Notes submitted by Bobbie Mills
Gumaro Escarcega, MainStreet Oceanside CEO, thanked everyone for attending this morning’s meeting. After around-the-room introductions, the highly anticipated topic of new and expected businesses in Oceanside began.
Featured Speakers:
Michelle Geller said when she started her position as Economic Development Manager at the City of Oceanside a little over four years ago, cranes were building the resorts downtown, and then COVID hit. While the transformation from 2019 to now has been in progress, downtown has transformed dramatically and the resorts had a lot to do with that. Geller’s presentation has accomplishments in 2023 and some things coming in 2024 and beyond.
She said MainStreet Oceanside is a very important partner to the City of Oceanside. She stated that she and Patty Mosher, Economic Development Specialist at the City, could not do their jobs if it weren’t for the partnership with MSO.
Geller started with some Oceanside facts. Oceanside is the third oldest (incorporated in 1888) and third largest (population 180,299) city in San Diego County. Oceanside is 42 square miles with 3.5 miles of coastline. She said the downtown is only about 10% of Oceanside’s land area.
Currently, there are just over 8,000 active Oceanside business licenses. About 2,700 of those are brick-and-mortar establishments, including restaurants, hotels, etc. About 2,000 are home-based businesses, and the rest are businesses that do business in Oceanside but are not located in Oceanside.
The largest employers are in the public sector: the City of Oceanside, the Oceanside Unified School District, the County of San Diego, and the North County Transit District. She showed a slide listing the top business clusters in the private sector, which includes healthcare, especially Tri-City Medical Center and Scripps Health Care; biotech including Genentech and Kite Pharmaceuticals; action sports equipment manufacturing; food and beverage manufacturing; and tourism, citing the Mission Pacific Hotel, The Seabird Resort, and Springhill Suites.
She mentioned the disappointing news that Gilead, which has a large campus in Oceanside, will be transitioning its staff out of Oceanside to Foster City, California, resulting in the loss of about 300 employees. However, she is confident with Oceanside’s history and recruiting talent, another biotech company will fill the space in a short time.
Geller said she is repeatedly asked, “What do you do in economic development?” She said her economic development department uses the acronym BEAR: Business Expansion, Attraction & Retention. Their top priority is retention – if a business is doing well in Oceanside, they want to keep them in Oceanside, and typically that means finding the business a bigger space to continue “prospering in place.”
She showed slides of sales tax revenue, which has remained flat compared to the third quarter of last year. “We are doing better than the state, which is encouraging.” She said she’s heard reports that people are spending less on consumer goods, but “the foodie scene here in Oceanside” has helped restaurant and hotel spending, which is up slightly from last year. Online shopping and gas prices have come down.
Geller stated that auto and transportation increased from last year due in part to the attraction of Carmax through an incentive deal with the City of Oceanside to invest in a long-term revenue source. Oceanside does not have a large auto sales tax revenue like Carlsbad and Escondido, both of which have an auto park.
She said that although sales tax is an important revenue source, it is not a huge generator of revenue for the City – but property tax is, which “is a good thing.” She said the southern California coastal real estate was not going down anytime soon, so property tax in Oceanside should continue to increase and provide general funding sources for the City to provide clean and safe operations.
Another revenue source is Measure X, which provides additional revenue for the City and has funded several important programs and services over the last seven years, such as enhanced security downtown, homeless outreach and conversion, public-safety related programs, and investment in streets and roads. It is set to expire at the end of 2025, and it’s up to the City Council whether to include a renewal on the November 2024 ballot.
Geller reported on recently completed public development projects including the beachfront improvements (phase 1: new restrooms, police substation, new stairway, and landscaping) and pier utilities replacement. Projects set to move forward include Sand Retention & Beach Replenishment to combat sand erosion and the Beachfront Improvements Phase 2, which includes the historically significant Junior Seau Community Center and amphitheater. The new Fire Station 1 on Civic Center Drive across from City Hall is nearing completion.
Additional public projects completed or nearing completion include Oceanside Navigation Center (49-bed homelessness assistance facility), Greenbrier Village (affordable 59-unit housing project), Coast Highway Corridor improvement plan (design and funding source still in progress), Citywide Fiber Optic network, Tri-City Behavioral Health Facility (16-bed facility set to open this summer), Coastal Academy High School new campus (hoping to welcome students on campus in August), and MiraCosta College expansion (six new buildings).
