The Buzz: Downtown Redding is getting a welcome sign (and maybe people who will want a selfie) – Redding Record Searchlight

Maybe just as significant as a four-story, mixed-use building replacing the old Dicker’s department store building in downtown Redding is the reopening of streets in the area to vehicle and pedestrian traffic.

Called Market Center, K2 Development’s $38 million project will feature 82 apartments, a community center, 23,000 square feet of restaurant and retail space, and landscaped plazas and courtyards with outdoor dining.

Work on punching Market, Yuba and Butte streets through what is now the Market Street Promenade could start in January and be done by fall 2020.

Redding roofed its three-block core in phases between 1972 and 1978 in an effort to save its aging downtown. The Mall in downtown Redding prospered for a few years until the Mt. Shasta Mall opened in the mid-1970s.

The roof came off the mall about 10 years ago, creating what is today Market Street Promenade.   

Market Center is expected to be finished in September 2020.

As part of the streetscape project will be a new welcome to downtown Redding sign at Market and Tehama on the south side of the street.

The sign is an idea from the Redding Chamber of Commerce City Identity Project, and the chamber with its funding partners will donate up to $35,000 to help with the costs of materials.

Chamber President Jake Mangas on Aug. 13 will be among those who makes a presentation to the Redding Planning Commission.

“We are playing a role in that downtown showcase and presenting for the Planning Commission, focusing on some of these Identity Project ideas in downtown,” Mangas said.

He said the sign is something people will be able to touch and interact with.

“Hopefully people with take their photo in front of the sign. It hits all the marks for us in terms of aesthetics … and branding,” Mangas said.

Russell Architecture & Design, Signarama and Wonder Metals are working on the design and construction of the sign, which will have lighted features and benches.

Russell’s imprint on downtown is growing. The architectural firm designed Theory Collaborative on California Street and the Modern Americana Hotel on Market Street and did a redesign of the Salvation Army building on Pine Street.

John Robbins, who owns Signarama and Wonder Metals with his wife, Ashly, said he always wanted to help create something lasting for Redding his grandchildren can point to and say their grandparents did that.

“When we saw something like this come up, I said this is the perfect piece, this is the iconic piece that will be there forever,” Robbins said.

Also partnering on the sign project will be the engineering firm GHD and the city of Redding.

Meanwhile, demolition work on the California Street parking garage downtown could start this fall, said Steve Bade, the city’s community development manager and liaison to downtown.

The garage is being destroyed to make room for another mixed-use development, this one a K2-McConnell Foundation-city of Redding partnership.

The McConnell Foundation and the city received a $4 million grant that will go toward a smaller parking structure to complement the mixed-use project that McConnell and K2 are building.

It would feature affordable and market-rate apartments, office, retail and a public park. The apartments would bookend the green space.

“We have a lot to figure out, working with downtown property owners, business groups, coming up with alternate parking spaces,” Bade said.

The parking structure demolition will come before the City Council, whose members will determine a time frame for the work at a future meeting.

These changes are coming to Shasta Center. Plus, a juice bar closes on Bechelli

Rebranded as Sugarplum Kids six years ago, the children’s toy and clothes store in Shasta Center on Churn Creek Road is closing.

Barbara Fleharty opened Sugarplum Kids in June 2013 after repurposing the space that for 10 years had been home to Sugarplum Cottage Toy Shoppe & Baby Boutique. Fleharty had worked at Sugarplum Cottage, doing displays. She has worked in retail for 30 years.

She announced the closure on Facebook last month:

“To all of my amazing customers and new found friends of Sugarplum Kids. It is without no regrets, but yet happy endings to announce that I have chosen to close Sugarplum Kids. I am so lucky to have finally reached my goal and able to create a life where I can spend more time with my family!”

Also involving the Shasta Center: Treats Natural Pet Marketplace in the Sunset Marketplace shopping center on Eureka Way has closed. The owners have consolidated that location with their store in the Shasta Center.

Earlier this year, NorCal Brewing Solutions closed its store in the Shasta Center.

In other local business news, Roots Juice Bar has closed its location inside Country Organics on Bechelli Lane. Its last day there was Thursday.

Roots has two other locations in Redding, at the former Wendy’s building on Pine Street in downtown, and in the Shasta Crossroads center at Churn Creek and Dana Drive.

Are building fees too high?

About a year ago, the Record Searchlight reported Shasta County, in an attempt to spur building, was looking into possibly reducing development fees — the money it charges developers.

Supervisors voted to study the effect of reducing fees in June 2018, about a month before the Carr Fire, which destroyed nearly 1,100 homes in Shasta County and was responsible for the deaths of eight people — the most destructive and deadliest wildfire in the county’s history.

The long-awaited fees study is about to start.

Resource Management Director Paul Hellman told me recently the county expects to hire a San Jose consultant to evaluate the current building fee program and recommend any changes. Cost of the study is $40,000.

The study won’t be completed for several months. When it is, the supervisors could act on the recommendations.

Meanwhile, under the county’s current program, development impact fees increased 3.2 percent this fiscal year, July 1, 2019-June 30, 2020. Fees for a single-family home built in unincorporated Shasta County range from $6,297 to $9,656.

Supervisors did not vote to increase fees. Rather, the increase is part of the inflation rider built in to the fee program the board adopted about 10 years ago, Hellman said.

The maximum amount for impact fees on a single-family home when the ordinance was enacted was $7,209.

Stay tuned.

READ MORE FROM THE BUZZ:

• Why Redding is plugging new flights to LAX
• It’s shaping up to be the summer of Costco. Here’s why.
• Artist collective opens downtown; outdoor dining at Mary’s
• Redding is one of the ‘most dynamic’ metro areas, study says

David Benda covers business, development and anything else that comes up for the USA TODAY Network in Redding. He also writes the weekly “Buzz on the Street” column. He’s part of a team of dedicated reporters that investigate wrongdoing, cover breaking news and tell other stories about your community. Reach him on Twitter @DavidBenda_RS or by phone at 1-530-225-8219. To support and sustain this work, please subscribe today.

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