Foothill Blvd. businesses start reopening - Others talk about rebuilding

Posted: Mar 9, 2010 6:46 PM by Steve Adamson
Updated: Dec 30, 2010 3:49 PM

The fire that happened nearly a week ago in San Luis Obispo on Foothill Blvd. took its' toll. Two restaurants burned beyond repair, another supply business also gone, and two other businesses that had to close because of damage to the power supply to the building complex. Today, one business reopened it's doors and another is slated to open on Thursday. SLO textbooks started redoing business this morning. Rock and Roll Hair opens back up on Thursday.

Samantha Barkhuff, owner of Rock and Roll Hair still has a little cleaning up to do, but she says she's ready to get back to work. Of bigger concern to her now is how her business will be after the loss of her fellow business owners next to her. The loss of Kona's Deli which is the one closest to her, definitely helped bring customers to her. "It's hard to say what it's going to be like around here after this."

As for Kona's, the damage to the deli was much more extensive than first thought. Originally, it was thought the building suffered primarily heavy smoke damage. However, it turned out that there was actually much more burn damage to inside the building. Owner Paula Boggs took me along for a tour through the damaged building today and it was apparent that the scope of the damage was much more severe. "Yeah, there's a lot more than smoke damage....It's totaled."

Dan Rutledge who is the property manager of the building where both Cabo San Luis and Kona's were located said today that structural engineers will be looking at the building on Wednesday to determine how much needs to be torn down. He thought that at least part of Kona's would need to be torn down, along with all of Cabo San Luis. Once that is determined, permits and bids needed to tear down the burned out structure will be necessary and that process could take a couple of weeks before the remains come down. Then the process of redesigning and constructing a new building will begin.

Just how long that takes is uncertain at this time, and that will go along way in deciding where both Kona's and Cabo San Luis will end up in their new life. Both owners want to rebuild, and while they would like to stay in the same location they are now, it depends heavily on how fast a new building will be built. The time frame for reopening in any case is not weeks, but more along the lines of months.

Both Dan Harper, the owner of Cabo San Luis, and Kona's owner ( Paula Boggs ) are planning to rebuild somewhere in the city. Paula would love it to be in the same place. "I love this place...It's one of those things, I've always wanted to have a deli and I have it...All the customers here were wonderful, all the employees here were like family, it's hard and really sad."

Still, she's anxsious to get her business back up and running wherever it may be. "I can't wait, I've already taken paint samples. I want it the same color, I wanna make it better than ever...the same feeling but I wanna rebuild and make it better than ever."