Old Town merchants are staging more events to let the public know the area is open for business. Here, Margaret Radnick of the District 2 City Council office, joins with, Fred Grand, president of Old Town San Diego Chamber, Bob Wohl, superintendent of Old Town San Diego State Historical Park and Jeanne Ferrell, owner of Cold Stone Creamery, in cutting a cake to celebrate the 236th anniversary of Old Town’s founding.

Old Town San Diego State Historic Park is getting a makeover, but instead of trying to look younger, it’s striving for the direct opposite. A new state park initiative is driving an effort to make the park more reflective of its historic period of 1821 to 1872. When the area became a state park in 1968, the focus was on restoring the deteriorating buildings and grounds, not strictly regulating the historical accuracy of the experience.

While that is now changing, first-time visitors to the park aren’t likely to notice the transformation. Thanks to a phased approach, the park remains open to the public, along with the majority of the concessions that operate within its boundaries. Outside the park, in the greater Old Town area, it’s certainly business as usual. Old Town area institutions such as Old Town Mexican Café, Café Coyote and other restaurants, shops and attractions are unaffected by the state initiative and continue to entertain visitors and locals alike.

This is an important distinction that area merchants and the Old Town Chamber of Commerce are trying to make. Over the past several months, news stories about Old Town have used such phrases as “changes hands,” “closes shop,” and “ends an era” when writing about the area. However, these terms apply mainly to Bazaar del Mundo, a vibrant collection of shops and restaurants that occupied a small, albeit highly popular, corner of the state park.

That perception motivated merchants in and around the park to remind visitors that “Old Town is open for business.” The chamber has hired a public relations specialist to spread its message. Activities designed to draw attention to the park and its merchants included a public celebration last month of the 236th anniversary of the founding of Old Town.

The chamber’s concerns are real, as evidenced by customer calls to Café Coyote, which lies two blocks outside the park on San Diego Avenue. “We had a lot of people calling when all those stories (about Bazaar del Mundo) were in the news…asking if we were closing,” says Lehn Goetz, owner of Café Coyote. “People associated Bazaar del Mundo with Old Town and assumed all of Old Town was closing.”

That’s exactly the misperception that the Old Town Chamber is working to correct. Jill Mesaros, a chamber member who also is producing director of The Theatre in Old Town, says the goal is to educate the community that Old Town is alive and well and that the vast majority of businesses are still here. “In some ways Old Town has actually expanded,” she says.

Mesaros is referring to the fact that Bazaar del Mundo didn’t actually close, but was relocated within Old Town. Owner Diane Powers moved her shops to a business complex next to her other popular Old Town establishment, Casa Guadalajara. Located at Taylor and Juan streets, just two blocks from the northwest entrance to the park, Bazaar del Mundo features the same type of festive shops and merchandise that made it famous just 500 feet away inside the park.

Bazaar del Mundo’s move is directly related to the state park’s new interpretive initiative. Current concessions that operate within the park have contracts with the state to operate their businesses for periods that range anywhere from 10 to 20 years.

“We have 25 total concession contracts in the park, and of those, 18 are currently on month to month,” says Ronilee Clark, a state park district superintendent. Park officials have canceled the contracts and will be adopting new historical requirements for future leases.

When Bazaar del Mundo’s contract expired in 2001, it became the first concession to be involved in an open bidding process that incorporated the new evaluation criteria. The bazaar also was the first concession in the park when it was established by Powers 33 years ago. The operation later grew into the highest grossing concession in the state park system.

Not surprisingly, the popularity and success of Bazaar del Mundo fueled a public controversy when Powers lost the contract to Delaware North, a large New York-based hospitality management company with $1.6 billion in annual revenue. In October 2003, the state park system awarded the contract to Delaware North, largely based on its ability to create a retail experience that fit more accurately within the interpretive period.

Legal and administrative maneuvering delayed the change of hands until May when Bazaar del Mundo closed its doors in the park, along with restaurants Rancho el Nopal and Casa de Bandini, all owned by Powers.

To smooth the transition, Delaware North acted swiftly, reopening Casa de Bandini as the Cosmopolitan Hotel Restaurant the following day. “In 24 hours, we steam cleaned the equipment, added a shade structure, new tables, chairs, food and other accouterments,” says Roseanne Diamond-De La Mata, general manager of Delaware North’s Old Town operations. “Logistically, it was the most difficult turnaround.”

Other turnarounds included opening the Jolly Boy Restaurant and Saloon on the site of Rancho El Nopal two days later. The Plaza del Pasado retail shops and the Casa de Reyes restaurant opened later in June in the space formerly occupied by Bazaar del Mundo and Casa de Pico. These might have opened even sooner had it not been for tenting for termites.

While impressive, Delaware North has had practice. The corporation runs retail and dining operations in numerous state parks, including Niagara Falls State Park and Yosemite National Park.

“One of the main focal points and strengths of Delaware North is providing interpretation in state park and national park settings,” says Diamond-De La Mata. “When the proposal team came here they saw a great opportunity to contribute to the historical nature of the park.”

True to that aim, the Jolly Boy Saloon and Restaurant pays homage to that bar and billiard saloon that existed at that location in 1854 until its eventual destruction in the 1860s. Similarly, the Cosmopolitan Restaurant and Hotel reflects the structure’s 1869 identity, which was built by Juan Bandini in 1830 and converted to a hotel by Albert Seely in 1860. Finally, the new Plaza del Pasado and Casa de Reyes restaurant attempt to recreate a retail experience indicative of San Diego’s historical Mexican period from 1821 to 1846.

Locals and frequent visitors to the park will immediately notice the changes in these establishments. Gone are the colorful umbrellas from the restaurants and the brightly hued serapes from the stores. In their place are canvas and wood shade structures and serapes with muted tones that reflect the natural color dyes of the time.

This will take some adjustment for some, but visitors’ concerns can be partly allayed by the fact that this is merely the initial phase of an 18-month, $12 million renovation. Delaware North will continue to renovate the various restaurants and retail shops, adding new fixtures, décor and an audio system to pipe festival music throughout their properties.

Major construction will begin in the fall, with plans to have Plaza del Pasado finished by Cinco de Mayo 2006. Complete renovations of the remaining two restaurants will follow shortly, with no more than one restaurant closed at a time. Delaware North also retained more than 250 of the original employees. Others went with Powers to work in the relocated Bazaar del Mundo.

More changes are coming to Old Town San Diego State Park. The state is seeking proposals for the vacant Dodson Corner building and for the theater building currently known as The Theatre in Old Town. Diamond-De La Mata says that Delaware North is not interested in expanding.

Visitors and history buffs likely will enjoy the more rigid historical direction of the park, while those who liked the more festive and colorful aspects can still patronize the more than 100 shops, restaurants and museums that surround the park.

Some merchants are doing great. “This is our best year ever,” says Jeannie Ferrell, owner of Cold Stone Creamery on San Diego Avenue and vice president of the Boosters of Old Town. But the experience of walking into a non-park restaurant on a recent Friday night and immediately getting seated shows Delaware North and the merchants probably will stay hard on message: Old Town is open for business. Please come see for yourself.