Business

RIO DEL MAR—Nearly 11 months after a fire gutted the historic Seabreeze Tavern and severely weakened the structure, demolition of the building began Tuesday. The work is being conducted by a private contractor, Santa Cruz County spokesperson Jason Hoppin said. It is not clear what...

WATSONVILLE—The makeup kit is out at the 1917 Watsonville Woman’s Club.  Thanks to a $15,000 grant from the Borina Foundation and a generous bid from Prunedale’s Masters Painting, the entire building at 12 Brennan St. is getting a fresh coat of paint. The work, which started...

WATSONVILLE—On Sunday Pajaro Valley Pride (PVP), a local nonprofit aiming to support and advocate for South County’s LGBTQ+ community, will hold its first in-person fundraiser since the start of the pandemic. “Raise a Pint to the Qmmunity” will feature a drag show, with local and...

WATSONVILLE—The City of Watsonville is cracking down on unpermitted food trucks and weighing whether to rework its rules regarding the mobile food vendors in the coming year. The City Manager’s office has received numerous complaints about food trucks from several brick-and-mortar restaurant owners over the...

If specialty meats will be on your table during the upcoming holidays, now is the time to get your order in at two local meat businesses, Freedom Meat Lockers and Corralitos Market & Sausage Co.

Limited rides at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk reopened April 1 following state public health guidelines. Boardwalk rides have been closed since March 2020 due to Covid-19, although they operated for a brief time in November. Ride reservations, which have been selling out daily,...

WATSONVILLE—Two Watsonville area charter schools received funds through the federal Payroll Protection Program (PPP), the $660 billion initiative created to use taxpayer dollars to help keep small business and nonprofit organizations afloat. Watsonville Prep School, which received more than $1.7 million, and Ceiba College Preparatory...

WATSONVILLE—Hidden Fortress Coffee Roasting has opened a new branch in the Cabrillo College Watsonville Center at 318 Union St.  They started roasting coffee in 2012 and have one location in Watsonville and another in Seaside. Their first store opened three years ago at 125 Hangar...

SANTA CRUZ—Staff of Life, a popular natural foods market in Santa Cruz for more than 50 years, announced Monday that an employee tested positive for Covid-19. “We have made the decision to temporarily close after learning a member of our staff has been diagnosed with...