Saratoga News

Ed Storm

Argonaut encounters another delay

By Sarah Lombardo

The new owners of property proposed for development along with the renovation of Argonaut Shopping Center have applied to separate the two projects. John Nelson of Nelson Associates filed an application May 22 with the Saratoga Planning Department to have construction plans for a new building on the corner of Blauer Drive and Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road separated from the overall plans for the shopping center.

But Nelson, the contractor who will be overseeing the project for the Blauer Drive property, refused to identify the new owner, saying, "My client wishes to remain unnamed for right now."

Renovation plans for Argonaut were approved by the Saratoga Planning Commission--after being sent back to the drawing board four times--in March 1997. Plans include remodeling the existing center, expanding the 30,070-square-foot Safeway Supermarket by another 10,720 square feet and constructing two free-standing buildings, one on each side of Blauer Drive at Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road.

But one of the conditions of the approval required that the construction of the new buildings happen in conjunction with the renovation.

"The approval condition was deliberate because the planning commissioners, and ultimately the City Council, were concerned that if the projects were not tied together, the freestanding buildings might get built, but the renovation would not get done," Community Development Director James Walgren said.

The property, which backs up against a business complex on Blauer Drive and is home to a Christmas tree and pumpkin patch lot during the year, changed hands about a month ago, according to developer Ed Storm, who owned the property with developer Deke Hunter.

"We didn't have enough holdings in that center to make it worth our while to hang onto the property," Storm said.

The pair has owned the property since becoming involved in the Argonaut Shopping Center with Carole Rodoni and Paul Hulme, who are also the CEO and owner, respectively, of Alain Pinel Realtors in Saratoga. Hunter and Storm filed a lawsuit last year against Rodoni and Hulme, charging that the two overstepped their bounds, violating a contract between them and the developers and causing expensive delays in the project. Hunter and Storm also claimed they acquired the shopping center and brought in Rodoni and Hulme as equity--and silent--partners. Rodoni and Hulme denied the charges, saying they owned the center, and the issue went to mediation and was settled late last year.

The application to separate must go through the Planning Department and the Planning Commission. But Rodoni said she felt sure that even if permits were issued separately, the project would still look the same. As for the long-awaited renovation plans, Rodoni said, "I think we're getting very close to beginning."

Argonaut Shopping Center was first built in the 1970s and once sported a Hallmark gift shop, a religious bookstore and a delicatessen.

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