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Downtown Pasadena was alive with music during the third annual Make Music Pasadena on Saturday, June 19. The city featured hundreds of musicians playing in buses, parks, courtyards, alleys and other unconventional spaces during the free, 12-hour festival.

The event included more than 50 concerts, showcasing Grammy Award-winning, platinum recording artists as well as homegrown and emerging artists. There were approximately 500 artists performing at the event, which was presented and produced by Old Pasadena Management District, Playhouse District Association and South Lake Business Association.

South Lake Avenue Farmers Market, supported by the South Lake Business Association, is being held each Wednesday during the summer from 3:30 to 7:30pm. The weekly event, which features fresh fruits, vegetables, flowers, eggs, honey breads, cheeses and more, is located on Del Mar Boulevard at Shopper’s Lane (behind Walgreens).

PASADENA – A high-end farmers market on ritzy South Lake Avenue opens today for a six-month trial.

The new market at Shoppers Lane and South Del Mar Avenue – the city’s fourth – will open from 3:30 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays through September.

“It’s met with overwhelming enthusiasm from the street-level and upper-floor businesses, and even property owners are very much in favor,” said Carlton Maese,a board member and former president of the South Lake Business Association.

Even the Fresh & Easy market people on South Lake at California Boulevard “think it’s great,” Maese said.

“We’re having a six-month trial period to make sure the retailers and vendors are happy and making money,” he said. “And if it does work out, we’ll make it permanent.”

Gretchen Sterling, manager and co-founder of Pasadena Certified Farmers Market – sponsored by the city of Pasadena – said opening the seasonal “satellite” South Lake market and the Thursday market at Robinson Park that opened in April is something of a 30th anniversary celebration.

The first farmers market at Villa Parke Center has been going strong every Thursday since 1980 and was joined in 1984 by the popular Victory Park event on Saturdays.

The Shoppers Lane market will be on a smaller scale, Sterling said, but with the same certified vendors offering fish, baked goods, cheese, oils, fresh flowers, and fruits and vegetables.

“We’re getting as much in as we can,” she said. “If the trial works, we could do future summer evening markets …We know people don’t like to buy produce in the dark.”

Sterling and the South Lake business owners hope to appeal to residents and employees as well as shoppers.

“It will give folks who work in the tall office buildings time to come down and shop before they leave for home,” she said. “We’ll see how it works. Next year, if we do it again, it may be May through September.”

The new market will not do any cooking on-site, so it won’t compete with any restaurants on South Lake, Sterling said.

“We think it might be a good fit,” she said.

Gina Tleel, executive director of the South Lake Business Association, said an area poll put a farmers market “top of the list” for residents and merchants.

“South Lake is the place locals like to hang out, and we’re marketing it as shopping, dining, banking and living all in 12 blocks,” Tleel said.

Old Pasadena’s experiment several years ago with a farmers market on Holly Street was short-lived, but Tleel said South Lake businesses have been “hands-on” in the new venture.

Parking, she said, is always a challenge, but businesses agreed the “benefits outweigh the negatives” and pulled together to make it work.

“We’re starting out small and sweet,” Tleel said.

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The South Lake Business Association Annual Mixer was held on Tuesday, May 18, 2010 on the rooftop of Corporate Center. Property owners, business owners and city representatives were in attendance at the event, which was an ideal opportunity to meet other district members. The event was sponsored by the South Lake Business Association, Corporate Center Pasadena and Magnolia Lounge

PASADENA – The block along East Colorado Boulevard between South Lake Avenue and South Mentor Avenue could get a $11.1 million face-lift thanks to federal stimulus funds.

The City Council voted last week to preliminarily commit federal bond money to finance a project that would reopen a historical hotel and line the block with new stores, restaurants and office space.

The project has the potential to completely change the block, said Councilman Terry Tornek, whose district the area is in.

“It’s a big project with a very important preservation aspect,” Tornek said.

The stimulus money would go to finance the centerpiece of the $76 million project, a renovation of the seven-story former Constance Hotel, which was built in 1926.

The building, which is still intact, would be restored and opened as a 156-room boutique hotel. Currently, the building is vacant and shuttered.

City officials also hope the stimulus spending will create jobs, and estimate that the development would open up 630 construction jobs and 750 permanent ones.

Richard McDonald, a local attorney and member of the Planning Commission who is representing the developers, said the funding will be vital to getting the hotel restored.

“That will be the biggest impact because the financing for projects in the hospitality industry has just dried up,” said McDonald, who represents Arcadia-based Park Place Commercial.

Though other parts of the project could still get financing, the weak market for hotels has meant banks will not finance new projects, he said. Without the stimulus funding for the hotel restoration, that part of the project would be very difficult to do, he added.

The rest of the project involves replacing an existing single-story building on the corner of Lake and Colorado with a seven-story mix of commercial and office space.

A line of existing shops along the block would be renovated or rebuilt, and a 653-space underground parking garage would be constructed.

That would likely mean the relocation of several small businesses on the block.

Sue Balderama, who owns one of those businesses, the Taste of Bangkok restaurant, said she is already looking for a place to move.

She wants to stay nearby, where her customer base is located, but is finding it difficult.
“I want to stay in the South Lake Avenue District, but it is so hard in Pasadena to find a place,” said Balderama.

Her landlord has told her she might have a chance to keep the business there after the project renovation, but she said she does not want to close the business down during construction.

“You can’t shut your door for a couple of months … you have to build a business up over time,” Balderama said.

Tornek said that while he approves of preserving the hotel, he worries about the size of the project.

“I always have concerns about a project of that size,” Tornek said. “I’m very anxious to see the plans.”

City officials are working on an environmental impact report for the project, said John Poindexter, the city’s planning division manager.

Because it is still in the planning stages, the council will have a chance to reallocate the funds if members do not believe the project can can get off the ground, said Jose Jimenez, a city redevelopment project planner working on it.

To get the federal financing, the developer must demonstrate it can break ground by the end of the year. The city can wait until August to re-evaluate, Jimenez said.

After doing environmental work, the next stage will be for the project to go before a city hearing officer. It also will be taken up by the Design Commission, but not the Planning Commission or City Council.

The first phase would be to renovate the existing hotel, McDonald said. Ideally, the work would be completed by late 2011.

The next phase would be to add an extension.

The final phase would be the renovation of neighboring buildings and the construction of the seven-story office tower.

Park Place would like to complete the work by 2013, McDonald said.

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The California Cash for Appliances rebate program is funded with $35.2 million dollars from the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). The program is intended to boost the economy and energy efficiency alike through a limited-time promotion.

To be eligible for state program rebates, California electric customers must purchase a qualifying Energy Star® appliance from a California brick-and-mortar retailer during the rebate period of April 22 through May 23 and recycle the old energy-hungry appliance. PWP also offers appliance rebates through its own programs, which have different rules and a separate application process from the state program. For example, Pasadenaelectric customers get a BONUS REBATE from PWP with the purchase of a qualifying product from a localPasadena retailer.

Go online to www.cityofpasadena.net/rebates to find a list of qualifying products, program rules and rebate applications.

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