Los Gatos Weekly-Times Blockbuster rumor stirs petition drive Starbucks eyes Old Town By Jeff Kearns After weeks of rumors that Blockbuster Video was eyeing a site on N. Santa Cruz Avenue, residents--and especially nearby video store owners--are relieved to hear that the chain won't be moving into the neighborhood. Even though Blockbuster apparently never tried to sign a lease or file an application with the town, just the hint of one of their stores opening caused an uproar in the commercial district north of Highway 9. The property manager for the store, Danny Chan of Los Angeles-based Telok Property Management, said that Blockbuster isn't pursuing a lease on the 5,100-square-foot store. Chan said he gave a tour of the store to representatives from the company's regional offices and started to negotiate, but ultimately rejected their offer. Blockbuster also wanted to take only part of the store, which the owner wouldn't allow, Chan said, and the company was also put off by hearing that the neighborhood would object to traffic impacts and was generally hostile to a Blockbuster store. Blockbuster won't say whether or not it is pursuing a move into Los Gatos. "Unless there's been a lease signed on a site we just can't comment on it," Stephanie Coda, a spokesperson at the company's corporate headquarters in Dallas, said. The two owners of downtown video stores didn't try to hide their delight upon hearing that Blockbuster wouldn't be moving into the area. "It certainly created a stir around here," said The Video Store owner Jan Bright. "I've had customers going wacko about it." Bright's store, at 540 N. Santa Cruz Ave., is across the street from the building Blockbuster execs looked at, which currently houses Kinko's. Kinko's is moving to a new space on Los Gatos Boulevard at the end of November. "The majority of comments from people were 'I thought we weren't going to let them do it, or if we were, we'd let them do it over on the boulevard where it's already messed up.' " Residents also complained that the store would be a parking and traffic nightmare, Bright said. Bob Scarbrough, who has owned Video Era at 218 N. Santa Cruz for the last six years and remembers taking a 40 percent cut in business when Hollywood Video opened on Los Gatos Boulevard, said it was good news to him that the chain wasn't coming to town. "If they moved in, you would basically have a two-store town," he said. "Jan and I wouldn't be able to survive." Bright and Scarbrough collected about 400 signatures from customers opposed to letting a Blockbuster open in town. Scarbrough said that another chain store would erode the town's sense of community. "With that corporate mentality, you don't have the same concern about the neighborhood," he said, pointing to his own practice of making donations to fundraisers for schools or community events--which he couldn't afford to continue doing after Hollywood Video opened. But Blockbuster dropping its plans may mean that another chain will take the Kinko's space. Chan says he plans to list the property with local real estate agents. The property owners, however, are still looking for a nationwide chain over local operators because they believe that bigger companies are less of a financial risk, Chan said. Meanwhile Starbucks finalized its application for a conditional-use permit that would let it operate a store in the Old Town expansion on the west side of University Avenue. The cafe would be next to the relocated Steamer's, which is set to move across the street once the new building is finished. Starbucks made its first attempt in Los Gatos in 1995 when it tried to open a store on the corner of N. Santa Cruz Avenue and W. Main Street, in the building that currently houses Twig. After a tremendous outcry from residents, the company was denied its CUP, which would have required an intensification from retail to restaurant use that wasn't deemed acceptable for the downtown area in terms of parking and traffic. Starbucks later approached Los Gatos Coffee Roasting Co. owner Teri Hope and offered to buy her coffeehouse. "Based on the amount they offered me, they were very interested in locating downtown," Hope says. "But I couldn't sell out to a company that doesn't share my philosophy on the community." Hope says she's not worried about Starbucks' third attempt to open a store downtown, even though it's less than a block from her own store, because she has extremely loyal customers. "People go out of their way to come to my business, and the growing competition has reinforced my business, so it's been healthy and positive." And, she says, there's no shortage of coffee drinkers: "Coffee consumption is definitely still growing." The Starbucks application has been tentatively agendized for the Dec. 9 meeting of the Planning Commission. [ Back to Contents Page | Los Gatos Weekly-Times Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, October 21, 1998. ©1998 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.