Austin Walsh at the Daily Journal has latched onto the concerns about rents and parking on "The Avenue" in this piece in today's paper.
The former homes to J. Crew, Anthropologie, Kara’s Cupcakes, Baby Couture, Aida Opera Candies and Gymboree are among the locations remaining unoccupied on the core commercial corridor.
Juan Loredo, president of the Downtown Business Improvement District, attributed the empty storefronts primarily to the inability or unwillingness of some companies to continue paying the high cost of doing business.
Juan makes the case for variety in the stores around the downtown and that certainly has been an issue as well. The utter lack of any after-dinner entertainment is a glaring deficiency vis a vis Redwood City, Palo Alto and even San Carlos! The ongoing parking issues also get mentioned but not analyzed (which is fine for a pure news piece) so we'll add some insight here. Austin writes
Officials recognize parking constraints, and are planning to redevelop an existing surface lot into a garage offering 100 more spaces. On a neighboring lot, officials are seeking to construct an affordable housing development.
Business owners concerned about the loss of parking through the construction period have lobbied for the garage to be built before the housing development.
I'll bet there are more than a few business owners who also think adding a big chunk of new housing will only exacerbate the business-available parking. They may be feeling the political-correctness pressure to not say so, but I bet they are thinking it. With 220 California nearing completion and PAMF apparently pulling out of being the anchor tenant, we may see the impact of that under-parked monster building kick in long before any additional city parking even hits the drawing board. We must also ask, "Where will the money come from?"
I felt that we had reached a tipping point when Anthropologie couldn't make it–and that pretty good, sizeable space is still available months later. Keep the window paper handy.
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