The Willow Glen Resident

Shopping center gets a face lift

Revamped cinema, new restaurant and fly-fishing shop enliven WG center

By Michelle Ku

The renovation of one business and the opening of two others are breathing new life into an old shopping center.

The Willow Glen Shopping Center on the corner of Curtner Avenue and Almaden Road received a bit of a face lift when Il Bacio and San Jose Fly Shop opened and Almaden Cinema Five got a massive overhaul--growing from a two-screen to a five-screen theater.

Il Bacio, an Italian restaurant, opened its doors a few weeks ago, and San Jose Fly Shop, a fly-fishing store, and Almaden Cinema Five held their respective grand opening and re-opening last Saturday.

"I think it looks better than it did before," said Tom Mallech, owner of San Jose Fly Shop. "Obviously, the nicer of a shopping area you have, the more conducive it is for people to come and shop here. We have some really nice businesses here."

Mallech said he spent two months before opening the store gutting it, painting it and installing new carpet and lighting fixtures.

At Il Bacio, the work entailed a fresh coat of paint and a new carpet; removing booths left by the previous tenant, Italian restaurant Cataluna; and ordering and installing restaurant equipment, said manager Raffaele Fiorienza.

"We just paint the walls and things like that," Fiorienza said. "No major job to do here."

The Almaden Cinema Five, previously known as the Almaden Twin Theater, was closed for five months while the theater was completely redone. It now has new seating, lighting, carpeting and Dolby stereo in each of the theaters.

"I think the only thing remaining that's original in the building is the four walls encompassing [the theaters]," said Paul Gunsky, president of Campbell Plaza Theaters, the company that owns Almaden Cinema Five.

Renovations needed to be done in order to compete with other movie theaters and attract customers, Gunsky said. "Major movie companies expect you to run a movie for a few weeks, and you really can't with just two screens," he said. "Plus customers expect to have the creature comforts of other movie theaters."

Gunsky says he feels that the center is being revitalized, especially with the imminent reopening of Tina's Restaurant, a coffee shop and diner that has been closed for the last seven or eight months due to a fire. Tina's is scheduled to reopen in June.

"I think there's quite a bit of rebirth and excitement in the shopping center, and I think the theater precipitated it," Gunsky said. "There's been a few vacancies in the past, but they're slowly starting to fill up."

While the improvements made by Il Bacio, San Jose Fly Shop and Almaden Cinema Five were made on the owners' own initiative, the management of the center is interested in doing some upgrades as well, said Joe Kovalik, property manager of Willow Glen Shopping Center.

Kovalik says he is talking with the city of San Jose about a pilot project to revitalize city shopping centers. "It's very preliminary," he said. "We have no idea at this time when it will happen. It all depends on the city, our tenants and plans, parking and landscaping."

Carlos Reynaga, a Glen resident and weekly shopper at the Willow Glen Shopping Center for the past 10 years, says he'd like to see the center improve. "For the most part it's OK," he says. "But improvement would be nice. Sometimes, around the liquor store, there are some homeless around."

Until upgrades are done, shopping center management has hired a security company to keep transients away from the area.

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