Who Owned the Building Decided Which Carpinteria Fixtures Lasted Through 2026

"My father-in-law ultimately purchased the building and allowed us to reopen and breathe new life into what's been a staple in Carpinteria for about 45 years."

Ryan Moore said that to Coastal View News about the reopening of Rincon Designs on Linden Avenue. His sentence explains a lot of what has happened to Carpinteria's longtime businesses this year. Clementine's Steak House served its last plate on Sunday, Oct. 4. Casitas Cleaners closes on Oct. 30. Both were run by people who did not control their buildings. The surf shop on Linden came back because a family member bought the building it sits in.

All of these businesses had loyal customers, so demand alone does not explain how each story ended. The clearer pattern is who held the real estate.

Fifty years of pie, and two years' notice

Clementine's opened at 4631 Carpinteria Ave. in 1976. The McLenithan family's era began on April 30, 1982, when Irene McLenithan took over the restaurant on her 52nd birthday. Her son Lloyd became head chef. The kitchen made its soups and salad dressings from scratch and cut its meats in-house. The choice of which homemade pie to order became the running joke of every meal there.

Clementine's did not close for lack of customers. Lloyd McLenithan told Coastal View News that once the closing was announced, reservations filled through the final weekend to the point of being "almost overbooked." He said he was working 16-hour days to keep up. The same report said the building and property had sold, and that the family had always known this chapter would end someday because they did not own the property.

Noozhawk added that the new owners gave the restaurant two more years to operate after the sale. McLenithan said he felt no animosity toward them and was grateful for that time. So the closing date was set two years in advance by the terms of a property sale, and the restaurant's busiest final weeks could not change it.

A lease, aging machines and 36 years of unclaimed clothes

A different version of the same story is playing out at Casitas Plaza. Casitas Cleaners has been in the plaza since 1985. Sunny and Jun Han have run it since 1989. According to Coastal View News, the Hans gave four reasons for closing: an expiring lease, rising operating costs, the expense of keeping old dry-cleaning equipment running, and retirement.

The lease is first on that list, and it carries the most weight. For a tenant, a lease end is the point where every other cost gets added up again. Equipment that could limp along under one lease term looks different when signing the next one means a long new commitment.

The shop has a practical deadline for anyone with an old ticket in a drawer. Casitas Cleaners has stopped taking new orders, and the Hans are working to return thousands of garments still hanging in the shop. "We have so many clothes that customers have never picked up over the years," Sunny Han told the paper. "We have never thrown anything away." He said anything left after Oct. 30 may have to be donated. As of today, that leaves 18 days.

The surf shop that came back because someone bought the building

Rincon Designs could easily have ended up on the same list. The shop at 659 Linden Ave. closed in March 2025, ending a 45-year run, and the storefront sat quiet for nearly a year. When the store moved out, the interior was stripped down to its shell.

It reopened in 2026 under Ryan and Ashley Moore, son and daughter-in-law of founder Matt Moore. Ryan credited the return to his father-in-law, Scott Smigel, who bought the building. Matt Moore stepped back from retail and now shapes surfboards full time. The new floor plan keeps the checkout counter in nearly the same spot and the giant dragon above the shaping room. New brands on the racks include Patagonia Surf, Florence Marine X, Vissla, Sisstr and Isurus Wetsuits.

Ryan said the redesign was meant to feel "warm and welcoming, but not too new and shiny," and to honor the building's 125-plus years on Linden Avenue.

When the business sells and the building stays out of it

Not every story this year turned on the building. Other longtime businesses survived because the business itself found a buyer, which keeps it going for a new owner who then has to deal with the space on the usual terms.

Carp Sports, a longtime sporting goods store at 1060 Casitas Pass Road, is in the same Casitas Plaza as the cleaners. It now operates as Carp Sports & More! under brothers Mario and Mauro Valdivia. They told Coastal View News they knew the business had been for sale "for quite some time," and the purchase took a six-month process to complete. So within one shopping center, one longtime tenant found buyers and another chose to retire when its lease ran out.

Chocolats du CaliBressan, at 4193 Carpinteria Ave., Suite 4, passed from founders Jean-Michel and Jill Marie Carré to Herb and Jennifer Weigel and their daughter Sarah, who now runs the shop day to day. Coastal View News reported that Jean-Michel agreed to a long transition period to mentor the family, and that a culinary school graduate he trained is staying on staff. In a handover like this, the recipes and the skills are what get passed on.

The Food Liaison took a third route. After 13 years at Shepard Place Shops, chef Nirasha Rodriguez and Jason Rodriguez ended daily counter service on Feb. 20 and refocused the business as a community kitchen.

The arithmetic behind a storefront shuffle

Coastal View News talked with downtown business owners in February about what was driving all this change. Lorraine McIntyre, a member of the city's Downtown "T" Business Advisory Board, told the paper, "The prices of rents are not sustainable for small businesses to succeed in the long-term without attracting money from outside the community."

Ryan Moore explained the demand side in the same article. He and Ashley own and operate Lucky Llama and Sunburst Wine Bar, and Heritage Goods and Supply with partners. His rule of thumb is to take Carpinteria's population of about 15,000 and cut it in half when estimating who might shop or dine in town on any given day. He also said costs are up for businesses and residents alike, which means thinner margins on one side and less spending power on the other.

When a town's daily customer base is roughly 7,500 people, rent is the cost that decides whether a business can last. That cost is set by whoever owns the building. A tenant can be busy and well loved and still find that the building's next owner has other plans. A business whose owner, or whose owner's family, holds the building faces a different calculation.

What hasn't been decided yet

Some of this year's questions are still open. In Noozhawk's report published two days before the closing, McLenithan said he did not know what the future held for the building at 4631 Carpinteria Ave. Our research found no public report naming the buyer or any plans for the site. We also found no report of a replacement tenant for the Casitas Cleaners space.

Until a buyer or a tenant is named, the storefront at 4631 Carpinteria Ave. and the cleaners' space in Casitas Plaza have no announced future use.

If you own a building on Carpinteria Avenue, Linden or around Casitas Plaza and have wondered what it would mean to sell it, or to hold it for the right tenant, Sharon Jordano can talk it through with you privately and start with a confidential valuation. Request a Private Home Valuation, and we can begin with what your property is worth today and what each option would mean for you.