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Liquor store move approved, leaving a big space in center
By Jeff Kearns
Planning commissioners--acknowledging they were a little confused about the reasons for the request--last week approved a new conditional-use permit for Rinconada Liquors, which will be moving to a new location in the same shopping center.
"The landlord has plans in the future for using those 3,000 square feet and we had plans to move, so it's to get us a new lease," said store owner Muradali Tharwani, who also acknowledged that there wasn't really any need for him to move the store.
Tharwani and his wife, Ashraf, own and operate the store in the Rinconada Hills Shopping Center on Pollard Road. They say the landlord asked them to move, and they didn't want to fight it. Now, they'll be moving to a slightly smaller space formerly occupied by a Bank of America branch.
The move comes days after Rinconada Pharmacy vacated its space next door to the liquor store after losing a nasty legal battle that lasted several months. The liquor store sits between Safeway and the vacant 4,000-square-foot space left by the pharmacy.
Santa Monica-based Duckett-Wilson Development Company wanted to bring a Longs drugstore into the pharmacy's old space, but the Planning Commission denied Longs' request on Aug. 11 after a massive outcry of protest from neighbors, and Longs didn't appeal the decision.
Duckett-Wilson also tried to get approval to move the liquor store at that same meeting, but the commission continued the hearing because the store's owners weren't there to testify.
Rinconada Pharmacy owner David Matsuo, whose old store is now empty, questioned the move. "If that permit was denied, why is the landlord requiring the tenant to move?" Matsuo said. Matsuo also said that Safeway was rumored to be looking at taking over the newly empty space. Duckett-Wilson's property manager, Patrick Conway, told the Los Gatos Weekly-Times that he hadn't been approached by Safeway.
Paul Bruno, the lone nay vote, said he voted against the move because it would leave two big holes in the shopping center. Bruno said after the hearing that he was swayed by comments made by other commissioners at the first hearing, when some of them said that a 7,000-square-foot space wouldn't be conducive to attracting the small, locally owned businesses that neighbors and the town would like to see in the space.
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Los Gatos, California Since 1881
