A proposal to breathe new life into the old Sears building at the Santa Maria Town Center mall drew accolades from the city’s planning commissioners before they delayed approval for two weeks on Wednesday night. 

The Santa Maria Planning Commission voted unanimously to postpone adopting its recommendations until the April 16 meeting to see proposed changes they requested to the project’s design.

“I would just like to be able to see that, go over it one last time and say, ‘I think we’re happier with this rather than this,’” chair Robert Dickerson said.

Shasta 2020 LP proposed remodeling the former Sears building, one of the key anchor slots that has sat empty at the north end of the mall since early 2020. A terrace also will be added as part of the remodel of the 114,000-square-foot, two-story building.

A significant portion, or about 50,000 square feet, of the building at 226 E. Main St. will become home to El Super market, which has 64 stores in California, New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona and Texas.

Former bays for the Sears Auto Center will be remodeled to house between one and four businesses ranging from 780 square feet to 3,000 square feet.

The second level of the Sears site also will be renovated to house a pair of businesses, each 25,000 square feet. The old escalator inside the building will be removed.

“Overall, what you’re doing is you’re giving us a really nice project that’s going to revitalize that area which has been unused for so long,” Commissioner Tim Seifert said.

“This is going to be a great contribution to the area for sure,” Commissioner Yasameen Mohajer said. “I hear time and time again people are really looking forward to having a market there. It’s really going to liven up the place. 

“Secondly, I love this terrace that’s coming.”

Despite the praise, the commissioners delayed approval, calling the design’s three exterior architectural towers stark and visually unappealing. 

Suggestions ranged from reducing the height of the towers on the corners or replacing the cornices, or decorative features that crown a building.

“I think the general facade looks like a suburban shopping center, not a flagship type of setting like our mall,” Commissioner Tom Lopez said, adding that there should be “a little bit more.”

Dickerson agreed that the design needed adjustments. 

“I would like to see the two towers brought down by about 3 feet,” Dickerson said.

Seifert suggested that cornices might be a simpler solution to implement than changing the structural height.

“There are things you can do without changing the whole building to make your eye break up and to get a little bit better look,” Seifert said.  

Commissioner Esau Blanco said any refinements would be important because of the location.

“It’ll be a major upgrade over what’s there now, but I think it’s our one chance to actually try to get this area right,” Blanco said. 

A delay allows the Planning Commission to get another look at the project’s revisions during the April 16 meeting. 

The panel’s recommendation will be forwarded to the City Council for final approval with the hearing planned for May 6.

“We are very anxious to get them ready to open,” Sarah Withers, a member of the applicant’s team, said of the project’s largest tenant, El Super.

The applicant asked the city to remove a requirement to install a bus shelter, but the planning commissioners said that’s a standard condition for developments in Santa Maria. 

Withers said the team has made 156 revisions to the proposal for the complicated building.

“It’s an adaptive reuse, which we’re very proud of. I think it should actually be submitted for awards, especially in the shopping center world, because this is pivotal,” Withers said.

“Our communities have a lot of these mall that are getting old, and this is an example of how you can spruce up an old mall and bring back a lot of synergy. It can be a catalyst for this whole downtown,” he added. 

It isn’t the first adaptive reuse project considered by the commissioners, who previously approved turning the former two-story Mervyn’s (then Fallas) building at Santa Maria Town Center West into apartments after multiple reviews.