A decade ago, in 2015, CSU Monterey Bay acquired the National Steinbeck Center in downtown Salinas with optimism. The $3 million purchase gave the university inroads into the county’s most-populated city. “This is our front door to Salinas and we’re going to use this as a way to connect to the community,” then-CSUMB president Eduardo Ochoa said at the time.
It was also good news for the seller, the nonprofit Steinbeck Center, which stayed on as a tenant with an 80-year lease.
One pandemic and about six years later, in 2022, CSUMB put the building on the market. Officials announced on Wednesday, July 9, that CSUMB is selling the center to the Hartnell College Foundation and the National Steinbeck Center. (A price has not yet been disclosed. The nonprofits credit philanthropic support from Taylor Farms, the Harden Foundation, D’Arrigo Charitable Trust and Hartnell College Foundation board.)
The property will be renamed One Main Street and the new owners envision a variety of functions, including Hartnell’s K-12 STEM programs such as robotics and coding; Bright Futures, which implements the CalKIDS cradle-to-career initiative; El Pájaro Community Development Corporation’s kitchen incubator; Salinas Valley Chamber of Commerce events; a community biotech lab in the long term; and more. The Steinbeck Center plans on offering an enhanced bookstore and museum, plus expanded programming.
“We have big dreams for One Main Street,” Jackie Cruz, executive director of the Hartnell College Foundation, said in a statement. “We’re planting the seeds for regional economic vitality.”