After languishing unbuilt for years, a Cannery Row development shows new signs of life.

A long-dormant project on Cannery Row is back, and after collecting dust for a decade, appears to finally have legs.

Cannery Row Plaza – rebranded from “Ocean View Plaza,” as it was long known – is set to transform the last remaining vacant real estate on Cannery Row, a blighted coastal lot just south of El Torito.

The project – which includes 87,000 square feet of retail and restaurants, condos, a community park and history center, and 377 parking spaces – is set to transform both sides of the street. It was approved by Monterey City Council in 2004, and the California Coastal Commission in 2008. There isn’t any municipal water to serve it, but its plans call for an onsite desalination plant.

The project has been on ice since the Great Recession, and a few developers have gone bankrupt trying to revive it. Enter Ruby Falls Fund, a San Diego-based commercial real estate firm that purchased the property in July 2017.

The Ruby Falls team presented the project to the Monterey Planning Commission on Feb. 27, seeking a one-year extension of the use permit attached to prior approvals. The commissioners approved a two-year extension, so that Ruby Falls wouldn’t need another: Ruby Falls co-founder Eric Jones estimates it will take no more than 18 months to obtain design, historic and building permit approvals. After that, shovels can break ground.

“The city really wants the project to get done,” Jones says. “It’s the last dilapidated area of Cannery Row.”

Monterey City Council is scheduled to consider a draft development agreement for the project March 20, the details of which aren’t yet public. The document will stipulate benchmarks Ruby Falls must meet throughout the construction process.

What sets Ruby Falls apart from prior would-be developers, says spokesman David Armanasco, is money.

“They have a lot of deep experience and great access to financing, which is the key,” Armanasco says. “Ruby Falls is committed to get this project done.”

Monterey planner Elizabeth Caraker also senses a change from past owners.

“It feels like they’re ready to go forward,” she says. “It’s a new group, new energy.”

In the coming months, Jones says Ruby Falls will be hosting neighborhood meetings to get a sense for what locals want to see in the public spaces of the project.

He also says he’s working with local designers on the project’s aesthetic details, so that it’s designed by those who understand the local culture and landscape. “There’s just so much talent up there,” he adds.

Many finer details of the project remain undefined, including the desalination plant. Desal technology has advanced considerably since the project was first approved, and Jones says his team is still considering options, as well as potentially adding solar panels to power it.

Additionally, if a new water supply comes online for the region, he says the desal plant may be decommissioned.

Jones won’t say how much Ruby Falls paid CanRow LLC, the former owner, for the 3.5-acre property – CanRow bought it out of foreclosure for $2.5 million in 2014 – and the Monterey County Recorder’s office has no record that any money changed hands.