Small Business: Holiday Blaze Destroyed Four Downtown Encinitas Firms
ENCINITAS , Four downtown Encinitas businesses devastated by a fire late last year have reacted to the blaze in different ways.
Two store owners who had been in the burned building at 553-583 South Coast Highway 101 have already announced they are coming back, while two others are weighing their options.
Dan Klobucar, owner of Dan’s Cyclery, plans to reopen his bicycle shop next week at a new location in Cardiff. His store burned to the ground Dec. 6 when a fire started in a trash bin placed against the 6,000-square-foot building.
The fire spread to some latticework near the back of his store, and from there to the three other shops in the building through a common attic.
All the merchandise in Klobucar’s store , as well as fixtures, tools and equipment , was a total loss. But that didn’t put Klobucar out of the bike business entirely, he said.
The Downtown Encinitas Main Street Association (DEMA) was one of the groups that came to his rescue. Since Klobucar had a few bicycles in storage, he was able to assemble them and sell them out of a space provided by DEMA, he said.
All Pitched In
That wasn’t the only positive thing that come out of the experience. Since the fire happened so close to Christmas, other downtown merchants came together in a show of holiday support. Klobucar was impressed with what they did.
“They all pitched in, did everything they could as far as helping us clean up, salvage anything if there was anything salvageable,” he said. “There were donations taken different merchants had cups out for donations and stuff.”
Martini Ranch, a downtown Encinitas nightclub, waived its cover charge for its New Years’ Eve party. Instead, it solicited donations for the merchants, Klobucar said.
“By and large, everyone in the community was really great about it , it would feel good to have the store there. I wish I could return to the same place,” he said.
However, since it would be months before Klobucar could reopen if he were to stay in Encinitas, he had to look elsewhere. He found a location in Cardiff and plans to open Feb. 24.
Jay Kontos of Retro Hair Salon, meanwhile, is staying in downtown Encinitas. He hopes to reopen in April, two doors down from the previous site.
In his case, there’s a reason he’s able to reopen so close to the original location, and so quickly. Kontos was already negotiating to move to the new site before the fire.
Still Obstacles To Overcome
He still has obstacles. For his new store, he faces building codes and handicapped access laws that will add about $15,000 to $20,000 to the cost of the remodel. Insurance will only take him so far, he said.
Kontos had four years left on the lease at the original site, and he planned to sublease that space while getting started at the new, larger location. Now that his former site is gone, so is his safety net.
Kontos credited his friends and neighbors in Encinitas in helping him get through the crisis.
“The local merchants , we’re all like family there,” he said. “The woman who owns the Coast Highway Traders, she did a little a collection. The people of DEMA , wonderful people. Just all the local people and the customers.”
Other Encinitas hair salons opened their doors and made space available for Kontos and his employees. That helped tide him over, although he had to cut back.
“I had into move to a smaller place in North Park and try to do with less things. Not going out, not much of a Christmas holiday, and that sort of thing,” he said.
Gallery Burned
Still, Kontos acknowledged he was lucky. One of his neighbors, Mazen Afghani was heartbroken when his shop, MTA International Gallery and World Bazaar, also burned down.
“I got to the scene of the fire that night, and I saw that poor man in the wheelchair and he was just crying. And he looked up and said, ‘Jay, what are we going to do now?'” Kontos said.
For Afghani, it was a particularly bad break. He had opened at his new location just three weeks before the fire.
Afghani had been in business 21 years , including nine years at a shop along South Coast Highway 101. He had wanted to move to a larger location while staying within downtown Encinitas, since that was where he was well known, he said.
He found what he was looking for in May, when another business moved. He got a 10-year lease and spent more than $50,000 on construction , including fireproofing.
He lost everything Dec. 6 , either from fire, or because tar from the roof melted and got all over everything.
One of the few things that kept Afghani going was the support from friends and strangers alike, he said.
Community Support
“It still brings tears to my eyes , the community stood with us so incredibly. Without their support I really don’t know what I’d do,” Afghani said.
Customers sent flowers and letters of encouragement, while others brought dinners to the house, and local merchants took up a collection on his behalf, he said.
Afghani’s not sure if he can return, since it will be months before there’s a new building there, and he has to make his living somehow.
But a suitable location hasn’t turned up anywhere else. Also, he’d prefer to stay in Encinitas, Afghani said.
Compounding the problem is the fact that once he opens a new store, he might not have anything to put in it. Since Afghani deals in rare and unusual items, it would take months or years to build up a collection similar to what was destroyed in the fire, he said.
“I’m still way, way devastated,” he said. “I loved the ethnic art, and I loved the tribal art, and that’s mainly what I was dealing with. And I did a lot of my own buying. So I put a lot more than just business into it , I put a lot of my feeling. We worked really hard on building it up.”
Patty Flores, owner of Shrimply Delicious, was not available for comment. However, Peder Norby, executive director of DEMA, said he had spoken with her. He described her plans as “very fluid,” meaning Flores had not made up her mind what she would do next.
Norby added that DEMA hopes to prevent such devastating fires in the future. Therehave been three large fires in downtown Encinitas in the past 10 years , primarily because the buildings are so old and are not built to modern fire safety standards, he said.
DEMA plans to add fire safety into an already existing fa & #231;ade improvement program. As it now exists, the program provides matching grants for merchants looking to improve the appearance of their stores, Norby said.
Already, DEMA is working with the fire department to come up with a list of improvements that would help prevent or slow the spread of fire. These would also be included under the grant, Norby said.
As for the building that burned down, a new one will be constructed in its place. The new structure will look very similar to the original, but with modern fire safety equipment, he said.
Leon Perl, the owner of the property, was not available for comment, but Shoja Naimi, local representative for Perl, confirmed that this was the plan.
Naimi spoke both as Perl’s representative and as a friend of the displaced store owners. Naimi is also one of Perl’s tenants, as the owner of Roxy Restaurant & Ice Cream in downtown Encinitas.
“MTA gallery , the owner, we were close friends. I would go to their home for dinner. It is sad. And Retro Hair Salon, he is the person that cut my hair for 15 years,” he said.
Joseph Zavattero, senior estimator for Alfie Construction, said the new building for the site is not yet at the design or permitting stage. He predicted it will be built in about a year.