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Cornerstone Barbecue gets occupancy; city advances Dry Cleaners building and biz-hub supports
Summary
City staff announced Cornerstone Barbecue has a certificate of occupancy and a March 21 opening; the city has an exclusive negotiation agreement with Landmark Roasters for the Dry Cleaners building, issued an RFP for design services, and is planning a biz-hub open house April 9 and marketing workshops in May.
City staff told the Economic Development Committee on March 11 that Cornerstone Barbecue has received a certificate of occupancy for the Ramona’s Building and will hold a grand opening on Saturday, March 21.
Joe (staff) said the city has an exclusive negotiation agreement with Landmark Roasters for the Dry Cleaners building and has completed environmental testing for that structure. The city issued an RFP for design services and held a pre-bid meeting with interested architects; staff expect to award the design contract in April.
Laura James described the business-spotlight program (11 nominations, three ineligible because they were outside city limits or lacked a business license) and said staff selected one business to highlight on the city’s economic-development website. She asked the committee to await a coordinated PR announcement for that spotlight.
James also outlined programming at the biz hub: an open house/mixer in partnership with the Chamber of Commerce on April 9 from 3 to 5 p.m., and two marketing workshops with the Small Business Development Center planned for May to help downtown businesses take advantage of event-driven foot traffic.
Why it matters: these actions aim to activate downtown, support small-business retention and showcase local entrepreneurs. Staff emphasized that some tenant names cannot be publicly disclosed until tenants are ready to announce.
Other community notes at the meeting: the chamber’s recognition dinner is March 26 (Tequit Golf Course, 5 p.m.), the IOA Morongo golf tournament is April 24–26 and the city increased economic-development support for the event from $10,000 to $40,000 (an additional $30,000 from the economic-development fund), and Riverside County’s IREN workforce program expects to train about 60 people over two years with roughly $8,000 in training per participant plus up to $3,500 in support services.
