Capitola Mall housing project stalled over pandemic, stakeholder disputes

CAPITOLA, Calif. (KION) Plans for future housing at the Capitola Mall are facing hiccups not only because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but also over disagreements among the various owners of the mall itself.

Developers submitted preliminary plans to the city about a year ago that included 600+ units of housing to be built in certain sections of the mall.

But after making revisions to those plans, the pandemic economy derailed any progress. One of the other big challenges: the mall is owned by multiple different stakeholders like Kohl's, Macy's and Target.

That makes coming to an agreement on a building project more difficult.

"There has to be unanimity among the various stakeholders at the mall for a project like this to move forward. So, as you can imagine, coordination between internationally, publicly-traded companies is complicated, especially in the time of a pandemic," said Jamie Goldstein, the city manager of Capitola. "So there are certainly things that need to be worked out in the mall... the owners of the mall and the Sears building at this point are working for those." 

The city says there has not been any updates from developers since the start of the pandemic. But the general plans remain the same: they are hoping to see a mixed-use area for housing, retail and entertainment that includes a Main Street through the mall.

The city says the mall is still the most obvious site for new housing within Capitola.