Downtown Santa Cruz has welcomed 29 new businesses since January 2025, with locally owned shops and restaurants helping revive a commercial district that struggled with nearly 40 empty storefronts post-pandemic. New housing, increased foot traffic and city programs designed to attract businesses are helping fuel the growth, with 11 more businesses on the horizon.
Changing Santa Cruz
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
If nobody goes to downtown Santa Cruz, who are all these people?
Downtown Santa Cruz isn’t empty — and both the numbers and the visuals prove it, writes Matt Huffaker, the city manager. New businesses are opening, vacancies are falling and millions of people are showing up to shop, eat, study and spend time downtown. Maybe, he writes, it’s time to stop asking what’s wrong with downtown and start noticing what’s working.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Santa Cruz’s Pacific Avenue is starting to look like Everywhere Else
Pacific Avenue once embodied Santa Cruz’s quirky, community-driven spirit, writes UC Santa Cruz student and aspiring writer Carly Pavlin. As chain retailers, including Anthropologie, replace longtime local institutions, she fears that identity is beginning to fade. Here, Pavlin reflects on the downtown she fell in love with four years ago — and asks what kind of city Santa Cruz is becoming. Is Pacific Avenue still Santa Cruz, or is it starting to look like everywhere else?
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
The secret math of ‘affordable’ housing in Santa Cruz (and why the fancy new housing isn’t the villain)
Affordable housing isn’t a matter of opinion — it’s math, writes Doug Erickson, founder of Santa Cruz Works. Here, he explains why developers of new market-rate housing aren’t the villains they’re often made out to be, and why affordable and market-rate homes play different but complementary roles. Understanding the economics behind both will help us navigate Santa Cruz’s housing crisis, he writes.
Posted inHousing & Development
Between a lot and a high place: With two apartment buildings rising on either side, a car dealer watches the neighborhood change around him
A couple of hundred new tenants will be moving in next door, but is that good or bad for a used-car business?
Posted inBusiness & Technology
Bookie’s Pizza claims first retail spot at downtown’s Anton Pacific complex
Bookie’s Pizza, an acclaimed Detroit-style pizzeria founded by chef Todd Parker, will relocate to a larger restaurant at Anton Pacific on Pacific Avenue, becoming the first retail tenant in the mixed-use downtown Santa Cruz development. The move marks an early milestone for Anton Pacific’s commercial leasing as developers work to fill new ground-floor retail spaces.
Posted inBusiness & Technology
This week in Santa Cruz County business: Planning commission weighs next steps for Front & Laurel project; apple farmers face shift as Martinelli’s cancels contracts
This week in local business, Jessica M. Pasko has the latest on a proposed mixed-use development in downtown Santa Cruz, a seismic development for South County apple growers and names, numbers and dates to know.
Posted inFood & Drink
Alley Oop opens in downtown Santa Cruz with vintage cocktails and speakeasy style
A new downtown Santa Cruz cocktail lounge, Alley Oop, has transformed the former Poet & Patriot pub into a polished, speakeasy-style bar with a focus on vintage drinks and small plates.
Posted inFood & Drink
Gran Gelato Caffè opens in downtown Santa Cruz, among first businesses in new developments
Gran Gelato Caffè, a new Santa Cruz café from the owners of Pizzeria La Bufala, has opened on Cedar Street, serving house-made Italian gelato, pastries and espresso. The shop is among the first retail tenants in the new downtown developments.
Posted inHousing & Development
New housing along San Lorenzo finally opens, connected to the river for first time in decades
City leaders and Santa Cruz community members celebrated the grand opening of the RiverRow apartments, located along the San Lorenzo River. The downtown development is unique because it opens onto the river, instead of facing away.
