SEABREEZE TAVERN
Historic building charred Fire prompts questions about its future
UP IN SMOKE Firefighters use
an aerial ladder to pump water into the roof of the SeaBreeze Tavern June 12 where flames engulfed the historic building. Tarmo Hannula
By TODD GUILD
JULY 2020 | APTOS LIFE
contributed
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courtesy of the Aptos History Museam
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fire that apparently started in a pile of rubble in an alleyway behind the SeaBreeze Tavern late June 12 has destroyed the building, bringing to a close a story that began when it was built 92 years ago in what was then a burgeoning beachfront mecca. Firefighters responded to a call of a blaze around 9:30pm. The flames chewed their way from the alleyway into the building and, fed by piles of items stored inside, quickly engulfed the building and weakened the exterior walls, said Aptos/La Selva Fire Protection District Fire Marshall Mike DeMars. Fearing for their safety, fire crews exited the building and focused on defending the surrounding buildings, DeMars said. A fire inspector on Monday called the building a total loss. “It’s probably coming down,” DeMars said. The cause is still under investigation, he said. There were no injuries. Former owner Thomas Richard “Rich” McInnis, who was still living in the residential apartment above the tavern despite losing the building to foreclosure, said he was out of town when he got news of the fire. “I spent my life’s savings, and blood, sweat and tears to restore it and run it, and I am heartbroken at the condition it’s currently in now,” he said. “I just wish I had been on site Sunday and not over the hill in San Jose when the fire broke out, so I could have seen or smelled the smoke and put it out earlier and or called the fire department sooner.”
THROUGH THE YEARS (Top right) The SeaBreeze Tavern weeks before it was charred by a fire on June 12.
(Bottom right) A photo from 1928 shows the historic Aptos building that burned down.
The recent sale The property was in foreclosure and was sold in February for $1,043,500 in a bank auction to Champery Rental Reo LLC, which is a subsidiary of Redondo Beach-based Wedgewood. The company bills itself as an “integrated network” of companies that specialize in acquiring “distressed residential real estate.” Company representatives said they are “evaluating their options” for the future of the property. In the weeks before the fire struck, Santa Cruz realtor Mark Vincent, who served as Champery’s “boots on the ground” salesman, said that Wedgewood typically restores and resells distressed and foreclosed properties. Even before the fire occurred, the decrepit SeaBreeze—and its neighbors along the Esplanade—were players in a story that started in 1928, when A.A. Liederbach built it to serve as headquarters for Peninsula Properties, which was developing the Rio Del Mar area to serve crowds of tourists, according to the Aptos History Museum. The building has held several businesses since then, most recently the SeaBreeze Tavern. Georgia May
Derber owned the business for 20 years, using inheritance to purchase it when she was 27. But she allowed the business to fall into disrepair and, when the business closed for good in 1988, lived as a hermit in her upstairs apartment until she was discovered dead there in 2004. When McInnis bought the tavern in 2005 for just over $1.3 million, county leaders and residents saw him as a knight in shining armor who would restore it, said former Santa Cruz County Supervisor Ellen Pirie. That was not the case. “There was certainly a lot of hope at the beginning that the SeaBreeze could become that sort of neighborhood-community focal point that people hoped it could be,” Pirie said. The county “tried to bend over backward” to help him get permits, she added, but they all came to naught. “If you had told me 15 years ago that we would be talking about this, and that it wouldn’t have progressed in any way, I just wouldn’t have thought it was possible,” she said. Through the years, the SeaBreeze has been both an eyesore and a headache for the community, befouled with discarded furniture and other junk outside.
Complaints from neighbors have included storing trash around the property, installing barbed wire and allowing RVs to park on the streets adjacent to the building, said Santa Cruz County Supervisor Zach Friend, whose Second District covers the seaside town. “Over time, the SeaBreeze has morphed from a historic crown jewel of the Esplanade to a site of neglect, disrepair and illicit activity,” he said. “Clearly, the community expects better, and hopefully the new owners can work to help anchor the renaissance already beginning in the Rio Del Mar Flats.” McInnis said he spent all of his savings restoring the place and getting his liquor license, leaving him unable to hire employees or make further improvements.
Legal troubles McInnis was arrested in July 2018 for domestic abuse, false imprisonment and resisting arrest, and in November of that year for violating a protective order. He was also arrested in 2015 for running an illegal cannabis dispensary out of the tavern. ➝7 He permanently lost his
