Downtown Series: Making it on Main Street in Pleasanton

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Quaint. Historic. Unique.

These are all terms many residents and community members have used to describe downtown Pleasanton over the years.

Main Street is a place to meet with friends and family, enjoy annual parades and beer walks, and stroll down to check out many of the newer businesses that have recently opened.

“Downtown Pleasanton is the heart of our community where we gather, celebrate, and support one another,” Mayor Jack Balch said in a statement to the Weekly. “Our investments in public spaces and partnerships with local businesses ensure that downtown continues to serve as a place where people want to gather, visit and do business.”

But prominent vacant storefronts — some of which have been empty for years — coupled with market conditions, regulatory impacts, reputational optics and instability within the Pleasanton Downtown Association have led many to believe that more must be done to elevate the vibrancy of downtown Pleasanton.

“Keeping downtown successful requires more than just maintaining what’s already there — it means actively creating the conditions for businesses to succeed,” Balch said. “Pleasanton is focused on attracting new investment, supporting local entrepreneurs, and making it easier for businesses to grow and thrive. That includes streamlining our permitting process so that when a business is ready to move forward, we can help make it happen quickly and predictably.”

Steeped in history

From dirt roads and dive bars to real estate agencies and diverse restaurants, downtown Pleasanton has come a long way since the city’s incorporation in 1894.

Unlike other cities that have developed around their downtowns, one of the main reasons Pleasanton’s Main Street is located in the southeast corner of the city is because of the transcontinental railroad, city historian and Museum on Main curator Ken MacLennan told the Weekly.

He said there wouldn’t even be a city of Pleasanton without that railroad that rolled into the area in 1869.

According to the Pleasanton Chamber of Commerce website, after incorporation the city began seeing a lot of growth by the 1900s and Main Street specifically started to become a “center for business and community activity and, although agriculture didn’t completely disappear, Pleasanton was on the road to becoming a modern community.”

MacLennan said while the first three decades of the 1900s is when Main Street began seeing more buildings being built, the area didn’t really see any intentional planning going on until the city developed a General Plan in the ’50s. That’s when the leaders of the day really began looking at how to shape the community.

“You start seeing intention like what’s downtown going to look like, how do we keep it vital and how do we keep people coming here,” he said.

And that premise of maintaining the historical ambiance and character of downtown while also pushing the envelope for more growth is something that MacLennan said held true back then, almost like it still does to date.

Pleasanton City Councilmember Julie Testa, a longtime resident of the city who lives near downtown, said one of the main reasons she campaigned for the council before her election in 2018 was because at the time, the city had been discussing significant changes to the area that she did not like.

“I didn’t want to lose what we have,” Testa said. “I know it’s a tourist attraction. I know it’s what people talk about and why people come here.”

Still, as MacLennan noted, downtown has changed fairly significantly since the 20th century.

He said since its beginning, downtown always felt like it appealed more to the working class with bars along with appliance and furniture stores. A difference from today where you have a mix of coffee shops, high-end restaurants and mainly smaller retail stores.

After rent prices in downtown started going up in the 1980s, MacLennan said there was a desire to make the area more of a shopping and hangout destination.

“It is the product of definite policy. Because of the rules they set up for downtown … this is what we get,” he said, referring to the affluent downtown that currently exists but hasn’t changed much since 2008 – apart from some major changes like Starbucks taking over the former Pastime Pool dive bar.  

But as Pleasanton continues to grow, there remains a strong connection to some of the older buildings that date back over a hundred years ago scattered around Main Street. MacLennan said buildings such as the Museum on Main are like anchors in the town’s connection to its past and that even with businesses changing the city should look to preserve certain aspects of downtown’s history.

The building blocks

Pleasanton has a process and guiding principles that help shape what the area looks like called the Downtown Specific Plan.

The plan, the current version of which was adopted by the 2019 City Council, aims to “serve as the primary regulatory guide for preserving and enhancing the 319-acre downtown area” up until 2040, according to the document.

