Saratoga News

Tenants say Argonaut upgrade to cause increase in their rents

Renovation to start within several months

By Sarah Lombardo

Work could begin within the next two months at the Argonaut Shopping Center. Carole Rodoni, president of Alain Pinel Realtors, who with Alain Pinel CEO Paul Hulme owns the center, said Devcon Construction will oversee the center's renovation.

According to some merchants located in the center, the renovation will bring with it an increase in rents. "Rents are scheduled to go up," John Swetka, the owner of Swetka's Tennis Shop, said. "They will go down during construction, but they will go substantially up after."

Swetka said he was told his rent could increase by a dollar per square foot, an amount that may make it difficult to stay at the center. "But that's market rate, I guess."

Other tenants at the center, already impatient with the delay in the renovation, which was approved more than a year ago, said they are disappointed with the increases--and with talk of national chain stores being proposed for the center, although the center is already home to a Safeway supermarket and a Longs Drugs store.

Rodoni denied there were changes proposed for tenants' rents but stressed that each tenant has a different agreement.

On the subject of national chains, Brian Hanson, who is handling the leasing for the center, had no comment on the subject, but did say, "There are too many rumors flying around there."

Rodoni said some national chains were hoping to get into the center and pointed out that the Seattle-based Starbucks Coffee Company has already gained approval from the Saratoga Planning Commission to open a coffee store in the center. Rodoni said Starbucks will move in once renovation is complete.

Rodoni said Baskin-Robbins and a national movie-rental company are among others that have expressed interest in the center. "There are more tenants for every store," Rodoni said. "We want to offer the best mix we can get, and the most reputable."

But Rodoni said the center, which has for years had several vacant stores and also recently lost its liquor store, will not see new tenants for a while. "It's going to be six or seven months of work," she said. "We would prefer new businesses move in when it's close to completion."

Renovation plans for the center were approved in February 1997, after being sent back to the drawing board by the Planning Commission four separate times. S.J. Sung and Associates, the architectural firm commissioned for the project, was told the plan needed to look more rural and, commissioners said, more in tune with Saratoga's overall look.

Once approved, the project hit another snag last July when Cupertino developers Deke Hunter and Ed Storm filed a lawsuit against Rodoni and Hulme, claiming that the pair overstepped their bounds, violated a contract among the four and caused expensive delays in the project. Rodoni and Hulme both denied the charges, and the issue went to mediation, at which time day-to-day operations at the center changed hands and went to Willis & Co., a Sunnyvale-based commercial property-management firm.

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