Thanks bode for sending this in from the Reader:

At least eight businesses in Carlsbad’s downtown Village area have been told they must prepare to move out as their buildings make way for a sleek new restaurant/retail complex.

In what seems to cement the notion that Carlsbad is indeed morphing into Manhattan Beach, the popular Mas Fina Cantina and the Carlsbad Village Art & Antique Mall have been told their days are numbered. Their buildings will either be bulldozed or reformatted to make wake way for an upscale retail center. Their exit date could come as soon as October 2020 but possibly may not arrive until mid 2021 based on permit approvals.

Plans circulating with drawings for a new development called State Street Commons show there are no plans to retain two automotive repair shops, two hair stylists, a yoga center, an insurance office and an apartment complex. All will be displaced by a new complex that fronts the 2700 block of State Street and backs up to Roosevelt Street. Calls to Solana Beach-based Retail Insite who generated the drawings did not return requests for comment.

“I was very unhappy when I heard the news” says Andy Davis, co-owner of the Mas Fina Cantina who says he spent months hearing from customers that his building had date with a bulldozer. Since the 50s the Mas Fina building has been home to an appliance repair store, a laundromat, and an Italian restaurant. Mas Fina arrived in 2000. “My landlord told me: ‘We don’t have any plans, but we’ll let you know if it changes.'”

But the customers kept coming with more details. When Davis heard that the city had actually gotten involved, “I met with them and they told me they had sold the property.”

Davis says he has no animosity against his landlord or the incoming developer. “But I am worried the Village area will lose its charm as everything seems to be getting bigger. I get it that this is happening. My problem is that it is moving a little too fast and all the new designs seem to be similar. It’s all big boxes. There is nothing beautiful about these new buildings. People don’t want Orange County in coastal North County.”

Davis wouldn’t get specific about Mas Fina Cantina’s future, “But you can say we will stay in the Village [at a new location].”

Calls to Karlsbad Realty and the Don Dewhurst family about the sale of the property were not returned.

Meanwhile Bonnie Imperiali, manager of the Carlsbad Village Art & Antique Mall, says she was unclear about specific dates when her 15,000-square-foot collectible bazaar must close or relocate. The mall hosts mini shops for some 100 individual artists and vendors. It has been on State Street for almost 30 years.

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Jim the Realtor
Jim is a long-time local realtor who comments daily here on his blog, bubbleinfo.com which began in September, 2005. Stick around!

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