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From vacant to vibrant: How Indio is revitalizing downtown with new shops, dining, homes

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For years, Yellow Mart endured as something of an island floating in the sea of empty storefronts that had become downtown Indio.

Mark Jernigan, who runs the shop, recalls that at one point things got so bad that there were only a couple of open businesses on the three-block downtown stretch of Miles Avenue.

“That building was empty, that building was empty, that building was empty and then that building was empty for a long time,” he said as he pointed around to some of the neighboring retail spaces. “The problem was it looked like a ghost town because everybody was going out of business.”

But, Jernigan knew there was a time when things had been different.  

“Willie Lewis, who worked in the store for 50 years, told me of the old days of not being able to find a parking spot and walking shoulder to shoulder with people because the sidewalk was so full,” he said.

Recently, Jernigan has been finding reason to hope that downtown Indio’s future will be brighter than its recent past.

When he gazes out from Yellow Mart’s massive windows these days, he no longer sees lifeless sidewalks leading to mostly empty, often dilapidated buildings.

Instead, there’s more likely to be people clutching shopping bags or coffee cups, dropping off their kids for guitar lessons or heading out for crepes, craft beers or even calimari at one of the new restaurants that have been popping up at a dizzying rate.

The new eateries that have opened just since March include a Mexican restaurant called Victoria’s Café, a self-described elevated watering hole called the Indio Taphouse, the second location of Gabino’s Creperie and, perhaps most surprising, a “speakeasy” called Italica where one can order a $19 cocktail to go with their $138 steak (yes, really).

Then there are the other new additions, which include a record store that also specializes in unique rocks, a vintage clothes and goods store and two new venues for live music (one of which doubles as a coffee shop).

And beyond shopping, a 64-unit, $25 million apartment complex is in the works in the heart of downtown, having broken ground in late May.

More: Former NFL star from Indio aims to help in city’s revitalization

City purchase of buildings paved way for new development

While the ongoing revival might seem to have happened suddenly, city leaders say the process has been anything but. Miguel Ramirez-Cornejo, the city’s economic development manager, said that while leaders and residents alike have wanted to see such renewal happen for years, those efforts gained steam in 2020 when the city council adopted a plan that envisioned how downtown it could be transformed.

Pivotal to that process has been a years-long city effort to acquire properties around downtown that Ramirez-Cornejo said allow city staff to recruit and rent directly to new businesses.

The city envisions a collection of restaurants, shops and offices that complement each other and entice people to walk around and discover new places, instead of visiting one spot and driving away after getting what they need.

As part of its effort to lure new businesses, the city also created a program that lets them reduce some taxes, delay others and receive funding for additional building improvements.

Businesses lured by area’s potential, city’s young population

Skip Paige, who co-owns The Indio Taphouse and neighboring Italica, said that assistance and the great overall deal he was offered by the city helped lure him to take a “risk” and open the new restaurants.

However, he says he was also intrigued by the possibility of his adopted home of Indio undergoing the same kind of transformation he saw a quarter-century ago in the city where he grew up, Pomona.

There, Paige helped build and open a concert venue called the Glass House inside an old pharmacy on Second Street, a once-lively downtown Pomona strip that had fallen into decline with the rise of Interstate 10.

He describes what happened next as “unbelievable”: New businesses gradually started popping up, including a Thai restaurant, a skateboard shop and an art school. An old theater was also brought back to life with the help of city funds.

“Now you go down there and it’s like hipster heaven down there,” he said of Pomona’s downtown. “It’s all cool kids, it’s all multicultural, it’s all people going to restaurants and going to concerts and populating the downtown area — it’s cool.”

Paige has longtime Indio connections: He opened the Glass House with his friend Paul Tollett, the CEO of music promoter Goldenvoice, where Paige spent years working as COO. Paige said he had long ago taken note of the fact that Indio’s Miles Avenue dates back to the same era as Pomona’s Second Street — and even has similar architecture — and used to muse about it undergoing a similar transformation.

Paige credits Indio city staff with making that happen.

“It’s gonna be one of the hottest little hospitality districts in the desert,” he said. “You’ve got Palm Canyon, El Paseo, Old Town La Quinta and now you’ve got downtown Indio.”

Also going “all-in,” as he puts it, on downtown Indio is Palm Springs real estate agent and developer Adam Gilbert.

He bought two large commercial buildings downtown and has tentative plans for both. In one, he wants to open a market called The Place that brings together various artisans and vendors, similar to Palm Springs’ Mojave Flea Trading Post. In the other building, Gilbert plans some sort of food hall in the other, although the exact form it will take is still being determined due to the high costs of building out a traditional food hall.

Gilbert said he was drawn by the investment the city and others were making, but also the fact that Indio residents are on the whole significantly younger than in many other Coachella Valley cities. A downtown that caters more to that demographic could become a magnet for younger people from throughout the valley, Gilbert said.

He also thinks downtown Indio’s layout opens possibilities not seen in other valley shopping districts. On El Paseo or downtown Palm Springs’ Palm Canyon Avenue, the bulk of activity is on one long street. But downtown Indio is a grid centered around Miles Avenue with multiple streets coming off of it.

That makes it easier to build a downtown around more than shopping, Gilbert said, something that is evident in the ongoing work to build a new city hall, a new library and a College of the Desert campus in the area.

There are also plans, some already in progress, to turn the downtown area into a hub for the kind of denser housing that does not exist — and is often not allowed — in much of the Coachella Valley.

“You’re allowed to go high, four stories by right and six stories with council approval,” Gilbert said. “If there is going to be any density it’s going to be there (in downtown Indio).”

