Banning’s oldest commercial building, finally fully occupied | News
Ranae Burks-Wiltz, founder of Polly’s Petals Floral Shop.
BY DAVID JAMES HOT
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For years, Banning’s oldest building stood relatively empty, minus a few vagrants who may have called it home.
The Reid Building, built on Livingston Street in 1884 when it was the city’s main thoroughfare, has seen a renaissance and after years of dormancy is fully inhabited by a multitude of mom and pop shops – a relief for the building’s owner Yolanda Graciano from Riverside who owns some residential properties in Banning.
The Reid building was their first foray into commercial real estate and had some problems a few years ago when the city stopped its renovation efforts after residents and members of the San Gorgonio Pass Historical Society made a fuss about what it looked like despite the historic building wanted to completely rebuild.
According to Pedro Hernandez, the contractor working on the building at the time, the Reid building was technically made up of two buildings that Graciano wanted to combine into one.
Some features of the buildings, including west-facing doors and an artificial partition, weren’t part of the original structure when it was a general store.
The partition wall that was added was torn down before the city intervened.
Graciano had no idea what historical value it was when she bought the property.
On the recommendation of a real estate agent, she inspected the then uninhabited building and saw potential.
“I wanted to change the look as it was affected by homeless people,” said Graciano, who speaks mostly Spanish and was interviewed by a translator. “I liked the fact that it is in the center of town and close to the high school and town hall with a lot of potential traffic. It’s a busy street “enough to attract businesses.
Graciano and her sister Rosario De La Torre invested in the property and hired Hernandez to do the restoration, including removing hazardous materials such as asbestos that the city required of her.
Now all six units are occupied, including a flower shop, barber shop, nail design store, bond company, tutoring company, and dental hygienist shop.
Dental hygienist Maria Antonette Kim.
Toi Ranae Burks-Wiltz, a 1995 graduate of Banning High School, was one of the first tenants to open Polly’s Petals Floral Shop – so named for her in consideration of her grandfather’s nickname.
“I’ve been in Banning my whole life,” says Wiltz. “Even before it was renovated and sold to Yolanda, I asked about leasing here. Yolanda was nice, her price was reasonable. “
And Wiltz fulfilled a dream of flower design, found a niche in wedding and funeral arrangements and had roses ready in time for the end.
“Business has been a little slow, but people are still discovering that there is a flower shop here,” she says.
Polly’s Petals in Unit 6 is open Wednesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Their business can be reached at (951) 665-2160.
Haleii Poullard in her office in Unit 3.
Prohibition teacher Haleii Poullard sees herself as a woman of faith.
She wanted to start her own tutoring company, and she “prayed” for it.
“I drove around and when I found this building I knew one of these units would be mine,” says Poullard. “I didn’t know which one, but I just knew.”
While working with anyone in need of tutoring, she values helping the “more challenging” students “because it never gets boring,” she says. “It’s fun when you keep more.”
In April, she officially opened her tutoring service at the Reid Building.
“I help kids from pre-kindergarten to seniors in high school and those getting their GEDs,” she says. “My areas of expertise are general education and reading; I have a little weakness when it comes to math, but they refresh my memory when they work on calculus here. “
She credits eighth grader Makayla Cash, one of her students, for inspiring her to bring Kids R PPL 2 to the market when Makayla bluntly told her, “Do what you always tell us to do: stop talking about it to talk, make it easy: open your own business. “
Poullard promises “outside-the-box thinking” to help her clients learn. “I mentally concentrate on the whole child and ensure a safe environment in which they can develop their creativity.”
Since Poullard teaches on the side, her tutoring is provided by appointment.
Kids R PPL 2 can be reached at (909) 278-0395.
Miguel Antunez’s sister-in-law found an announcement in a Facebook group that the Reid building is welcoming potential tenants.
They saw a perfect opportunity for their mostly online nail design and salon supplies business to open a retail store and plan to open once the city has given their final approval.
Behind a couple of makeup nail boxes are (from left) Teresa Baca, Anthony Avila, Camila Avila, Joshua Antunez and Miguel Antunez.
When Nail Extravaganza opens to retail, it will be open Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Currently, their glitters, brushes, crystals, polishes, gels, stickers, monomers, and acrylic powders are also available online at nailextravaganza.com.
“It’s a convenient location because we live in the city,” says Antunez. “Customers have asked for our products” and encouraged the family to start a personal shop.
He commends the city, whose inspection and business permit services have slowed down somewhat during the pandemic, for being “ready to work with us,” and he’s excited to serve professionals – and beginners – involved in the nail design industry .
Nail Extravaganza can be reached at (909) 246-8574 and is located in Suite 1.
In Unit 5, Maria Antonnette Kim opened her TruSmile Dental Hygiene Practice, Inc.
Although she signed a lease back in October 2020, her business officially opened in February after accepting MediCal along with Delta Dental and Cigna insurance programs.
“I’m not a dentist,” she clarifies right away. “I am a licensed dental hygienist in an alternative practice” who offers preventive examinations and referrals to dentists. She just doesn’t perform the surgical procedures that clients put off.
Instead, it focuses on less invasive oral prophylaxis (regular tooth cleaning), tooth sealing, scaling and root planing (so-called “deep cleaning”), tooth whitening, fluoride application and oral cancer prevention.
She has her own portable X-ray machine and ultrasonic cleaning equipment and can travel to see disabled patients.
During the week she teaches dental hygiene at one of her Alma Maters, the Concord Career College, so that most of her appointments are held between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. on weekends and between 6.30 p.m. and 9 p.m. on weekdays
“There is a need for dental hygiene in underserved areas and I firmly believe the ban is an underserved area,” she says.
Her mantra is “to provide dental hygiene to all who need or want it”.
Her office number is (951) 922-4975, and appointments can be made by email (which she promises to check regularly) at [email protected].
The Reid building as it was on July 7th, 2021.
The Reid Building, formerly known as the Henderson Building, was a trading exchange.
Charles A. Reid inherited the site from the graduation of the former WS Hathaway & Co. in 1894, according to historian Pat Murkland, who points out that Reid was a prominent figure who had served on the school board for nearly 25 years and was instrumental involved in the pioneering work of the local Methodist Church.
In its latest incarnation, the Reid Building is now in the hands of Yolanda Graciano and is again an industrial park on the corner of San Gorgonio Avenue and Livingston Street.
“It’s an honor to own this building because of its history,” even if she had to discover it after purchasing, says Graciano. “I’m proud to have succeeded in changing the look of what it was before and breathing life into an abandoned building.”
Staff Writer David James Heiss is a board member of the San Gorgonio Pass Historical Society. He can be reached at [email protected] and messages can be left at (951) 849-4586 x114.