Patti Pagliei used to drive by the abandoned building on the corner of Linden Avenue and Seventh Street, thinking about all the possibilities the site could offer.
When she saw that the site was being developed into an outdoor mall and public market, she gave the developers a call, only to discover that they had already been looking at her and her husband’s business, The Shopkeepers, to be a part of the space.
“It was kismet,” Pagliei said. “They didn’t want anybody else on that corner, they really wanted us. Our desire and their desire sort of met in this perfect union.”
The final touches are going in on Linden Square, Downtown Carpinteria’s open format outdoor mall at 700 Linden Ave. The center will be the new home for several local businesses including The Shopkeepers, Dart Coffee, Tina’s Pizza, and Third Window Brewing.
Pagliei and her husband, John Simpson, said they’re excited to be part of reviving Linden Avenue as a place for shopping and dining.
“This is our hometown, and we have a lot of friends that expressed the need for some real community-based shopping, retail that kind of reflects the values of the community, preserving that culture, and also supporting the tourism that comes into town with the campground,” Pagliei said.
The Shopkeepers opened in downtown Santa Barbara in August 2017 selling clothing, accessories, home decor and jewelry from their own company, Waxing Poetic. The new location in Linden Square will celebrate the local passion for music and the city’s beach atmosphere.
“We purchase things that we feel create a story and meet a need for our customers,” Pagliei said. “We have a rock and roll, western coastal California vibe downtown, Carpinteria is going to be more of a beach expression of that. So still the same ethos and the same fun experience.”
Carpinteria City Manager Michael Ramirez said the project will bring in new revenue for the city through sales tax. He also hopes that it will help make the downtown more of a social hub.
“We’re excited for what it’s going to do for our economic vitality of Linden Avenue,” Ramirez said. “I think it’s potentially going to start drawing in other folks, and there’s things already in the works. The Palms is also going to be in the process of development so I think it’s going to generate a lot of momentum for our downtown.”
Nick Bobroff, community development director for the city of Carpinteria, said he hopes the project will be the boost that downtown needs.
“I’m hopeful that it kind of becomes the shot in the arm, if you will, that the downtown needs to kind of get re-energized and help bring some more interest and attention to some of the other vacant commercial spaces in the downtown,” Bobroff said.
The city had several conversations with the developers since 2022 about what the project would look like. After a few false starts, the developers brought in designs that Bobroff said fit in well with the rest of Carpinteria.
“They brought in this sketch, which sort of played with the character of the buildings that were there, and tried to preserve the feeling of what was there, but making it something new,” Bobroff said. “And even just from that first sketch, we were like yeah, that’s it, that says Carpinteria; do that, build that.”
One of the owners and developers of Linden Square, Terry Huggins, said they are just waiting for three of the restaurants to get their beer and wine license, and then they’ll be ready to open sometime in May.
“It’s going to be a big boost for Carpinteria because it’s going to bring a lot of people there to enjoy the whole community,” Huggins said. “We designed this property around a large plaza, and it’s very nicely done.”
