With two property acquisitions, Salinas starts the engine to revitalize Chinatown neighborhood.

Soledad Street in Salinas is a place many know for abandoned buildings and as home to a large unhoused population, with tents lining the sidewalks. It’s also the heart of Chinatown, once a bustling neighborhood that now only exists in photographs and in the memories of people who grew up there.

Salinas plans to bring Chinatown back to life, and the gears are in motion. On Dec. 13, Salinas City Council approved the purchase of two historic buildings in Chinatown: the former Republic Café and Lotus Inn at 37 Soledad St., and 34 Soledad St. – formerly the Chin family home and later La Puerta Negra Bar and Arres Pool Hall – for a combined $430,625.

“We did not go out to the property owners seeking to purchase – the opportunity came to us,” says Lisa Brinton, assistant director of the Salinas Community Development Department. Thomas Spencer, representing different trusts with multiple owners, approached the city with an offer: $200,000 for the Republic Café and $230,625 for the pool hall.

The Republic Café from 1941 was renovated in 2010 with the intention to house the nonprofit Asian Cultural Experience for a cultural center and museum, a project that has been in the works for over a decade and most recently stalled due to a fire in October. (The other building has been uninhabitable since a fire in 2010.)

The purchase agreement comes with a condition that if the Republic Café is code-complaint within 10 years, the bottom floor would be leased to ACE for $1 a year for 50 years, enabling the nonprofit to fulfill its dream. “The fire probably reduced the value for the property owner, but it didn’t change our intent,” says ACE member Larry Hirahara. (Currently, ACE leases the property from the Ahtye General Partnership; that lease is set to expire in November 2025.)

“We didn’t want these properties to get any worse,” says City Manager Steve Carrigan, adding the city wants to “bring them back to life and then lease them back to ACE.”

In 2019, Salinas approved its latest Chinatown Revitalization Plan to restore the neighborhood and maintain its cultural and historical identity (there were two previous plans in 2007 and 2010). It includes the Filipino Community Hall, Confucius Church and the Buddhist Temple.

Brinton says the vision is “a thriving, affordable, safe, healthy community that will really demonstrate its rich cultural history and serve as a center for the arts and a destination for the region.”

In 2018, nonprofit developer MidPen built Moon Gate Plaza with 90 apartments for low – and very low-income residents. The project also has sculptured gates designed by artist Nada Abdelshahid, and a large-scale mural titled “Convergence of Butterflies” by JC Gonzales.

The city is planning to purchase up to 10 properties. Once escrow closes on the Republic and Chin family buildings, the city will own five properties on Soledad Street. Some costly projects, such as asbestos remediation, will be easier if more are in progress at once, Brinton says: “Development would be infeasible without some sort of city support.”

Over the past 18 months, the city has done several sweeps removing tents and trash, addressed a rat infestation on Soledad Street, and replaced a sewer line on Lake Street. Carrigan hopes in a couple of years the changes in Chinatown will attract investors.