The planning area is roughly bounded by the Alameda County Fairgrounds to the west; the Arroyo del Valle and the shared Altamont Corridor Express (ACE) and Union Pacific Railroad tracks to the north; Second and Third Streets to the east; and Bernal Avenue to the south. 

This allows the city to set rules about what goes on within this area and what is allowed to either be built there or what businesses are allowed to occupy certain areas.

However for Arne Olson, a former city councilmember and the current Chamber of Commerce board chair, there are certain aspects of the plan that are not conducive to business development in downtown. He said it has even been referred to as “the business prevention plan”.

“I’ve told (City Manager) Gerry Beaudin directly that the Downtown Specific Plan needs to be looked at surgically and specific items in that (plan) need to be either changed or removed,” Olson said. “I’ve (known) specific people … who have located a business in Pleasanton previously and now, currently, they have preferred to go to Livermore as a more welcoming environment.”

Olson suggested that a task force be developed to work with downtown landlords and go through the specific plan – which he said is not all bad – in order to tweak specific parts.

One downtown Pleasanton property owner who has also had some issues with the overall process of getting things done in the area is Bruce Torquemada.

Torquemada said his dream had always been to move to Pleasanton because he loved the small, quaintness of its downtown area. That’s why when he made the decision to start buying downtown properties in 2021, he saw it as his mission to preserve things like the Kottinger Barn — he has been maintaining the space and using it for special events — as well as promoting other businesses.

But over the years he said he has noticed Pleasanton gaining a reputation for making it hard for new business owners and tenants to go through the permitting process, which in turn makes it harder for people to follow through with opening a store in the area.

“When you get the architect, the structural engineer … when you get them saying, ‘yeah, Pleasanton is a great place to work with,’ that’s when you’re going to get people starting to want to come back here,” Torquemada said. “They already know Pleasanton is a great place to be; they just don’t like what it takes to get in here because they’ve heard the stories.”

From an unwelcoming permit office to an overall lack of detailed help for promising new tenants, Torquemada said these traits lead aspiring business owners to get a little scared to do business in the city and if downtown wants to fill up more of those empty spaces, it needs to change its process.

Despite the proposed reductions to its planning and permitting departments due to recent budget deficit discussions, the city has said that it is doing more to help future businesses.

“The city continues to streamline its permitting and zoning processes to support both new investment and existing businesses,” city communications manager Heather Tiernan told the Weekly.

“In 2024, Pleasanton completed more than 2,000 building plan reviews, with an average 10-day turnaround for initial reviews,” Tiernan added. “Building on this progress, the city is updating zoning and permitting processes to create a more streamlined and predictable path to approval.”

Gabrielle Welk, who was recently promoted to executive director of the PDA, also acknowledged that the downtown’s historical buildings and new codes might force people to put in a lot more money and work in order to keep their business alive.

A recent example is the structural issues that PRIMM Boutique have been dealing with after it had to temporarily relocate from its original location for 12 years at 520 Main St. to 400 Main St. Suite 202 — the sign outside its decade-old home states that the “100+ year old building needs a little maintenance”.

Welk said she thinks the city and the PDA need to work together more to support downtown businesses.

“I do want to put heat on the city, but I also want to make sure that we understand that everyone has to follow rules and regulations and we’re trying to work together,” Welk said. “That’s kind of another reason why the PDA is here because we want to work as a middle man between (businesses) and the city.”

“The permitting process can be really gruesome at times when you’re a new person opening a business for the first time, so we really encourage them to reach out to us first,” she added.

Testa also said that she has taken the time to further investigate comments she has heard regarding issues with the permitting process but ultimately, she found that staff are doing their jobs and maybe the issues might stem from lack of knowledge on the process.

“I have not ever believed that there is significant concern with our processing being more difficult than other cities,” she said. “I just really don’t think that is accurate.”

Making it on Main Street

Over the past few years, a number of businesses have vacated Main Street for several reasons.

Shuttered banks including Bank of America, which closed last year, as well as the old First Republic Bank on the 200 block of Main Street, remain empty.

