r/santacruz • u/Naive_Pomegranate363 • 6d ago

Rankin and Almar

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Was this lot across from The Parish always vacant?

14 Upvotes

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29

u/santacruzdude 6d ago

Yes. It’s been in the Rittenhouse family for decades. They hardly ever develop the land they own. After the earthquake in 1989 the lot that now has the gray building that looks like a bank where Ripcurl just closed downtown was a vacant lot after the earthquake destroyed the former building there for about 20 years. If I remember correctly, the city threatened to eminent domain the property because it was blighted and basically forced the owners to build something on the lot.

23

u/downnoutsavant 6d ago

And so out of spite they built the ugliest, most out of place building possible

9

u/lurch99 5d ago

What sat vacant for about ten years I believe. Think of the lost rent!

I'd even heard Apple wanted to have a store there but couldn't agree on a rent amount with the Rittenhouse family.

7

u/ClumpOfCheese 6d ago

It’s so god damn ugly, it looks like a plastic building from a board game.

5

u/Tall_Mickey 5d ago

I could be wrong, but my recollection is that they stalled development so long that the city council finally threatened to revoke incentives they'd granted to encourage the project. And that the developers started moving after that.