The old Stowell barn, which stood on Mathilda Avenue just south of El Camino Real for 30 years, was moved last week to make way for thirty new homes as downtown Sunnyvale gets set to boom this year.




Downtown preps for dust and noise

Merchants rally in advance of huge construction projects

By Sam Scott

Almost 50 downtown merchants squeezed into the Thai Basil restaurant on Wednesday, Jan. 26, to discuss how to brace for the winds of change.

If all goes according to plan, the coming year will see radical change in the Murphy Street and Town Center Mall area. Construction is slated to begin soon on refurbished shopping center, a new train station, three parking garages, three residential complexes, three multi-story office buildings, a public plaza, and a 20-screen theater.

The many construction projects, with the attendant clamor, dust, and traffic, worry some of the shopkeepers.

Nelle Gartner has her doubts about the virtues of the coming downtown redevelopment. The owner of Kiss it Good Buy on Murphy Street says construction has almost done her in before.

"I have another shop in Ohio [in a construction area]," she says. "Business has gone to half of what it used to be. That's what people can expect with construction near a shop."

Others were more optimistic. Ray Montalvo, of Le Boulanger, says downtown refurbishment in cities like Los Gatos and San Mateo have affected his businesses, but only temporarily.

"I'm here to say there is light at the end of the tunnel," Montalvo says.

He says he strongly supports the coming plans.

Suzi Blackman, head of the Chamber of Commerce, says the morning meeting was a call to unite. She says downtown merchants need to work together to promote downtown at time when the blast of a jackhammer or rumble of a truck might cause people to stay away.

Blackman says the downtown businesses have yet to think of themselves as a community. She says merchants need to ask themselves, "What can we do to promote the entire area?

"Because we're all going to equally have problems as this process goes forward."

Perhaps the most prominent concern is where to put the cars. On land now used as parking for the Town and Country Mall, 460,000 square feet of office space will be built. A 1,500-car, 3-story-deep underground garage and an above-ground lot should eventually replace 640 public spaces. But not until a couple years in the future.

With the Caltrain station and the mall temporarily losing spaces due to construction of large garages, convenient parking areas could be a valuable commodity downtown.

"Obviously, there is going to be some shortage of parking," Matas says.

David Boesch, also with the city of Sunnyvale, says the city will try to schedule the various projects to lessen the impact.

"We plan to use the timing in other projects to offset whatever loss we experience as a result of the [office building] project."

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