A number of retail stores have also gone away such as former downtown staple Christesen’s Western Wear which closed in 2021 and Clover Creek, which relocated to the Raley’s shopping center on Sunol Boulevard. And while the PDA recently hinted to the Weekly that there could be some movement soon as far as improvement plans for the Christesen’s property, people can’t help but to notice the old signs and the empty stores scattered throughout the area.

“There are parts (of downtown) that look somewhat like a ghost town,” Isela Alvarado, a longtime Pleasanton resident who has lived near downtown for over a decade, said in a Spanish-language interview with the Weekly, translated into English.

However, Alvarado also said that downtown is a place where inclusivity thrives and the community comes together — it just needs a little more diversity of stores. 

“For me, downtown is magical and all of the events are very special,” she said.

She said she loves the events and parades that take place along Main Street, but there needs to be more places for people to visit aside from restaurants. 

One of downtown’s newest purveyors, Saltwater, brings something unique to the area. It is a gift and bookshop dedicated to raising awareness about alcohol and drug recovery. 

Located just off Main at 148 Spring St., Saltwater is not the typical downtown attraction. Owner Colleen Faccini said she picked the location so that her customers could remain somewhat anonymous — but it is a clear example of a completely different type of business coming into the area.

“There isn’t a store within this whole valley that supplies books, birthday chips, cards, (and a) celebration of sobriety,” Faccini said. “There’s been some in the past and they’ve come and gone but there isn’t one right now, except for me.”

She said the process of opening her new store — which opened about a month ago — was fairly easy with the help of her landlord, Torquemada, and that she now looks forward to cementing herself as a place where recovering alcoholics can gather as a community, which in turn will bring new demographics of people to the area.

She even said she would be willing to work with the PDA to be a part of events — although for things like the annual beer crawl, she said she would have to look for non-alcoholic drink partnerships.

Another fairly new retail business downtown is Good Common Sense Naturals, a skin care store located in a recognizable unit at 620 Main St.

Owner Wendy Schulte moved to the Bay Area over 10 years ago with her husband and originally saw skincare as more of a hobby than a business opportunity. However, she eventually started looking at different business avenues that would allow her to further pursue her hobby as a full-time job.

After doing some popup events and losing a temporary space at Stoneridge Shopping Center, Schulte eventually set her sights on downtown where she initially took over the space formerly occupied by the Jewelers Gallery.

Following the coronavirus pandemic, she began seeing more success to the point where she needed to relocate, which is when she spoke with property owners for the old Dean’s Cafe building.

She said other tenants were scared to take over that space but after four years of being there, she not only appreciates her new space, she also appreciates the fact that the city was able to refurbish and keep the Dean’s sign.

During her time as a business owner in downtown Pleasanton, Schulte said she has grown to love the area.

She said this past year the growth in downtown has been more steady as far as clientele, but that it was actually a lot worse several years ago when there were more weekend closures of Main Street.

“We had to plead with the downtown association to figure out a way to get it to stop,” she said. 

She said she didn’t like the closures keeping cars off Main Street because they benefited restaurants but weren’t good for retail businesses like hers, especially during the hotter summer days where people would have to park away from central shops.

She said closing Main Street for holiday parades and special events is fine but the regular weekend street closures was “the worst idea that burst from the pandemic”.

However, other folks disagree. Testa said that while she knows it’s a bit controversial, she supports more street closures because of the amount of foot traffic they bring to the area and the community it creates.

Misconceptions vs. reality

Several people contended to the Weekly that one of the more common misconceptions about downtown is that parking is an issue. Welk and Schulte have said that maybe the only issue with parking is that there isn’t enough signage to show people where the city’s free downtown parking lot is located on the old railroad corridor between Bernal Avenue and Abbie Street.

Testa even referred to the parking issue as a myth because although people may not find spots directly in front of the business they want to visit, there is typically plenty of parking available for those willing to walk a little bit. 

In addition to differing views about parking, the presence of empty storefronts is another topic that comes up frequently when discussing downtown Pleasanton.

Running a business, in general, is a tough world where you see turnover all the time, Judy Wheeler, owner of Towne Center Books, told the Weekly. The downtown staple has been around since 1993, and Wheeler took over in 1998.

