The Catalyst could be demolished to make way for a seven-story building with condos. (Amaya Edwards — Santa Cruz Local/CatchLight Local file)
SANTA CRUZ >> Two Santa Cruz residents have launched an effort to purchase The Catalyst Nightclub building that is slated for redevelopment into 64 condominiums. The campaign went online on Wednesday and by Friday afternoon more than 1,100 individuals had pledged to pitch in more than $540,000 to make the purchase, according to the website.
Jay Brown and Jeremy Stone, longtime friends and Santa Cruz residents, are leading the charge. The two said they plan to meet with the developer and see if they are open to selling it, though the buildings are not listed for sale. Brown and Stone said they might try to purchase a different property if the developer doesn’t bite.
When asked if it was not premature to launch this campaign prior to speaking with the property owner, Brown said the pledges are important to “signal to the city, to The Catalyst, to the developer — we really want to maintain and preserve The Catalyst.”
“The topic of The Catalyst and its connection to downtown and how downtown is shifting is something that the city is like abuzz with all the time,” said Stone, a music producer, owner of westside recording studio Sonivore and member of the Santa Cruz Arts Commission.
“A lot of people feel as if they don’t have any control over how things are changing and where it’s going. We saw this opportunity with The Catalyst and we decided that it would be an incredible thing to do for the community,” Stone said.
The owner of 1009, 1011 and 1015 Pacific Ave. is GSH Ventures, a multinational real estate firm and developer. The properties were listed for sale for $4.5 million last year after its longtime owners decided to sell.
Representatives of GSH did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment on Friday.
Brown said when he and Stone initially launched the effort, they did not realize that the building had already sold — but they still intend to ask to buy it. Their top priority is “to be an ally to The Catalyst,” Brown said, and they have a meeting set with The Catalyst’s business manager Igor Gavric next week.
Gavric said at a community meeting in January about the development, “The Catalyst has full intention of continuing to operate, at 1011 Pacific or wherever.”
Stone and Brown have not collected any money yet, they said, the pledges are a way to gauge how much Santa Cruz residents want to save The Catalyst. They said they envision it becoming a “community-owned venue,” but haven’t ironed out the details of how exactly that would work.
The two also said they are open to pivot, and channel the energy from the campaign into a different project or a different building if that’s what makes the most sense.
“It’s a testament to what the city and the people in Santa Cruz want that they showed up in numbers, with so much energy behind it,” Stone said.
Santa Cruz City Council candidate Hector Marin launched a ballot initiative campaign in an attempt to protect the building as a historical monument, but ultimately came up short of the signatures required.
City leaders said the designation wouldn’t have affected the developer’s plans as state law allows housing proposals to lock in development standards in place when the proposal is submitted.
GSH Ventures submitted a pre-application to the city in November for a seven-story building with 64 condos and ground-floor commercial space. The development would require demolishing The Catalyst, which has occupied the space since the 1970s.
City leaders initially said the developer would allow The Catalyst to rent the bottom floor of the building to continue operating, but later walked that back, saying the developer was open to it but had not made a deal with The Catalyst.
The Catalyst’s lease in the building expires in 2028.
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Nik Altenberg is a bilingual reporter and assistant editor at Santa Cruz Local. Nik Altenberg es reportera bilingüe y editora asistente para Santa Cruz Local.
