If demand for expensive cars is any indication, the local economy appears to be back on the upswing. In late July, developers Mid Coast Holdings Group, LLC, submitted an unsolicited proposal to Seaside to build a luxury auto mall with five high-end car dealerships. It would be built near Lightfighter Drive and Highway 1 on the former Fort Ord.
Mid Coast co-owner Richard Cartell presented the proposal to Seaside’s Successor Agency of the Redevelopment Agency Sept. 3, where the Seaside City Council – which comprises the Agency board – voted unanimously to direct staff to prepare an exclusive negotiating agreement (ENA) with Mid Coast.
If the development happens, it could provide a major fiscal boost: Mid Coast’s proposal boasts a “conservative” estimate of $2.5 million in annual tax revenue to the city, which would increase Seaside’s total annual revenue 10 percent.
And while Seaside City Manager John Dunn says the city is in sound financial condition, it’s operating at a $402,613 deficit in the 2014-15 fiscal year. Dunn expects the budget to be balanced next year, in part because of an uptick in the city’s biggest source of tax revenue: auto sales.
Mid Coast previously had an ENA with Seaside in 2008 for a similar proposal at the same 29-acre site west of Highway 1 and south of Lightfighter Drive. They let the agreement expire when the economy turned south.
Mid Coast co-owner Peter Blackstock, who built Seaside’s Toyota and Lexus dealerships, says the economic downturn hit auto dealerships hard.
“The only thing missing here was tumbleweed,” Blackstock says of the Seaside Auto Center. “I told [Cartell], ‘We have to move away from this thing.’”
The project’s approval of course faces hurdles. In Seaside’s 2004 general plan, the land is zoned as parks and open space, which means City Council will have to approve a zoning change. The project must also be found consistent with the Fort Ord Reuse Authority base reuse plan, which FORA Economic Development Coordinator Josh Metz says might be a challenge.
“They would have to make a serious case that land currently zoned as parks and open space could justifiably be changed,” Metz says. “It’s not impossible, but they’ve got a lot of work to do.”
Lisa Brinton, Seaside’s community and economic development services manager, says the city is planning to add 80 acres of additional parks and open space on land east of General Jim Moore Boulevard, which would more than offset the loss created by the proposed dealerships.
Blackstock says the auto center will have a much different look than many of the dealerships in Seaside, where dozens of cars are lined up in parking lots.
“It’s a different kind of display than showing that you have every car in the world on your lot,” he says. “This isn’t going to be PT Barnum. This is going to be pretty tight.”
An analysis by Blackstock and Cartell in the early 2000s indicated there is demand for an additional 20 acres of auto dealers in Seaside. With car sales currently higher than their pre-2008 levels, both feel the project’s timing is right.
“The planets are definitely in alignment,” Cartell says.