Geller showed slides of new businesses, primarily downtown, projects in progress, and notable expansions. She said the biggest news of 2024 will be the opening of Frontwave Arena at El Corazon (the future new home of the San Diego Sockers) expected in August or September.
Two notable projects under construction include The Flats in South Oceanside (a boutique mixed-use project with 18 apartments) and Alta Oceanside on N. Coast Highway (a three-story mixed-use with 308 residential apartments).
Geller showed more slides of “projects on the horizon,” several of which are mixed-use projects with some affordable residential units.
VIEW SLIDES FROM THE PRESENTATION HERE:
Juliet Rodriguez, Professional Assistant – Arts & Culture with Oceanside CA Cultural District, announced the Cultural District is partnering with the Arts Commission to fund grants to individual artists and organizations either non-profit or fiscally sponsored for arts and culture programming. The Oceanside Arts & Culture Grant Program has $100,000 available to support different programs. Applicants can apply for $1,000; $2,500; $5,000; or $10,000. Grant guidelines for eligibility criteria can be found on the Oceanside Cultural District website and at the Oceanside Public Library. Applications are available now on the OCCD website and will close on April 1, 2024, at 5 p.m.
Around the Room Announcements:
Escarcega said that ticket sales have launched for Taste of Spring, which will be on Saturday, April 20. Tickets are limited to 500, so order now! He said that SALT Apartments was the Title Sponsor for the event. SALT is now selling condominiums.
Tom DeMooy and Lisa Ocampo invited the audience to the next Tri-City Community Neighborhood Watch Meeting on Tuesday, March 19 from 5:30-7 p.m. at the John Landes Community Center. Guest speakers include Assistant Police Chief Taurino Valdovinos, Crime Prevention Specialist Ashley Sanchez, and Sector-3 Officer Luke Rubbish, all from the Oceanside Police Department. If anyone is interested in having a meeting in the downtown area, they should contact Tom DeMooy at tomdemooy4homes@gmail.com.
Sue Otto with The Coast News announced it’s the time of year for the Annual Best of North County Program, and last year MainStreet Oceanside won Best Downtown. This year there are nine other competitors. She urged the audience to, before heading to the polls for Super Tuesday, scan the QR code she displayed to vote for their favorite Downtown, which is Oceanside! Winners are featured for a whole year in their Best of North County Magazine. Magazines are distributed to the resorts and other news distribution points.
Linda Pina of Carla and Linda’s Local Tours said they just celebrated their eighth anniversary. She said they and Allmine Pizza shot a short video three weeks ago, which has gone viral with 2,211,527 views worldwide!
Alex Goodman from Oceanside Theatre Company touted the theater won the Best of North County Theater in 2023! He invited the audience to the San Diego premiere this weekend of the play “Chicken & Biscuits,” which premiered on Broadway in 2021. The preview is on Friday. Tickets are $20 for anyone. The opening is on Saturday; Sunday is a free matinee performance for military members. Also on Sunday, the New York playwright will attend a private event at the theater.
Robert Parker, President of the Oceanside Cultural Arts Foundation, announced that OCAF is searching for spaces to house public pianos and for businesses willing to be stewards of the pianos. The program is in the beginning stages but with hopes to get music on the streets this year.
These notes are provided with get-well wishes for Lola Sherman, the longtime writer of the Monthly Morning Meeting notes.
Coffee provided by Pier View Coffee
The MainStreet Morning Meeting is held on the first Tuesday of each month at 8:30 a.m.
We welcome all parties interested in the progress of Downtown Oceanside, including businesspeople, residents, and City staff.
This informative one-hour meeting is held in an informal discussion format. The general public is always welcome! Come meet your city officials, MainStreet Oceanside staff and members and find out about upcoming events and changes to YOUR downtown and city.
The MainStreet Morning Meeting is held at the MainStreet Oceanside meeting room at 701 Mission Avenue. Call our office for more information or directions at (760) 754-4512.
Notes submitted by Bobbie Mills.
