MOUNTAIN Perspective — A shopping heart serving Mountain Check out and Palo Alto has missing 3 of its important anchor tenants in the earlier several months, but officials say fears it will be redeveloped into housing are unfounded.
Mountain Watch Mayor Lucas Ramirez suggests the owner is not on the lookout to transform something about the Charleston Plaza, a shopping middle nestled on the Mountain Perspective-Palo Alto border along Highway 101 that the moment housed a Bed Tub & Further than, REI and Best Buy.
All 3 of those retailers have left in the past year. Mattress Bath & Over and above was the very first huge-box retailer to go away, shutting down its place at the commence of 2021. Months later on, REI Co-op declared it would transfer its retailer to a new, bigger spot in Sunnyvale. And in October Finest Get claimed it would close its shop at Charleston Plaza much too.
The closures are a little taste for the Bay Region of what’s happening across the state, with browsing facilities hunting much more like ghost towns as suppliers go on to struggle to compete with the likes of retail giants like Amazon and Walmart. Best Acquire and Bed Bathtub & Beyond have been systematically closing retailers and laying off workers above the past quite a few years.
Greatest Get announced in February it would be laying off 5,000 workers and prepared to near their store on Charleston Street. The company is making an attempt to target its future functions on on line income and dwelling deliveries.
Mattress Tub & Beyond has gone through a equivalent downsizing, announcing in January 2021 that it would close 200 spots including the a single at Charleston Plaza.
The retail exodus at the plaza has locals afire, with a lot of fearing that the plaza will be redeveloped into places of work or housing. Mayor Ramirez claimed he’s acquired inquiries from residents about the long term of that place, but included that redeveloping the plaza isn’t a possible situation.
“The residence operator is looking for new tenancies constant with the existing zoning and basic program, so it will be equivalent sorts of merchants,” Ramirez stated. “That place wasn’t determined as a ‘change area’ in the general system, so the council does not have any current strategies to discover rezoning there to allow for housing.”
Ramirez claimed the place would only modify if the personal property homeowners of the plaza have been to post an software and go via the city’s “gatekeeper procedure,” and that hasn’t transpired however. And even if the developer had been to submit an application, the metropolis council would have the ultimate say.
On the other hand, Ramirez said the empty storefronts supply an possibility for the local community to gain whilst the owner finds new tenants. He stated he is speaking with the metropolis and county to potentially use the area for interim or quick-expression takes advantage of like COVID-19 clinics or other neighborhood-centered companies.
“I’ve gotten a couple of requests from people in the local community to enhance COVID-19 testing capability, and that is some thing that would be tricky to make transpire speedily,” Ramirez reported. “But the metropolis is doing work with the county and El Camino Overall health to provide tests. I consider which is particularly the form of short-phrase use that would be reliable with the require the town has.”