The owner of La Quinta’s first food truck park says the endeavor is a major success, but the project is running on borrowed time.
It’s a story that News Channel Three has been following for almost a year now, a piece of land near Old Town La Quinta that remained an empty gravel lot for years, until local business owner Bryan Newman purchased it with plans to build the city’s first food truck park. There was some initial pushback on those plans, but ultimately the city voted unanimously to approve the temporary use permits in a July meeting last year. Come September, if additional permits aren’t approved, the park may have to stop operations.
“We did get a temporary use permit for 18 months for La Quinta Landing,” said Newman. “Which will expire of September 31, of 2025. We got the food trucks in. We’ve enhanced the property, and we’ve proven the concept.”
Now, the area is a bustling food truck park, where families gather to enjoy lunch in the sun.
“We’re looking at, you know, in the last five months max, they’ve already facilitated over 5,000 customers,” explained Newman.
Jordan Gastelum, the owner and operator of Birrieria Sinaloa says his truck has become a popular fixture in the village.
“It’s been really, really good,” said Gastelum. “We have a lot of clients, a lot of support. We’re really proud of it. Our customers are really happy.”
Newman has owned Pedego Electric Bikes in La Quinta for ten years. Newman, along with the food truck operators all say the project has been a major success, without competing with the businesses that currently operate downtown.
“The city has has an ordinance against food trucks, which they were willing to do a temporary use permit for me to be able to prove that this concept is successful,” said Newman. “And so we’re at that point now where I think we’ve exceeded what they wanted. This has been amazing. It’s way bigger than I ever thought it would be. I’m optimistic that the customer base, we’re not stealing from anybody. We’re not drawing from anybody. We’re actually coexisting, which is what my initial goal was. We have different customers here than the restaurants do, but the customers will wander into town and spend money in the Village after visiting the food trucks, which is what we want.”
Abel Avalos, the owner of Aldo’s Mexican Food truck agrees.
“A lot of families eat from here too,” said Avalos. “And we’re getting known out here with the whole community, and we’re really appreciative about that.” But as the end of the temporary use permit draws near, Newman is hoping to make the food truck park a permanent fixture.
“I’m at a point now where I’m willing to spend a lot more money and invest a lot more time and really do the project to the level of which it deserves, and we’re just in the process of getting all that stuff done now,” said Newman.
“We’re trying to get the community to be on our side, to help us, to give support, because people really like us here,” said Gastelum. “So we don’t want this to end in September.
However, Newman is at a standstill, waiting to know the fate of the food truck park which remains in the hands of the city.
“We all know that temporary means temporary, not permanent,” said Newman. “So we didn’t over extend our budget to getting too crazy by spending money on something that could very well not last.
Pending approval, Newman says he has huge pans for the property in the future including live music, movie nights– and later night bites.
“We know there’s a demand for live music. We know there’s a demand for the village to maybe have a place that stays open a tad bit later, said Newman. “So we look forward to the future of not only having just food trucks, but having an actual area for the community to meet, some additional businesses, more food trucks, and just kind of a community hub where people can meet and bring families and dogs and strollers and babies and ride bikes.
News Channel Three will continue to follow this story, and plans to speak with the city, as well as local business owners in the area.
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