Long-awaited work to make Republic Café into a cultural museum in Salinas’ Chinatown moves forward.

While the worn-out, yellow facade remains on the Republic Café in Salinas’ Chinatown neighborhood, an effort to clean and stabilize the property is nearing completion.

“It’s exciting because progress is going fairly fast right now, and the City is committed to it,” says Larry Hirahara, a founding member of Asian Cultural Experience of Salinas (ACE).

The Republic Café, a popular banquet hall and restaurant that closed in 1988, will be home to a museum and cultural center that ACE will manage.

Grant Leonard, senior planner for the City of Salinas, says a contractor has cleaned up the building and performed structural stabilization, including adding a temporary roof and removing asbestos, lead and debris. Leonard expects this phase will be completed by June, then the project will move into the next two-phase stage of development.

The first phase will include further stabilization, including a permanent roof. The second phase is a full remodel and restoration, getting it move-in ready for the ACE museum. Leonard estimates it could take up to a year to finish both phases, adding that the work is tied to funding availability.

Work on historic buildings can be challenging due to a variety of reasons, Leonard says, including limited funding for restoration of such properties.

Progress has been years in the making. In 2022, the Republic Café caught fire, causing additional delays.

Work has advanced since then. In 2022, in an effort to advance the Chinatown Revitalization Plan, the City of Salinas purchased seven properties in the neighborhood, including the Republic Café. A year later, the city received $1.5 million in Regional Early Action Planning grant funding from the Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments to develop mixed-use affordable housing in the neighborhood. (Republic Café and other buildings were improved with this grant, plus capital improvement program funds from the City of Salinas.)

“A lot of history is associated with the building,” Leonard says. “Through the Chinatown Revitalization Plan, the community really identified it as a cornerstone.”

Hirahara hopes ACE will have access to the building by fall. The nonprofit intends to lease the space from the City.

Other projects in the pipeline in Chinatown include a 55-unit mixed-use apartment complex with studios and one- and two-bedroom apartment units above commercial space on the first floor. The second housing project would be a 30-unit senior housing development, also with commercial space on the first floor. Both projects are now undergoing permitting.

TEF Architecture and Interior Design, Inc., an agency based in San Francisco, provided conceptual plans and architectural renderings for both projects. The architectural concept includes Spanish influence with stucco finish and barrel clay roof tiles; Chinese influence is conveyed through the color red and string lanterns.