SALINAS, Calif. -- New information on a 52-acre project to redevelop the East Side of Salinas.
On Tuesday, Central Coast News learned city leaders are modeling the Alisal Marketplace project after Granville Island, a man-made island in Vancouver.
Salinas city leaders are hoping the East Side will resemble it in the future.
Granville Island is place where people can eat, shop at small businesses, check out art galleries, and even attend art school, all set up along a 38-acre property.
The Canadian marketplace has been effectively operating for more than 30 years, so Central Coast News called its marketing and communications officer to find out the key to success for Salinas.
"We have unique shopping, we have small business, we have industrial use," Scott Fraser, marketing and communications officer. "We have artists. We have education and all of those things together make it the sum greater than the parts."
The 52-acre Alisal Marketplace project is mirroring granville island, with a local twist.
it will be a mix-use project, incorporating Spanish-style acrchitecture, restaurants, hotels, small businesses, and even a bigger police station.
It would also have a walkway through the heart of it all to connect the different attractions between East Market and EastAalisal streets, to the east of the railroad tracks.
Granville Island used to be solely industrial, but its success over the decades has been a model to cities around the world, and now here on the central coast.
"With drawing over 10 million visits each year, we do enjoy one of the best marketplaces of its type in North America," Fraser said.
Salinas city staff members have a year to acquire the police station property, currently owned by the county, and come up with a design plan.
In the next several months or so, they'll present a plan to city council.