“That’s the nature of business,” Wheeler said. “Running a business is always tough! There are many unknowns and multiple pieces to the pie but this is definitely uncharted territory.”

Wheeler said that online sales and services make it hard not just on small businesses in Pleasanton, but to others across the country.

“Retail probably feels this impact the hardest,” she said. “The fun of browsing in cute shops and then making the purchase online concept does not translate to thriving brick-and-mortar shops.”

But while there is a desire for more retail stores downtown from residents like Alvarado — who personally would like to see more shops like Therapy Stores — as well as leaders like Testa, Welk said there already is a diverse range of businesses in the area. 

The issue, according to Welk, is that the vacant lots are large in size, which might give off the sense that there might be more vacancies than there really are. She also said the reason for some of these storefronts being empty for so long is because it takes a long time to transform those spaces for any new incoming businesses.

According to the city, tenant changes are natural for any downtown and for Pleasanton, this brings opportunities to “introduce new experiences and amenities that reflect what our community values”.

“Downtown Pleasanton continues to evolve, and that’s a positive sign of a healthy and dynamic district,” Tiernan said. “While some storefronts may appear temporarily vacant, many are in active transition, with exciting new restaurants and services preparing to open.”

Still, for Pleasanton residents like Gretchen Kyle, the need to occupy those vacant spaces should be a priority for the PDA.

“People don’t want to walk on a stretch where there isn’t anything but a salon,” Kyle said. “It’s restaurant, salon, restaurant, salon for the most part.”

So what is Pleasanton doing to improve the downtown’s overall vitality? According to several stakeholders, while the PDA and the city are working on several ideas and future projects, it is also up to the residents, business owners and landlords to help out.

The future of downtown

Any downtown business district across the country shares one thing in common — it depends on customers.

“Every day our residents make choices on where to spend their money. This is the most important thing,” Wheeler said. “We try to focus on providing a personal service and shopping experience including social events that people want and can’t get online. We’re always looking for new connections with the community. We need people’s love and their money.”

For the most part, the different stakeholders ranging from landlords like Torquemada to business owners like Schulte have said that the PDA is a really important piece to the puzzle that is improving the overall vitality of downtown Pleasanton.

Many criticized the tumultuous period of turnover within the downtown organization over the past few years saying that the support wasn’t always there or the lack of events and planning was detrimental to the downtown’s vitality. Welk is the fourth permanent executive director for the PDA since Laura Brooks stepped down in 2019 – and Brooks ran the ship for the nonprofit on an interim basis from out of state after two of the departures, with her latest temporary stint lasting some 22 months.

“The last two years or so I think the Pleasanton (Downtown) Association has had a lot of issues retaining people and actually keeping a team alive long enough for them to even keep a seat warm,” Schulte said.

But with Welk at the helm now, every single source interviewed by the Weekly has said they feel like the future is bright.

“I think this recent change in the PDA has been very positive,” Olson said.

Welk has been with the PDA for the past four years handling events and other tasks. She is also a Pleasanton native and because of that she feels more connected to the role.

She also said that with her particular experience in marketing — which she studied in college — she feels like downtown Pleasanton is about to enter into a new era.

“There’s some really strong business owners here and I feel a lot of support from Jack and the city and I feel the community also has our back and that’s all we needed, is just all the stars aligning,” she said.

Welk said the push will continue to be focusing on promoting small businesses and that the city is prioritizing keeping that small town charm while offering unique stores that will draw people from all over the Bay Area.

She said she wants to push more local merchandise, which is something that Kyle also pointed out as an idea as she has made bags for her nonprofit Big Bay Ray — which promote the city — to be sold at places like Iron Horse Real Estate.

The city also pointed out that recently approved plans to redevelop the former Barone’s Restaurant site into a mix of housing and retail and the current construction underway to create a renewed Lions Wayside Park will bring new amenities and additional residents to downtown.

“The city continues to invest in its downtown, recognizing it as a vital part of the community’s identity and local economy,” Tiernan said.

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