LOS BANOS
Revitalizing
Downtown Los Banos
By KRISTINA HACKER
D With a motivated group of property owners, merchants and City staff, along with the expertise of Silva, the Los Banos downtown effort took off.
owntown Los Banos is in the midst of a renaissance. The southwest Merced County city has been working for the past five years to not only bring a fresh look to the downtown core, but also spur new development and draw in the thousands of visitors who drive through town every day on Highway 152 on their way from the Valley to the Central Coast. The downtown revitalization started with a city-hosted workshop in December 2017, according to Los Banos Director of Community and Economic Development Stacy Souza. The city invited former Turlock Chamber of Commerce director and the driving force behind the Downtown Turlock Revitalization effort in the early 2000s, Sharon Silva, to give a presentation to stakeholders on what would be needed to launch their own revitalization plan. “That planted the seed,” said Souza. “… She was able to take a look through the weathered paint and the broken bricks and modge podge of stuff downtown and really look past that and say, ‘hey, you guys
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have some opportunity here. You have good bones; your downtown has some good, strong components. You have some buildings here that just need some attention and you need the right kind of tenants and you’re going to have the ability to revitalize.’ “When she explained that to the property owners, they started to get excited because somebody was actually telling them some positive information when for so many years they had been told downtown doesn’t have anything, it’s a snooze fest, it’s not safe, it’s this and that and all the negatives. Sharon really brought to light all the opportunity.” With a motivated group of property owners, merchants and City staff, along with the expertise of Silva, the Los Banos downtown effort took off. Even with the unplanned setbacks that the pandemic brought, the City passed a Los Banos Downtown publicprivate partnership agreement, which is a special benefit assessment district designed to raise funds within a specific geographic area.
