Making way for market

BALBOA PENINSULA — Demolition began this week on the old 2W Market, which has sat vacant for almost two years, and construction is scheduled to start to make way for a new community market.

San Diego residents Rex and Karen Butler, who own a home near the Balboa Boulevard market, purchased “the little market by the sea” fairly soon after it was cleared out by its last owners, Wes and Flori Hseih, in March 2005.

“When I bought it, I first went to the city to make sure I could put back — my original intention was to hopefully get Wes back in there, but that didn’t work out,” Butler said.

But his intentions continue to include keeping the space as a small neighborhood market, along with a hardware store and a space for his 21-year-old daughter to realize her entrepreneurial dream of a small clothing boutique.

“I was a little selfish about it. I live across the street, and I was concerned with what it would become,” Butler said. “I wanted to have a little bit of control over what happened, and I just wanted the market back.”

Butler doesn’t live in his peninsula home full-time but uses it for vacations and just wants to see his neighbors enjoy another long-term grocer.

His next-door neighbor on 6th Street said he and other residents are delighted that Butler has taken control of the space.

“It’ll be much nicer…. Everything in there is going to be new, and this guy will do a good job,” Taylor Knight said. “He’s all class.”

The ladies of the Beachcomber Salon were ecstatic to see the trucks moving all the debris demolition crews have cleared out of it.

“We’re all very excited. Of course we’ve missed it and now the Balboa Market” that closed, owner Linda Johansen said as she put her client under a hairdryer. “It needed some refurbishing, so this is going to be nice.”

Butler has no plans of running the business, only of owning the building and seeking out a tenant he thinks would fit well with the peninsula community, he said.

“It’s not about me; I don’t even care if anyone knows who owns it really. I just want a good tenant, and I hope they’re long-term, like the past ones have been,” Butler said.

Butler said he hopes to attract a suitable tenant after he’s made all the renovations, which include creating an open-air atmosphere so when the weather’s nice the storefront can be opened up to the street. He envisions someone who could possibly have a small deli for sandwiches, along with possibly a small local produce cart, but he said he wants the tenant to be able to infuse their own ideas into the upgrades.

He would like to see a store opened by the summertime.

The store will be a bit smaller than people might remember since he’s had to update all the bathrooms, electrical wiring and other areas to bring the facility up to code.

“Seeing the kids taking their skateboards up and getting their candy and ice cream, you miss that…. It was kind of a social place for the people, it was a community market that people relate with,” Butler said. “I just think, what else do you have at that end of the peninsula? There isn’t any place now.”

The old 2W Market is at 508 West Balboa Blvd. on the peninsula.