Tom and Rosanna Jennett plunked down $1.4 million this year for a rundown motel in Santa Paula, the center of an agricultural valley in Ventura County that has also seen better days.
For the Los Angeles couple, the purchase represents more than a chance to restore a historic building to its former glory. It is a bet on the future of a mostly blue-collar town that is struggling to restore its economic vitality.
Just as Santa Paula's quaint, century-old downtown has served as Hollywood's stand-in for Main Street USA in countless movies, the forces that drive the city have not changed in decades. Its principal industry is still rooted in the lush citrus groves that nearly encircle the town of 29,000.
While other cities rode the crest of the region's retail boom, Santa Paula stagnated into an isolated outpost of few jobs, boarded storefronts and little new construction. Last December, Santa Paula Memorial Hospital was forced to shut its doors after 42 years.
"At one time, there were busy shops and businesses all along Main Street. You should have seen it," said Dr. Samuel Edwards, a fourth-generation Santa Paula resident and former county medical director. "But the world has passed us by. We're definitely going to break out, but it's going to take some time -- and capital."
Officials insist the city is entering a new era. Indeed, Santa Paula is the county's latest beneficiary of a hot real estate market that has already begun to attract investors, developers and affluent home buyers. All are lured by the unspoiled beauty and relative affordability -- the median price of a home is $256,000 -- of the self-proclaimed "Citrus Capital of the World."
Several other signs indicate that change is at hand.
Dallas-based Centex Homes is moving forward with plans to build a 2,100-home subdivision in undeveloped Fagan Canyon on the city's northern edge.
Arizona-based Pinnacle Group wants to build up to 400 multi-million dollar estates in remote Adams Canyon.
A group of local investors is negotiating to buy property in the newly designated downtown redevelopment area.
"We're reaching out to businesses and saying, 'Look at what we have -- mountains and orchards and a 100-year-old-plus downtown that's attractive for retail,' " said City Manager Wally Bobkiewicz, hired two years ago to help turn things around. "Once we build something, and we're successful at it, people will come."
