Meet Sonya Stauffer, the new Executive Director of the Hillcrest Business Association

San Diego Uptown News Editor Hutton Marshall sat down with incoming Hillcrest Business Association Executive Director Sonya Stauffer, who was appointed just three weeks ago. Stauffer, a Seattle native, spent more than three decades raising her children—now 30 and 32—in Cedar City, Utah, prior to arriving in San Diego in Spring of last year.

In the small, wide-windowed HBA office located on Fifth Ave. just south of University Ave. she discussed her first three weeks on the job, her vision for the association, and what she’s seen so far in the community.

“It’s been really good learning all over what I did several years ago,” Stauffer said about her brief period on the job thus far. “It’s been about 14 years of economic development working for Cedar City, [Utah], then working for myself all those years, and now going back and working in this sector. It’s been a fun change.”

Stauffer, a Seattle native who transitioned to real estate in ’95 after working in economic development for Cedar City, said working to ensure the continued success of established Hillcrest festivities was a big focus starting out.

Outgoing HBA Executive Director Benjamin Nicholls left his post to take a job at MacFarlane Promotions, which oversees five of the biggest events of the year, including Taste of Hillcrest and San Diego Pride. She said “working side by side with them a little bit closer,” would be a top initiative.

Stauffer acknowledges that her extensive real estate background is a key reason she was appointed to this position, and hopes to leverage that by working with development to “make it a better neighborhood for business.”

On Tuesday, Nov. 5, the city council unanimously approved the Mid-City Interim Height Ordinance, which, in a nutshell, will limit the height of buildings in Hillcrest to 65 feet until a permanent community plan comes into effect, expectedly around the end of 2015. When asked her opinion on the matter, Stauffer said that while she didn’t know the exact height of the larger buildings here in Hillcrest, she generally supported vertical expansion in the name of economic development.

“Always when there’s a supply and demand in real estate, people are going to want to go up, because—and it does limit if you look at it that way—a lot of times they don’t start breaking even until developers have a certain amount of condominiums they can build, or parking spaces they can build,” Stauffer said.

“The profit comes from the addition,” she continued. “There’s always that break even number for any developer or investor, so if you are limited, then for a lot of people it wouldn’t make sense to build or to do any type of development … so you’ve got to go high.”

When asked what from Nicholl’s tenure as executive director she would like to see continued, Stauffer mentioned several initiatives.

She said “working closely with the businesses and being more proactive in our involvement with them” was something she knows Nicholls would like to see done. Stauffer also reiterated that working with the events already established was a “great moneymaker here in Hillcrest.”

Beyond that, she said streamlining the office procedures internally, as well as circumventing sluggish bureaucracy were two big pushes Nicholls would advocate.

“I know a lot of times when you get involved with committees and groups, you get politics, which makes it difficult to drive things home and that’s why it takes so long,” Stauffer said. “Getting everyone on board and keeping everyone focused is always difficult, so continuing that and just the teamwork and focus is really important.”

The conversation then strayed from politics into what attracted Stauffer to the Hillcrest community, which she’s relatively new to, having made the permanent move to San Diego in 2012.

The draw was that [Hillcrest] was a smaller community, not the City of San Diego,” Stauffer said. “I was used to working in a population of 25,000 people, so I liked that the community was smaller and the opportunity to get a few more things done hopefully.”

“Of course, we have to deal with San Diego as well, but hopefully in a smaller community like this … we can drive a few things home and get a few things done,” she continued.

She also stated that she saw Hillcrest as a place where her skills and experience in real estate would be well utilized.

“I could see myself working with the businesses [similar to my work] with Cedar City development, and a lot of times these positions are about development and working with the businesses, and best use of land and buildings,” Stauffer said.

When she’s able to escape the daily grind, Stauffer enjoys outdoor activities—right now, the season calls for snow skiing, she says—and getting out of the city for road trips.

“I get away on these kind of power weekends,” Stauffer said. “Before I took this position, I took a trip up through Flagstaff and did a little bit of the Route 66, popped off a little bit here and there.”

Finally, now that she’s been interacting with the plethora of local businesses, she has quite a few to recommend.

“I was able to stop by at [Chocolat Bistro]—really good, and we had one of our meetings at D Bar, also really good,” Stauffer said. “The décor in there is really nice, and the food is excellent. I would definitely invite my friends to come dine there.” “And I love babycakes, we shoot over there all the time to have quick meetings outside of the office,” she continued. “Haven’t eaten a lot of cupcakes, but I take them to my friends and family all the time.”

After the interview “officially” drew to a conclusion, Stauffer spoke of the importance of inclusion within the Hillcrest Business Association, saying that the HBA could only prosper when the businesses in Hillcrest are involved and feel accepted. For more information about the HBA, visit hillcrestbia.org.