cruzans.

“We brought in a lot of food, beer and drinks and invited all the customers and our family,” she said. “We brought in a bunch of old cars and it was just this great big celebration, which was really nice.”

Mekis said the family sold the property in early 2020, initially to the owner of Pipeline, the smoke shop that used to sit right across the street. That business is now open a few blocks away at 1130 Pacific Ave. Mekis said she did not know how many times it changed hands between then and now. Public records show that the building was most recently sold in September 2023 to a buyer with the name “Samson Family Trust” for $1.295 million.

Mekis said there was a “lot of family emotion” that came from selling the store, and while she said she’s fully aware of how badly Santa Cruz needs housing, the loss of old Santa Cruz is sad.

“Pacific Avenue now is, by and large, gift shops and restaurants because of the market. It’s not anyone’s fault that that is the way it is,” she said, adding that the ability to purchase nearly all of your materials online makes it difficult to operate any retail business in the city’s downtown. Mekis said that, for many years, Pacific Avenue and downtown as a whole was a place you could find just about anything you needed, whether it be groceries or auto parts — which, in turn, brought everyone together more.

“There’s not nearly as many opportunities to gather together in community as there used to be,” she said. “That is a huge loss, and I think it’s something that our city needs to be thinking about moving forward.”

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