Oceanside business leader envisions vendors on beach

By: BEN FRUMIN - Staff Writer | Saturday, July 16, 2005 9:52 PM PDT ∞

OCEANSIDE ---- Kim Heim has a vision of Oceanside in which beachgoers would surf the Web after they ride the ocean's waves, and novelty bicycles would be easily rented for a spin down the sunny shoreline.

Beachgoers would pour out of a hotel, time shares, trains and a slew of downtown homes, and be whisked by readily available, bicycle-powered cabs to the coast. There they would be met by vendors with pushcarts, canopies and kiosks offering the opportunity to order food, sign up for swimming lessons and rent umbrellas, coolers, CD players, kites and chairs.

"It'll be a great thing in the future," Heim said last week. "As it is right now, we make it very difficult for our beach visitors."

Heim, executive director of MainStreet Oceanside, got a step closer to realizing his vision last month when the City Council unanimously approved an agreement that allows his nonprofit downtown group to act as "master concessionaire" in providing beachfront vending services along The Strand, a public street that runs along the beach from Wisconsin Avenue to Breakwater Way.

Heim said that, while it will be years before that narrow street is fully peppered with vendors, a few permanent services ---- such as rented, pedal-powered vehicles ---- may land on The Strand by year's end. By next summer, Heim expects four to six vendors to be set up near the beach.

While there may be 10 to 15 beachfront services on The Strand in a decade, implementing a vending program will be "slow and methodical, careful and planned," so as to create "a framework for future services to be hung on," Heim said.

Future needs

Between 1.5 million and 2 million people already visit Oceanside's beaches annually, Heim said. But in the future, that number will spike because of downtown development and improved public transit, he said.

The Sprinter, an east-west rail line that is under construction, would make more than two dozen trips a day to this city of 175,000, Heim said. The Sprinter is scheduled to begin operating by the end of 2007.

A 302-room Westin resort is expected to open near the Oceanside Municipal Pier by the close of 2009, around the same time that San Diego developer CityMark is expected to finish several mixed-use projects, including hundreds of condominiums, on five nearby blocks.

Construction of a 136-unit, seven story time-share resort is also scheduled to begin soon.

Those developments and the Sprinter could draw millions of dollars to downtown Oceanside, Heim said, though it will also create an armada of beachgoers that will head to the sand without cars to schlep picnic baskets, surfboards and other essentials.

That means, if Oceanside wants those dollars, it has to bring goods and services to the beach, Heim said.

MainStreet's intent isn't to "provide unbridled capitalism on the beach," Heim said, but rather to "artfully introduce enhancements to the beach experience."

That might mean shoreline ATMs, food delivery, and wireless access so that laptop users on the beach can surf the Web, Heim said.

All aboard

Heim's plan has the endorsement of at least one fervent coastal preservationist.

Carolyn Krammer, chairwoman of Citizens for the Preservation of Parks and Beaches and former campaign manager for Councilwoman Shari Mackin, said last week that it's "a great idea" to provide tourists and residents with an easy way to rent boogie boards and bikes and buy food at the beach.

"I think it's cool," Krammer said. "I really do."

Michele Lisi-Merzi, who owns Spanky's Pizza, a few blocks from the beach on the Coast Highway, said she hopes to get in on the vending by delivering pies and drinks to worshippers of sun and sand.

Lisi-Merzi said she would love to load up a golf cart with sodas, water and 10-inch pizzas and cruise The Strand at 5 mph to feed beachgoers.

"That would be the ultimate dream," she said.

While Spanky's already gets five or six cell phone requests for beach deliveries on busy summer days, Lisi-Merzi said she would expect beach business to trounce those numbers if she took pizza to the coast, rather than waiting for calls.

Local manager

It has been several years since Oceanside last authorized vendors to hawk goods on public land near the beach, Heim said. In the 1990s, many downtown business owners said they felt as if the vendors were stealing some of their business.

But MainStreet will be able to alleviate those concerns because it's "sensitive to downtown business issues," as its membership is composed of 435 businesses, Heim said. Plus, many vendors may be downtown business owners, he said.

Heim said that in the next month, he will assemble a steering committee of 10 to 20 business owners and vendors to map a game plan for beachfront vending.

MainStreet's agreement with the city requires the nonprofit group to give Oceanside a cut of its gross annual vending income. While the city won't get a cut of the first $50,000 brought in by vending each year, 5 percent of the second $50,000 would go to the city.

Of every dollar over $100,000 raked in from beach vending, the city will pocket 7.5 percent.

The five-year deal expires July 2010, though MainStreet can ask that the city approve four five-year extensions.

MainStreet will pay the city by taking a slice of vendors' gross revenue that would not exceed 20 percent, Heim said, with the exact amount depending on each vendor's need for structures, electricity, water and other support.

Any excess income taken in by MainStreet would be pumped right back into downtown Oceanside, Heim said. MainStreet is responsible for operating the Phantom Gallery, parades, a weekly farmers market and several special events.

Contact staff writer Ben Frumin at (760) 901-4067 or bfrumin@nctimes.com.

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