In 2009, I was tapped by the City of Novato Redevelopment Agency to contact chefs and restaurateurs to encourage them to open in our downtown.
Since then, I have also worked with real estate people to help them to lease or sell their spaces.

This article from the Marin IJ explains my work for Novato. Anyone needing more information on my work, please contact me: gaw@sbcglobal.net

Marin Independent Journal (San Rafael, CA)
June 14, 2010
by Brent Ainsworth

Looking to spark more downtown nightlife and foot traffic, Novato has hired a head hunter for restaurateurs. So far, so good. Food critic and restaurant reviewer *GraceAnn Walden*, a Novato resident the past three years, has provided a handful of solid leads for the Novato Redevelopment Agency through her connections with chefs and restaurant owners.

Author of the popular Yummy Report newsletter, Walden made a list of about 60 potential contacts this spring and mailed out an information packet with demographic and economic details about Novato. She set up a meeting and tour of available commercial spaces around the city, calling the campaign "Novato is Cooking." Twelve people showed.

"This mixes my natural schmoozing ability and my tour guide ability," Walden said. "I'd have to say it's going great."

Redevelopment Director Ron Gerber met Walden about 15 years ago and participated in one of her culinary tours of North Beach in San Francisco. During a study of the types of businesses in downtown Novato last year, Gerber and other city officials contemplated ways to make the Old Town area on Grant Avenue less service oriented and more restaurant-retail oriented.

"She is extremely well connected to some of the top chefs in all of Northern California and she just happens to live in Novato," Gerber said. "Often the chefs are the owners of the businesses and they have an understanding about raising financing. Because of the incredibly unique business she's in, I figured why not chat with her?"

The result was a six-month hourly consulting contract between Gerber's agency and Walden worth $7,500 for the former newspaper columnist. It went well enough for the parties to renew it for another six months. Cheerleading for Novato is sort of built into the deal; Walden recently appeared on a popular radio talk show hosted by KGO's Ronn Owens and plugged Novato for a few minutes.

Gerber said it's important to recruit desirable merchants so that commercial real estate openings don't just get filled by the first business owner to step up and sign a lease. Seventy percent of the businesses along Grant Avenue are service oriented that close at night, such as nail and hair salons, insurance agencies, banks and financial services. On San Rafael's Fourth Street, only 20 percent of the businesses are service oriented.

"This method we're using is possibly one way for us to update the mix," he said.

Commercial real estate agent John Williams of Sperry Van Ness said the city's move to hire a restaurant consultant could be a good move for his industry because agents don't often have such connections in a niche such as restaurants.

"This is very creative thinking on the city's part, an outside-the-box approach to how we can use redevelopment funds to proactively help downtown," he said. "The interesting thing to me is that it's an opportunity to potentially turn over some spaces that have not been as productive as others or don't have the uses that create synergy in the downtown area.

"Restaurants always are a good driver of traffic to downtowns. Frankly, GraceAnn is a well-known writer and is interesting as heck to talk to and get her perspective from the user's point of view."

Walden said Novato, for its population, is lacking in good restaurants. She grew up in the diners of New Jersey, where she said the taste of the meal was a much bigger deal than the atmosphere.

She said her favorites, purely based on the quality and taste of the food, are Boca Steak, Arun Thai, Mi Pueblo, Marvin's, Anohka, Dragon Cafe, Chianti Cucina and Grazie. She said she would like to see "a place for great dim sum ... an Italian place that doesn't serve the usual suspects ... a really good Thai restaurant ...

"I don't think my wish list is terribly bourgeois, I just think that people know what tastes good. If you offer it to them, they will come."

Erick Hendricks was already renovating the former Hilltop restaurant near Old Town when Walden started her networking plan, but he talked to her and is in favor of the recruiting idea.

"The city is trying all sorts of things to try and soak up the available commercial space and make downtown more intriguing," said Hendricks, whose Hilltop 1892 is scheduled to open this summer. "There is a lot of good energy in Novato right now, and part of that is the opening of Trader Joe's and Whole Foods. You go to Petaluma and see that they've done a fantastic job, especially having a meal on a warm night. I think Novato is trying to get people from out of town to think of this as a destination like that."

Restaurants are a key part of that equation, Walden said.

"I'm going to live the rest of my life here and, dammit, I want a good place to eat," she said with a laugh.

(c) 2010 Marin Independent Journal. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of Media NewsGroup, Inc. by NewsBank, Inc.