Carriage House Auto Vacates Blvd. Location

Carriage House Auto had always been a top sales tax producer for the city as well as permanent full time employer providing jobs for locals. I'm sure it must have been maddening when the Convention Center went into the used car business by the way of giving a venue to a nationwide car rental business to hold an annual used car sale on a car lot they only rented one weekend a year. It's not clear whether a special event permit was issued to the convention center for the car sales event or if a special permit would be required. At any rate, we can add the commercial property formerly the home of Carriage House Auto to the list of commercial space available in the City of Big Bear Lake.

Haus and Home to Close Doors

The long time furnishings and decor store will close it's doors forever on Jan. 1, 2009, according to the channel 6 TV spot I saw over the holiday weekend. This will happen at the end of their "retirement sale" that has been in progress the past few weeks. The rumor is that Big 5 Sporting Goods will give up their approved use at the "Menaldi Development" site on the Blvd. and take the empty (+/- 15,000 sf ) Interlaken Plaza space. Either way, I believe Big 5 does intend to open a store in the City of Big Bear Lake. The discussion will be interesting, I'm sure.

http://www.topix.com/city/big-bear-lake-ca/2008/06/menaldi-project-gets-ok

timbreunig@unitedwoodcraftsmen.com

Creative Cottage Closing Doors

The long time Crafters Co-Op, Creative Cottage, will close it's doors Jan. 1, 2009. The property at 645 Pine Knot (+/- 3500 sq ft ) is for lease. The owners are considering finding a smaller space and re-tooling their business model.

Explore Big Bear Lake

http://www.explorebigbearlake.com/ is the place to list your retail store, restaurant, lodge or attraction.

The website will continue to grow and will become the premiere place for visitors and customers to check out the retail scene in the Big Bear Valley.

timbreunig@unitedwoodcraftsmen

Bear Valley Electric Seeks Rate Increase

22% over 3 years is what they are asking the PUC to approve. The impact will be felt by all in the valley but lets not forget to mention businesses. This increase would just add insult to injury for the many small businesses whose bottom line keeps shrinking year after year, with operating cost increases and shrinking sales revenues that most have been experiencing the past couple of years.

The hope I have for small businesses to survive in our tourist driven local economy is for us to begin at once to market ourselves as first class retail shopping and dining destination on a year round basis. This will take some extensive investment in order to meet customer expectations. Parking, traffic circulation and public transportation issues will have to be met, as well as amenities shoppers are accustomed to experiencing, if we intend to compete in the Southern California marketplace.

Joe Nelson on Electric Rate Increase for the Valley:

timbreunig@unitedwoodcraftsmen.com

New listing at daytrippen.com

Pine Knot Village Retail Merchants, Lodges and Restaurants have a new listing a http://www.daytrippen.com/. The site promotes attractions and places to visit for the Southern California Market. ( http://www.daytrippen.com/pine-knot-village.html )

Gordon Ledgerwood of Gordon Media states that "daytrippen now gets more than 50,000 unique visitors each month" and is up considerably since 2007.

Contact daytrippen.com (info@daytrippen.com) for more info or email us below to become part of the Pine Knot Village Retail Merchants network on the daytrippen site.

timbreunig@unitedwoodcraftsmen.com

Big Bear Lake Event Organizers Meet

A group Big Bear Lake Private Event Organizers will meet on December 3, 2008 to discuss getting together to promote valley events and attractions to would-be customers down-the-hill.

The Discovery Center, San Bernardino National Forest Association, Mountain and Desert Arts Association, Arts Council of Big Bear Valley, Big Bear Snow Shoe Race and the Fawnskin Chamber of Commerce will attend this first meeting to put forth ideas on marketing local events to bolster off-season weekend and weekday visitor traffic.

timbreunig@unitedwoodcraftsmen.com