SEASIDE, Calif. - Another idea is up in the air for Seaside's new mayor, Ralph Rubio. Earlier this week, a property manager for In-N-Out Burger posted on Rubio's Facebook page saying, "Congrats Mayor. I am still interested in the site in Seaside for In-n-Out Burger."
This weekend a real estate agent for the popular food chain reached out to Rubio through Facebook saying they still want to bring their business to town. Central Coast News asked Rubio what he thought and he said he was surprised to see the message but said the fact that businesses are still interested in seaside is a positive for the city.
In 2011, plans were shut down because of traffic congestion by the former mayor so this time he hopes things can be different.
The empty lot along Del Monte Blvd. would be the future home of the proposed In-N-Out Burger in Seaside. It sits along the Monterey-Seaside city limits and those that support it say that's a huge plus because it would bring business into town.
But the owner of Phat Burger, Robert Barb, said bringing in another burger joint would hurt his business. "I'm not really sure what it would do to us. We don't really make a lot of money being family owned and operated because we try to keep the prices low to compete with all the chains," said Barb.
He said losing too many customers could shut him down. "If we don't sell a lot of burgers, we don't make money. If they don't sell a lot of burgers, they shut down a shop and try somewhere else," Barb told me.
On a Facebook page, not affiliated with the company, the group posted a comment that Barb said is hard to agree. On the web site, it says that Phat Burger and In-n-Out would compliment each other, they wouldn't be competitors so I asked him what he thought about that. "Well I don't really think we would compliment each other because they are both restaurant and if you put a hardware store next to a hardware store, they are going to pull business from each other."
As for now, the spot sits empty. The mayor said since being elected he's gotten several calls from other businesses who want to come to Seaside. He couldn't say which ones because the city is still trying to see which options would fit in best with the community.
Meanwhile, the city of Marina is still negotiating with In-N-Out to get them to move there. The interim city manager has been talking with company executives once a month but right now have no new updates.
We reached out to the City of Salinas who already has an In-N-Out to see how much revenue it's bringing in to the city. They couldn't give us their exact tax revenue numbers but said the statewide average is about $39,000 year for cities with an In-N-Out.
