The Westside boom: How a blossoming business district evolved from industrial disrepair

Once upon a time, if you lived on the Westside of Santa Cruz and felt the need to engage in some kind of commercial or social activity — shopping, dining, even hanging out in a coffee shop with a friend or a date — you had two choices. You could navigate the gauntlet of Mission Street, or you could go downtown.

Today, Westsiders who don’t want to venture too far from home have a third option. The area on the far western fringe of town that was once devoted solely to industrial and agricultural purposes has evolved into a beating heart of commerce. This popular destination is bordered on the east and west by Swift Street and Fair Street, respectively, and tucked north and south between Ingalls Street and the train tracks. It is, however, gradually expanding beyond those boundaries.

The Swift/Fair area is now home to New Leaf Community Market, the coffee shops Verve, Cat & Cloud and 11th Hour, Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing, Humble Sea Brewing Co., a number of wineries and tasting rooms, Marini’s Candies, Marianne’s Ice Cream, 3 Bros cannabis dispensary, the popular restaurant Bantam, retail stores and — coming soon — a new restaurant/bakery from Manresa Bread. 

The area continues to evolve. New housing just to the west and the completion of the urban pedestrian/bike trail through the area — not to mention the small possibility of a rail stop on the proposed ZEPRT passenger rail project — suggest that the commercial footprint will continue to develop.  

So, where did all this start? Many cities have industrial spaces that got converted for retail and other mixed-use purposes. It’s been a trend in urban design as the tide receded on the American manufacturing economy after World War II. There is no more vivid example of this repurposing than the former Wrigley chewing-gum factory on Santa Cruz’s Westside, currently home to eclectic small businesses. 

Back in the mid-20th century, the Swift/Fair area was dominated by agricultural businesses, especially Birds Eye Frozen Foods, which managed a warehouse and processing plant for Brussels sprouts, artichokes and other locally grown crops. There was a rail spur from the nearby rail line that companies used to transport their products by train. By the 1990s, however, the agricultural businesses had left the area and the storage and processing buildings had closed, leaving behind a few small, light-industrial businesses — surfboard shapers, marble shops and cabinet manufacturers.

In 1999, two entrepreneurs entered the scene. One was the winemaker Randall Grahm, whose Bonny Doon Vineyard moved its operation into one of the Birds Eye buildings. The other was Mark and Kelly Sanchez, of Kelly’s French Bakery, who were looking to expand from their downtown location. The Sanchezes purchased the neighboring building, which adjoins Swift Street.

Grahm had outgrown his Bonny Doon facility and briefly considered moving to the East Bay before he found the 53,000-square-foot building that now serves as the tasting room for other winemakers, including Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyard and Sones Cellars. 

The Sanchezes were renting three facilities around the county and wanted to buy a property to consolidate their operations. “As silly or dreamy as it may sound, we wanted to walk or ride our bikes to work,” said Mark Sanchez, sitting in the outdoor courtyard of their building.

Even though they are longtime Westsiders, the Sanchezes were not familiar with the area when they first discovered the building. “These were the days of the fax machine,” said Mark Sanchez. “So, the [agent] sent me a cover letter by fax, and there was a small picture of the side of the building, and I couldn’t make heads or tails of it.”

That evening, the Sanchezes visited the site, which they soon began to call “the shed.” The defunct processing plant was in major disrepair but they saw its potential, admiring “the bones” of the building and even envisioning a courtyard. 

“The downside,” said Sanchez, “was that of all the people we talked to about it — friends, family, customers — about half of them thought we made a grave mistake. And the other half wasn’t so sure.”

Ward Coffey was a surfboard shaper who had moved his shop into the building in 1996, more than three years before the Sanchezes took ownership. Nearly 30 years later, Coffey is still operating out of the same space. Before he had even met Mark and Kelly Sanchez, he noticed them outside scouting the building near the alcove that would become the Kelly’s courtyard.

“I thought, I know exactly what they’re thinking about,” said Coffey. “This building faces the south. It’s protected from the wind, and it’s warm inside that little alcove. So, a couple of months later, when they came by [to introduce themselves], they said, ‘And we had this idea that we want to do a courtyard.’ And I was, like, ‘Ha! I knew it.’”

After several years of design, planning and construction, Kelly’s French Bakery opened at the site in 2003. Bonny Doon Vineyard had opened earlier next door. In 2009, Grahm expanded into the restaurant business, opening Cellar Door, a corner eatery that has since morphed through several identities, including Le Cigare Volant, West End Tap & Kitchen and Izakaya West End. Manresa Bread is expected to open a bakery and bistro in the space sometime in the spring of 2026.

Fifteen years ago, New Leaf Community Market opened in what had been an empty lot, near the site where the company’s original flagship store, West Side Community Market, operated in the 1980s. Soon after, the high-end wood-fired pizza restaurant Bantam opened on Fair Street, across the street from New Leaf. In 2022, Kelly’s French Bakery closed, making way for 11th Hour, a second iteration of the popular downtown coffeehouse, and establishing itself between Verve and Cat & Cloud, on Swift Street and Fair Street, respectively. 

For years now, the area has served as a focal point for Santa Cruz’s wine community, with a handful of local vintners offering tasting rooms in close proximity. Jeff Emery opened the tasting room at Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyard in 2008 in what was once Grahm’s building — Grahm had already sold by that time. Emery said the Swift/Fair area offers wine lovers a one-stop shopping experience. 

“At the moment, there are 11 tasting rooms within walking distance,” said Emery. “And people say, ‘Well, isn’t that competition?’ My answer is always no, that we’re all colleagues. We get together socially. I have the keys to just about everybody else’s place. We all have our own niche and style. It’s not a competitive situation at all.”

But, said Emery, thanks to changing demographics across the country in which younger generations are not drinking quite as much alcohol as older people, “the tasting room model is falling apart.” The opening of three high-profile coffeehouses within a five-minute walk is perhaps a nod to the needs of an emerging generation in the area. 

Mark and Kelly Sanchez retired from the bakery business and are now solely invested as property owners, managing the site for their tenants and customers. 

“I am thrilled at what has transpired here,” said Mark Sanchez. “Everyone’s doing their part and I think they’re doing a terrific job.”

He thinks back to early on in the transition from decaying industrial infrastructure to hip new mixed-use design, just a few weeks after Kelly’s first opened, a woman approached Sanchez with an opinion on what he was doing in the neighborhood.

“I thought at the time that some people might not like what we were doing. There was a lot of doubt,” said Sanchez. “But this customer comes to me, she was with her husband, and she says, ‘We just want to let you know that we live in the neighborhood and what you’ve done here is really amazing. We had our house up for sale, but now we’ve decided to take the for-sale sign down.’ That felt great.”