Does City's Future Hinge on State Farm Site?

Local media are starting to pay closer attention to what's going on in the city's center. As Patch has tirelessly reported, the people who run the city are betting on the new SMART station to spur what many agree Rohnert Park lacks — an identity.

The North Bay Business Journal reported today on future development here.

"The vision, shared by Mayor Jake Mackenzie and others, is to see the area evolve in lockstep with the nearby City Center Plaza and become a central retail and cultural anchor in a town known for its sectional nature," the article stated.

Local developers say that's exactly what the city needs.

“Rohnert Park doesn’t have a soul, people always tell us that,” Buck Oates told Patch last year. Oates is part owner of , a local real estate firm that opened up here in 1984. “There’s no way to come in to Rohnert Park, and walk shop to shop — it’s all shopping centers. Every other town in Sonoma County has a small little downtown; it’s an identity.”

The City Council and an economic development team have pounced on the opportunity to do something in the core of town, where more than a year after the insurance giant announced it would shutter operations. Even though redevelopment dollars were stripped from the city's budget — eliminating the easiest way to fund new development — new housing is slated to be built near City Center Plaza and officials are to fill the commercial vacancies.

The numbers on what the real vacancy rate is are conflicting. The Sonoma County Economic Development Board put vacant office space here at 43.4 percent, and empty industrial sapce at 11.6. That doesn't include the shuttered or State Farm Insurance, however, or the new and 24-Hour Fitness that just moved into the North Bay Centre.

The city says commercial vacancies here range between 30 and 43 percent, and recent data from Cassidy Turley, a Northern California-based commercial real estate firm, put vacant office space here at roughly 32 percent, and industrial at seven percent as of the end of 2011.

So pay attention — there's buzz about Rohnert Park's "downtown." The Biz Journal reported that:

"City officials said that the relocation of the proposed Sonoma Marin Area Rail Transit station could foster greater appeal for developers interested in the area. As part of a first-ever commercial real estate forum in February, Planning and Building Manager Maralyn Ponton told attending developers and brokers that the density of nearby housing could be a perk for some projects."

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