Changing city’s image

Beyond working to attract businesses, Indio officials say the city has worked to plan events that will bring people to downtown, including the weekly Food Truck Fridays event.

That effort has gained new momentum with the opening of Center Stage, an outdoor concert stage that recently hosted the high-profile free performance by Indio native and American Idol winner Abi Carter (city officials joke they couldn’t have planned the timing better).

“It’s not just doing an advertising campaign and saying ‘come to downtown Indio.’ We’re trying to say ‘come to this concert’ and then show people (what we have to offer), because the likelihood of them coming back is stronger than us trying to force that message,” said Jessica Mediano, who does marketing and PR work for the city. “We’re trying to create a space that is actually inviting, not just in a photo.”

A major emphasis of that effort has been making downtown look and feel like a destination by bringing art to the area. Recent additions have included several murals, a new “art alley” and even art from past Goldenvoice music festivals that has been set up in downtown parks.

Ramirez-Cornejo, the city’s economic development manager, said that’s all aimed at getting both Indio locals and those from other valley cities and points beyond to change their mindset from “the only fun things to do are on the other side of the valley” to “now it’s here at home or in Indio.”

That’s a welcome effort for some of the area’s longstanding business owners, who say they also had to struggle against the perception held by some in other valley cities that Indio was unsafe and run down and had little to offer them.

Jernigan, of Yellow Mart, said the redevelopment efforts seem to be succeeding in combatting that image and drawing people from other valley cities back to Indio. He also praised a city effort to bring in a security guard who patrols around downtown on weekend nights until the bars close.

“They’ve been trying to do little subtle things to try to reassure people that when you’re here, you’re safe, and that’s very, very positive,” he said.

That strategy was also praised by Paige, the Taphouse and Italica owner, who said that while historically “everybody is afraid of Indio,” he also owns Little Bar in Palm Desert and by comparison downtown Indio has “there’s less riffraff and way more activity.”

But while the progress has been remarkable, some challenges remain. Shopping carts filled with belongings and other signs of homelessness and related issues often dot the streetscape, though perhaps to a lesser extent than in downtown Palm Springs. Several buildings, including many on streets branching off of Miles Avenue, appear vacant, though some will soon hold businesses.One large empty structure is a roughly 30,000-square-foot building near the center of the Miles Avenue strip. Ramirez-Cornejo said it has structural issues that would be very expensive to fix and the city is using it to store the items it used for special events while trying to find a creative long-term solution.

Keeping it local

As downtown steps further into its future, civic leaders, business owners and residents alike say they are also thinking about how to ensure the area reflects the values and character of Indio as it grows in popularity, particularly with those from outside the city.

For City Councilmember Elaine Holmes, it is important that downtown be allowed to develop organically rather than according to any single entity’s vision or cookie-cutter plan for what it should look like.

“There’s a synergy and an energy that has to occur and it’s going to be driven by families and particularly the young folks,” she said.

Similar desires to keep the downtown centered on the city’s residents were brought up by several other people involved in the redevelopment, with Paige saying one of Indio’s strengths is that it is more of a true year-round community than a destination focused on catering to retirees or tourists.

He said it is important that downtown be made up of “all mom-and-pop, homegrown cool businesses” and does not think there should be chains like Chipotle or Chili’s there.

Paige also said he hopes the changes downtown give residents access to new experiences in a way that is welcoming, which he said is his goal with the higher-end Italica.

“We’re not stuck up and I’m not going for ‘you don’t belong here,’” he said. “In San Diego, underground speakeasys are everywhere, but there’s a lot of people in Indio who have never seen anything like that. They walk in here and they’re like ‘Oh my God, I’ve never seen anything like that and I can’t believe its in Indio.’ There’s nothing like this in the whole valley.”

Cristina Nagel, who owns the Rocks and Records store with her husband, said she grew up in Indio and has memories of downtown having tons of thrift stores, a JC Penney and just being “super cool.” She said it feels amazing to be a part of the area’s resurgence but said the goal should not be to gentrify the area but rather to showcase and celebrate Indio’s local community. One idea, she said, is to have regular nights where locals come and ride their lowrider bikes on the street.

Ramirez-Cornejo said it can be a tough balance for cities to try to maintain affordability and local businesses and character while ensuring the continued prosperity of a developing downtown.

He acknowledged that rents will probably naturally rise in privately owned buildings as the city gets more popular, but said the city’s ownership of other buildings will allow it to have a much greater influence than most cities on how the downtown develops.

“If you look at who has taken ownership of these spaces, it’s not someone from LA or Chicago,” Mediano said. “It’s (Gabino’s Creperie owner) Marcel (Ramirez), who is from Indio, went to Palm Springs High School, had his business in Palm Springs and has now been able to expand here.”

Indeed, the city’s efforts have been so successful that it’s running out of spaces to rent, which Ramirez-Cornejo said is a good problem to have but a bad one for businesses looking to move in.

Jernigan, meanwhile, said he is elated to see the rebirth of downtown come through a reembrace of small businesses like his that offer a warmth and personal touch that online shopping and big-box retailers, despite their many advantages, simply can’t compete with.

“You can’t try on a shirt on Amazon, you can’t get that personal touch of asking a question that you can when you come into a store that’s been around a long time,” he said. “It’s a throwback to a more personal time, a more personal era, to where people had interactions and looked at each other. And that’s what all these small stores do.”

Paul Albani-Burgio covers growth, development and business in the Coachella Valley. Follow him on Twitter at @albaniburgiop and email him at paul.albani-burgio@desertsun.com.

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