When the Healdsburg Planning Commission met recently on the conversion of a commercial building at 425 Healdsburg Ave. into a tasting room, the meeting was specifically a “design review.” It was the Planning Commission’s opportunity to review the developers’ vision of what the new business will look like, as they had already approved the necessary conditional use permits. But once again the fate of who has become the building’s longest tenant became the center of the debate.
The proposed renovation from architect Daniel Strening included two living quarters upstairs and two retail spaces on the avenue. The one storefront at 430 Foss, the former back side of the building, will house a wine tasting room of 1,200 square feet. The two retail units that will face Healdsburg Avenue are proposed to be 785 and 945 square feet, respectively. A new roofline with a rectangular façade similar to that on other Healdsburg buildings was also presented.
Retail space
While overall the design of the remodeled building met with the Commission’s approval, what captured their attention was something admittedly “outside [their ] purview”—the fate of the single one-person retail business still in operation at that building, Ramos Shoe Repair.
The topic was also discussed at the September 2024 meeting that granted the owner, Rod Matteri, the conditional use permit to build the tasting room (although there is no specific winery yet associated with the tasting room). This time, the question came from the Commission’s newest member, Christine Schadlich, who provided a quorum by being the fourth commissioner attending that night.
“I apologize if this was covered in the last meeting, but I’m just curious regarding the existing lease and tenant,” she said. “What is the plan with the tenant or tenants in the project?”
Alan B. Cohen, the Healdsburg architect assisting Strening with his dealings with the city, responded, “In speaking with Ramos, he’s indicating he’s probably going to retire, [though] he would like to continue.”
Cohen also said that the owners, who also own the Garrett Hardware stores in Windsor and Healdsburg, “expressed a potential interest in relocating [him] to one of the stores. Or if he just wants to take a break and talk about relocating in the building when it’s completed, that’s also possible.”
Given that the current shop Ramos operates has about 700 square feet per his own estimate, the smaller of two retail units might present a comparable space. But when Ramos himself spoke just minutes later, he took issue with Cohen’s remarks.
Forced retirement?
“I don’t know where the rumor got started, but I wasn’t planning to retire,” he said, turning to look directly at Cohen. “I think with the project that they’re going to do, I’m going to have to move, right? So if I can find a space that’s [comparable] to what I have, then I have to make a decision whether to retire or not. I haven’t decided, but I never said I was going to retire.”
HANDS-ON Jorge Ramos works on a pair of cowboy boots in his Healdsburg Avenue shop, calling upon machinery, tools and 34 years of experience to get the job done.
Ramos’ denial of planning for retirement, Cohen later told The Tribune, “surprised me somewhat, as in the past year I heard him on two occasions say that he was considering retiring. Not that he definitively had decided, so I can understand he would come to the conclusion he doesn’t want to at this point.”
Ramos Shoe Repair is an outlier on Healdsburg Avenue, even in the recently christened “North Makers Arts District” or NoMAD area between North and Piper streets. Neither a clothing store, an art gallery, a bakery nor a tasting room, it’s a shoe repair store, a working-man’s shop. Ramos, the owner and sole employee, said he has worked out of the building for 34 years, after training and working with his father, Demetrio, who came to the U.S. from Zacatecas, Mexico, in 1960. The senior Ramos passed away last year.
More than an outlier, Ramos Shoe Repair is a legacy—the kind of business every downtown used to have, but one which is increasingly hard to find almost anywhere.
And as Schadlich said, and Commission Chair Conor McKay reiterated, what happens to Ramos Shoe Repair is “out of the purview” of the Commission’s task. The proposed design was unanimously approved by the four members of the commission seated at the dais that night, with few additional conditions.
“While I do have concerns about the fate of Ramos’ business, sadly, there really are no protections in the Healdsburg Planning Code for a business like Ramos Shoe Repair,” Planning Commissioner Jonathan Pearlman later said (he was not in attendance at the meeting).
Said Planning Director Scott Duiven, “Healdsburg does not have commercial tenant protections or relocation assistance like it does for residential tenants. I don’t foresee a solution at the City level other than the fact that construction is unlikely to begin on this project for some time, which would allow Mr. Ramos to continue to operate at the existing location while he seeks alternative locations.”
Cohen’s suggestion that the building owners, Rod Matteri and his mother Carol Mascherini, might make room for Ramos in one of their two stores could not be confirmed, nor does it seem likely that Matteri would simply hold the smaller retail shop for the cobbler through the year-long remodeling process, then lease it to him at a less-than-market rate.
But there is nothing obligatory in either of those scenarios. Until the building permits are issued and construction begins, Jorge Ramos continues his work, one pair of boots at a time.
