The Saturday Farmers Market will continue for at least another six months. Arcadia Business Association operates the event and estimate that 22,000 have visited the market in the last 8 months.
The changing face of Arcadia--commercial brokerage firm NAI submits proposal for downtown districts. The City of Arcadia hired NAI to assess the city's five business districts and make recommendations to improve them and bring in appropriate, compatible businesses. See hard copy in VF Business and Industry.
Downtown Arcadia businesses create "Community Benefit District." Each business owner would pay extra in property taxes to go into a fund to better market the area to customers and visitors. With the Gold Line Station at North First Avenue and East Santa Clara Street scheduled to open in 2015, efforts to help brand the area have been fast-tracked.
Tim Schwehr, City of Arcadia's Economic Development Analyst, highlights Downtown Arcadia's new Business-Friendly Zoning Code, adopted November 2016 as part of a comprehensive citywide zoning update, with the goal of bringing more mixed use development to the area and incentivizing adaptive reuse of existing buildings.
Highlighting Downtown Arcadia: Arcadia Blues Club: one of the city's best kept secrets, located at 16 E. Huntington Drive since 2005. The small business is operated by a husband and wife team with a passion for blues music.
The Arcadia City Council approved an ordinance amendment loosening store display restrictions and decided to maintain the first floor retail restrictions on buildings in the downtown business district.
New Arcadia City Council member April Verlato brings a new voice. She is a lawyer born and raised in Arcadia. She has been an activist against mansions. She is president of Downtown Arcadia Improvement Association (AIA). Her goals for her time in office are 1) to address the uptick in residential burglaries and 2) to improve Arcadia's business districts.
Downtown Arcadia in 2019. Large mixed-use project (38 apartments, 16000 s.f. retail, office, restaurants) at First Avenue and Wheeler Street will finish and open later this year. New restaurant "Trendy Thai 2 Go" opened at 18 North First Avenue (formerly Stacked Sandwich) and Shabu Lin is about to open at 101 South First Avenue (formerly Zapata Vive). Downtown AIA will be implementing several new streetscape beautification projects this year, planning has started on year-round decorative tree lighting on First Avenue.
Business profile on Fitness Factor in Arcadia. Maggie Riddle and Kevin Riddle are the co-owners. They do personal training and small group fitness at 24 N. 1st Avenue in Downtown Arcadia.
At the Arcadia Chamber of Commerce's annual Power Planning Conference on January 24, City of Arcadia's City Manager, Dominic Lazzaretto, provided optimism to the local business community during this time of economic uncertainties. He said 25% of Arcadia's $48 million in annual revenue comes from local businesses--with nearly $10 million from sales taxes and another $2 million-plus from licenses and permits. The City has proposed a new business assistance program ombudsman to help entrepreneurs with the start-up process, is working with Chamber of Commerce to create a more interactive one-stop business checklist, and has not increased the cost of a business permit.
Spotlight on Downtown Arcadia business Vendome Wine & Spirits, a bar, coffee, and bottle shop owned by Jeff Musial. It is across from Arcadia Metro Gold Line Station. His business partner is Charles Tran.
Business spotlight on Hyper Coffee at 203 S. First Avenue in Arcadia, in a historic Art Deco building. It has been in business 17 years. By Helen Wang.