Why the Facelift at Castro Village Shopping Center?

Privately funded renovations at Castro Village Shopping Center will leave tenants such as Eden Bicycles and Capers restaurant more visible and attractive from a distance, said the shopping center’s manager, Rebecca Faust.

A new parapet wall along the roofline will allow for the display of bigger signs, framed by a new Spanish-tile roof and a new sidewalk.

“The hope is that, if you’re looking from the boulevard, you can see all the tenant signs,” Faust said. “Right now they’re really small.”

The $1.5 million renovation of Walgreens and the northwestern section of the shopping center began May 1 and is expected to continue through September, Faust said. More improvements are planned for the center’s other eight buildings in the future.

“We’re all excited to see the improvements,” Eden’s Bicycles owner Chris Padavana said. “It’s going to look great.”

The renovation is separate from the Castro Valley Boulevard construction that began last October, which is funded by Alameda County.

Matthew Cunningham, who manages World Wide Art across the parking lot from the building being upgraded, said the Village renovation has been well planned. With most of the work done early in the day and tapering off in the afternoon, it’s less likely to interfere with customers’ activities, he said.

“They thought this out better than the county thought out the boulevard,” Cunningham said.

Noisy construction and blockades of yellow tape in the Village may have compounded the effects of the much heavier construction on the boulevard, making even the comparatively more accessible Village a less comfortable place to shop.

“It has affected us,” said Bill Saltzman, owner of Merle’s Hallmark shop. “It’s keeping some people away.”

But tenants say they are looking forward to improvement of the 60-year-old buildings they occupy.

“We’ll suffer in the short run, but in the long run it will be better,” said Ethan Falls, who manages Health Unlimited.