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Pleasant Hill Pushes Downtown Makeover
By Lisa P. White, Contra Costa Times Posted: 05/23/2009

Downtown Pleasant Hill is experiencing a slump.
The current vacancy rate for the small shops hovers around 22 percent. And recent parking space counts show there is plenty of parking — and thus fewer shoppers, diners and moviegoers — at peak times.

Much of this is attributed to the recession, which Pleasant Hill will have to ride out along with everyone else. But Sudhish Mohindroo, an urban planner, thinks the downtown lacks a key element that will draw people even in these uncertain economic times.

What's missing? Soul.

"Main streets, they have a structure and they have a soul and that's what's different about them from a shopping center," said Mohindroo, who was sitting outside a new bakery-bistro in the downtown on a recent morning.

The problem with the Pleasant Hill downtown, according to Mohindroo, is that the stores have almost no individual character. Most have stucco facades, with monochrome awnings and signs fastened flush to the building high above the entrance. And the wide sidewalks in front of the shops, which Mohindroo believes could be used to display merchandise that might lure in customers, are empty.

The overall generic look of the center, combined with an underused and uninviting plaza, could use an overhaul, he says. But Mohindroo is quick to point out that the downtown has assets, including plenty of parking and a variety of entertainment, dining and shopping venues.

The city has hired Mohindroo's San Francisco-based design firm to work with new and existing tenants to help them jazz up their signs and storefronts; and add or revamp outdoor seating areas to make the entire shopping center more eclectic and funky. The group also plans to redesign the plaza and other public spaces adding landscaping, decorative arbors and kiosk vendors. Mohindroo also wants to shrink the shop spaces to squeeze in more tenants, which he says will improve the shopping experience.

The goal is to make the area more "Main Street" and less strip mall.
"Where I think it needs more work is the constant evolution, the soul. The individual tenants need to be given more freedom," to add wood facades, paint, lighting, display alcoves and customized awnings.
Councilman David Durant likes Mohindroo's suggestions, but he says most of them aren't new. In fact, Durant said the original downtown concept was much more ambitious, including second-story residential units, more open space and parking over the retail spaces. Ultimately, the developer scaled back the project due to a lack of funding and vision, he said.

"It's really cool stuff. I love what he was putting on paper and so much of it is what we really always had wanted," Durant said. "We still do need to find a better way to park downtown to make it so people will utilize it the way it was intended. And I would love it if we could get less hardscape, more grass, more greenery."

Ohio-based Developers Diversified Realty, which purchased the shopping center from the original developer in 2001, has to approve any changes the city wants to make.

"We've been very pleased with the efforts that the city has provided to update and improve our shopping center and we have worked closely with them," said Chris Dykstra, director of property management for the Western region of DDR. He said the company is interested in making improvements that benefit the shopping center tenants and the community.

Mohindroo hopes to complete the plan for the plaza remodel in the next six months, but other changes will happen gradually. "Our hope is that every few months there will be something new for people to see."

Lisa P. White covers Pleasant Hill and Martinez. Reach her at 925-943-8011 or lwhite@bayareanewsgroup.com