MOUNTAIN VIEW — A shopping mall serving Mountain View and Palo Alto has misplaced three of its key anchor tenants prior to now few months, however officers say fears it will likely be redeveloped into housing are unfounded.
Mountain View Mayor Lucas Ramirez says the proprietor isn’t seeking to change something concerning the Charleston Plaza, a shopping mall nestled on the Mountain View-Palo Alto border alongside Freeway 101 that after housed a Mattress Tub & Past, REI and Finest Purchase.
All three of these retailers have left prior to now yr. Mattress Tub & Past was the primary big-box retailer to go away, shutting down its location firstly of 2021. Months later, REI Co-op introduced it could transfer its retailer to a brand new, greater location in Sunnyvale. And in October Finest Purchase stated it could shut its retailer at Charleston Plaza too.
The closures are a small style for the Bay Space of what’s occurring throughout the nation, with procuring facilities trying extra like ghost cities as retailers proceed to battle to compete with the likes of retail giants like Amazon and Walmart. Finest Purchase and Mattress Tub & Past have been systematically closing shops and shedding staff over the previous a number of years.
Finest Purchase introduced in February it could be shedding 5,000 staff and deliberate to shut their retailer on Charleston Street. The corporate is making an attempt to focus its future operations on on-line gross sales and residential deliveries.
Mattress Tub & Past has gone via an analogous downsizing, asserting in January 2021 that it could shut 200 places together with the one at Charleston Plaza.
The retail exodus on the plaza has locals afire, with many fearing that the plaza shall be redeveloped into places of work or housing. Mayor Ramirez stated he’s acquired inquiries from residents about the way forward for that space, however added that redeveloping the plaza isn’t a probable state of affairs.
“The property proprietor is searching for new tenancies in step with the present zoning and normal plan, so it will likely be comparable kinds of shops,” Ramirez stated. “That space wasn’t recognized as a ‘change space’ within the normal plan, so the council doesn’t have any current plans to discover rezoning there to permit housing.”
Ramirez stated the realm would solely change if the personal property homeowners of the plaza had been to submit an utility and undergo the town’s “gatekeeper course of,” and that hasn’t occurred but. And even when the developer had been to submit an utility, the town council would have the ultimate say.
Nonetheless, Ramirez stated the empty storefronts provide a chance for the neighborhood to learn whereas the proprietor finds new tenants. He stated he's talking with the town and county to probably use the situation for interim or short-term makes use of like COVID-19 clinics or different community-centered providers.
“I’ve gotten a few requests from of us locally to extend COVID-19 testing capability, and that’s one thing that may be troublesome to make occur shortly,” Ramirez stated. “However the metropolis is working with the county and El Camino Well being to offer testing. I feel that’s precisely the form of short-term use that may be in step with the necessity the town has.”