Walk the stretch where 41st Avenue meets Portola Drive this year and you'll notice a storefront that looks new. Fresh paint, racks of boards and apparel branded in a way that wasn't there before, and a sign that says Sunny California. The person who built it isn't a stranger to Santa Cruz surf retail. David McIntosh made his name running Midtown Surf Shop, a well-regarded shop several miles from here on Soquel Avenue, in the part of town known simply as Midtown. When that store's lease expired in late 2024, McIntosh didn't just find a new landlord. He spent the better part of a year developing his own apparel lines, building collaborations with California designers and artists, and rebranding entirely before choosing where to plant his next flag.
He picked Pleasure Point.
The shop opened its doors on March 27, 2026, with a community grand opening bash following in May. That choice, an established operator with a built reputation elsewhere deciding this particular stretch of coastline was worth a fresh start, tells you something the median home price never will: Pleasure Point is attracting real investment right now. And the neighborhood, through its own long-running civic structures, is making sure that investment happens on terms residents actually negotiate.
Why Here, Specifically
McIntosh didn't need Pleasure Point. He already had a proven retail concept and a following built somewhere else in Santa Cruz. Choosing to make his newest, most ambitious location the neighborhood widely known as the county's original surf hub is a bet on what this specific half-mile of coastline represents, not just another available storefront.
"100% of the items you'll find in Sunny California are sourced right here on California"
That's McIntosh's own description of the new shop's sourcing philosophy, and it comes with a bigger claim about intent: he's called the Pleasure Point location a flagship meant to work as a living room for the neighborhood, a place to grab gear, rent a board, catch a local band, or just hang. That's not the language of someone testing a satellite location. It's the language of someone making a long-term commitment to a specific place.
He's not the only one circling. A 1.83-acre parcel next to the El Rancho Center, owned by the same family for decades and previously home to a camper shell business, is currently listed for sale at $6.9 million and zoned Residential-Flexible. There have been reports of investor interest, though as of this year no development applications or public proposals have actually been filed. Pleasure Point is a neighborhood people want a piece of. What happens to that interest is where the story gets more interesting.
The Neighborhood Has Its Own Say
Outside investment doesn't move through Pleasure Point unchecked. A community group called Save Pleasure Point has spent 2026 tracking two active proposals that will shape what the neighborhood's commercial corridor looks like for years:
- The Lumberyard, at 38th Avenue and Portola Drive, has a three-story mixed-use project on the table: 22 for-sale condominiums, including below-market-rate units, with ground-floor retail. Updated plans haven't been resubmitted yet.
- Pleasure Point Plaza, a storage yard site, is working through a revised proposal that differs significantly from what the county approved back in 2019, when 33 rental units and about 7,000 square feet of commercial space got the green light. The current application remains under county review, and Save Pleasure Point has raised specific concerns about density, resident privacy, natural light, and on-site parking.
Neither of these fights made it onto a grand opening banner. Both are being pushed through public comment and county planning meetings by residents who show up because they live here, not because anyone's paying them to.
The same pattern shows up in quieter, less contentious work. Storm damage in 2024 took out a number of trees along East Cliff Drive, and restoration, including native tree planting and drainage fixes, has stayed on schedule through this year. Volunteers who maintain the flower beds and landscaped stretches between 32nd and 41st Avenues do it without pay, simply because someone has to and they've decided it should be them.
And on August 11, 2026, an updated Moran Lake Monarch Butterfly Habitat Management Plan went before the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors, incorporating a 2025 wind study and new guidance on overwintering habitat, forest management, and long-term biodiversity along that section of coast. That's not a fight most outsiders would think to track. Pleasure Point's own advocacy groups do, because the habitat sits inside the neighborhood they're already organized to protect.
A Business Association That's Done This Before
None of this civic muscle appeared overnight. The Pleasure Point Business Association traces back more than 20 years, to a moment when the Santa Cruz County Redevelopment Agency approached local business owners with a deal: funding would be available for neighborhood revitalization, but only if those owners committed to organizing and cleaning up the area themselves. A group of 10 to 13 people took that deal. On October 22, 1995, roughly 30 businesses and neighbors turned out for the first cleanup day.
That same association still runs the neighborhood's signature public event. The Pleasure Point Street Fair hit its 12th annual run on June 27, 2026, held on Portola Drive between 41st and 38th Avenues, with over 100 vendors, a skateboard contest run by the Santa Cruz Boardroom, and a beer garden. Proceeds go to the Live Oak Education Foundation, the local nonprofit funding arts and STEM opportunities for Live Oak School District students. The fair isn't a one-off marketing stunt. It's the same organizing muscle that's been active since a Saturday morning in 1995, just pointed at a bigger event now.
Sunny California is opening into a commercial strip that was never empty to begin with. New Bohemia Brewing, known locally as NUBO, has been pouring European-style lagers a few blocks off the water for years. Pleasure Pizza is old enough that most residents can't remember a time it wasn't there. Penny Ice Creamery draws people from well outside the neighborhood. The weekly Live Oak Farmers Market sits close enough to the commercial hub that a Saturday surf session and a produce run are practically the same errand. A new flagship surf shop isn't filling a gap here. It's joining an already-functioning ecosystem of businesses that have kept this stretch busy long before anyone announced a grand opening.
What This Actually Means
Put the two threads together and the real story comes into focus. Pleasure Point isn't a neighborhood quietly waiting to be discovered. It's already being chosen, by an operator who had other options and picked this stretch of coastline anyway, and by whoever is eyeing that El Rancho Center parcel. At the same time, the neighborhood isn't a passive recipient of whatever gets proposed. Save Pleasure Point is in the room for the Lumberyard and Pleasure Point Plaza conversations. The Business Association has been organizing residents and shop owners since before most of the neighborhood's current businesses existed. The volunteers restoring East Cliff Drive's landscaping aren't waiting for the county to get around to it.
That combination, real outside interest paired with organized local input, is a healthier position for a neighborhood to be in than either extreme. Places nobody wants don't get flagship investments. Places with no organized voice don't get a meaningful say in how density and design get negotiated. Pleasure Point currently has both, and that's worth understanding if you're watching this stretch of the East Side for any reason at all.
If you're a longtime East Side resident thinking ahead to a future move, whether that's a coastal upsize, a downsize, or helping settle a family property, Mike O'Boy has spent nearly three decades watching neighborhoods like Pleasure Point work through exactly this kind of change. Connect with us today when you're ready to talk through what it means for your own plans.
