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Alex Byer speaks to the packed
room about his new mixed use
development at Lincoln and Willow. |
This is the second part of a two part series Willow Glen Neighborhood Association's monthly meeting highlight all the great new things coming to Lincoln Ave. this spring and summer. This
first part of this blog, I highlighted some updates from Councilmember Pierluigi Oliverio and the Director of the Department of Transportation Hans Larsen.
Alex Byer - Paja Investments
During the second part of the meeting Alex Byer took the floor to announce the upcoming grand opening of his project, the
Willow Glen Town Square. Alex Byer is a property owner of parcels on the east side of Lincoln just north of Yuki Sushi. The Willow Glen Town Square, an unprecedented mixed use project that the area has not seen before will feature a distinctive waterscape project in the front referred to as a "mini-Spanish Steps", a wide variety of office space sizes on floors two and three, and top quality restaurants on the ground floor. Willow Glen Town Center will have a grand opening celebration on June 1 of this year and Mr Byer has invited the community to attend. Willow Street Pizza has continued to remain open during construction and the other restaurants will gradually soft open before the June 1 celebration.
Willow Glen Yogurt will now be known as Willow Glen Creamery, which will continue to feature locally owned and produced
Treat Ice Cream. Treat's owner Al Mauseth was in the crowd.
Crepvine a well loved regional crepe shop will open its 10th restaurant in the Town Center. The closest Crepevine can be found on University Avenue in Palo Alto.
Willow Street Pizza which has remained opened through most of the construction will; for the most part remain in its old cozy brick building. An additional elegant dining room was also added during construction. And lastly,
Lou's Village, a 60 year tradition on San Carlos Street will finally reopen, after its doors shut just over seven years ago on San Carlos.
Although a small segment of the community fought against Lou's traditional "late night soft close" the owners will continue to keep its policy of a soft 2:00 AM close with music on some nights. This will be great in that the street will finally have some late night strollers adding even more "
eyes on the street."
Other signed commercial enterprises include IBIS, a women's boutique which is currently on the Avenue. Sereno Real Estate will also be relocating their offices to the Town Square. Additional office space will also be available for lease down to 137 sq. ft. in size. Each floor will include conference and break rooms (kitchenettes). Large size rest rooms will also be included which will contain showers and changing areas for those who choose to ride their bicycles or walk to work. Ample indoor bicycle parking will also be included. The more Alex went on and on about the amenities, the more you understand that this guy just gets it.
Mr. Byers believes that the additional daytime working population will support the increase in local restaurants and feels that companies who really hadn't thought of Willow Glen as a spot for office space would now find it attractive. He mentioned many times how proud he was of this project and vowed that his family would not sell the property.
Mr. Byers introduced
Sheri Boxer Baker of JDS Group Public Relations will be conducting community outreach in preparation of a June 1 Grand Opening. The fencing you currently see around the building should be taken down by the end of this week (February 26), and the fountain out front, also referred to as the mini Spanish Steps will be ready in about three weeks.
Michael Mulcahey - SDS NextGen
Next up was Michael Mulcahey, President of SDS NextGen Partners, a real estate investment company whose name is a homage to his mother, Shirley DiNapoli Schiro, and the NextGen referring to the next generation of family mainly himself and his brother Tim, who is active in Willow Glen Business Association. Shirley DiNapoli's family immigrated to the Santa Clara Valley in 1890. The Willow Glen holdings by the SDS NextGen group include 2.5 acres, 50 tenants, 13 parcels, 12 buildings, and began with the Aqui Reastaurant building in 1995. Mr. Mulcahey said that although it is impossible to think that all tenants would be local, independent businesses he is proud that even including rents from cell phone towers from ATT, 80% of his tennants are locally owned and managed business.
He also gave a little local history lecture, stating that prior to agriculture in Willow Glen, the land between the two rivers, Los Gatos and Guadalupe was primarily marshland. To bring orchards to the area, the swamp was drained in the 1900's. With the increasing amount of business that packing houses were doing in Willow Glen, the orginianl plan was to put a railroad track right down the middle of Lincoln Ave. In the fight against the rail Willow Glen incorporated as a city in 1927. However this wouldn't last long. The city was in need of an expensive sewer system and the result was the annexation of Willow Glen into the city of San Jose in 1936. In the end it was close the final vote was 978 to 871 in favor of annexation.
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WGTC as of Febrary 26, 2012.
Finishing up the "mini Spanish Steps" |
It was just after the war in 1949 that the Willow Glen Business Association was founded and by 1960, as the county was just finishing the planning phase, and starting the construction phase of the expressway system (Almaden Expressway), that the Willow Glen Neighborhood Association was born. Although they lost that fight; they were able to keep traffic manageable until the large residential growth in the Almaden valley in the 1980's. This issue, the use of a traditional business district roadway as an arterial roadway handling larger volumes of traffic continues to come up in the agendas of both the neighborhood and business associations.
In 1989 the Business Improvement District (BID) was incorporated which streghthen local merhants marketing vis a vis the grown presence of the malls. To this day the Business Impromenent District funds street cleaning, leaf removal, trash pickup, and basic maintenence.
The next phase in the evolution of Willow Glen will be the creation of a Community Benifit District (CBD) which will increase its concentration of members by opening contributions up to members on non-ground level business. In this case all tenants of the new project will be paying into the system. The new CBD will include over 100 properties and 350 businesses allowing the CBD to market to the 25,000 residents within one mile and the 235,000 residents within 3 miles.
Michael later went on to mention some of the newer additions to the Avenue.
Mikes Bikes, a local bay area bicycle retailer will be opening a new shop in the long vacant "Beavers" building located mid-avenue. Extensive remodling is currently underway and the riverstone around the entry way has been removed.
Also mentioned was the new look at John's Excellent Foots which is now known as
John's of Willow Glen, which and has a new bar serving cocktails to go with the name change.
The Table is a new 1,800 square foot restaurant planned by John Stump with a scheduled opening for mid-July. The restaurant will be housed in the old Vic's Coin Shop across from Bill's Cafe on Willow Street. John Stump who is no novice to the San Jose restauraunt scene will a small urban (as he puts it, meaning neigborhood) restaurant that will cater to families with the now common larger tables. There will be kid's menus as well but will also be a late night adult gathering spot as well. The plan is to close at midnight on the weekdends. With both Lou's Village and The Table planning late night closes will keep street activity, at least on this corner of the Avenue, on just about any day of the week at most hours.
EOTS
Some new business that recenly opened on the Avenue include
Jor Cal Hats and the
Hay Market Restaurant.
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Kim Waslesh, Director of San Jose's
Office of Economic Development |
Mr. Mulchahey went onto to describe the investment climate on the avenue when local private and family money is involved, compared to instutional style investors. Would an institutional investor make the quality and design features that will be evident in the new Town Squar Project? Mr. Byer and Mr Mulcahey are betting that you will definately notice the difference.
The March Meeting of the Willow Glen Neighborhood Association should be just as informative. Come join us for an evening with Kim Walesh and Nancy Klein of the
City of San Jose's Office of Economic Development.
