Ugly Shopping Center

[Kathleen]

I am a Willow Glen Resident and I am not so sure that anything can be done with this issue, but I felt the need to ask if anything can be done none the less.

I live on Willow Glen Way and am witnessing the direction the property owners of the shopping center on the corner of Bird and Minnesota are taking their new renovation. In one word it is hideous! I have not seen their proposed finished renovation but if it is anything like the Fresh and Easy store, which it looks to be headed that way, it is just awful. In particular, the latest thing I have noticed is the painting of the terra cotta roof tiles in lemon yellow and it seems they are doing a very cheap renovation to satisfy the Fresh and Easy store only. My husband was speaking with one of the shop owners and they had no clue as to what was going on, nor did they seem to like the update.

I know that when the Longs went into our downtown Willow Glen area, there were guidelines they had to follow according to the association. Are there requirements for other shopping areas in Willow Glen/City of San Jose that must be followed? Do residents in the area have to be notified? It seems that they are doing whatever, as cheap as they can. My husband and I are tired of the entire shopping center and disappointed that it has just been run into the ground and neglected. It seems that there have been so many shopping areas that have been cleaned up and completely overhauled or torn down and renovated very nicely but ours is just falling by the way side. Our kids attend Willow Glen Elementary, we have lived in the area for over 9 years now and many of our friends I have talked to say it is awful. Is there anything we can or should do about this?

I appreciate your thoughts and direction on this matter.

Sincerely,

Kathleen and David Almoslino

[Thomas LoCurto]

Man, I know what you mean about them not being one-stop-shops. The area markets we tend to use are Cosentino's and Lunardi's - only problem is they're both a bit pricey.

[Kathleen]

Not that I know of. I also wind up running around to a lot of different stores to complete a shopping list. It is amazing to me that we don't have descent shopping here in Willow Glen, this is another reason it is so disheartening that the Fresh and Easy won't be in until 2011. And btw, I think I've seen an adjustment to the paint on the shopping center, it looks to be just as ugly. What the heck are they doing? Amazing people waste money like this! They should have left the shopping center as is, put in some new plants and called it a day.

[Nat&Paul]

Not to change the subject but I do wonder where everyone does their shopping now? I'm not a fan of Safeway unless of course it's the Rivermark Safeway. I generally go there, Trader Joe's on Coleman and Whole Foods. The problem with all 3 is that they aren't generally one stop shops. Is there somewhere in the neighborhood where you can get organic meats, fresh packaged food, locally made chips and cheese, inexpensive detergent and cling free sheets along with fresh produce and flowers?

[Kathleen]

Yes, this was my impression of the renovation as well and so I contacted the property owners to discuss the issue. From the conversation I had, I gather that the Fresh and Easy actually hired a Architect/Design co. out of San Francisco to handle the renovation of the shopping center. I was very surprised there was a design firm behind this at all and feel that it should have been a local company. If it had been, I think we would have seen a difference in how this renovation was handled. I speculate, the design firm has no idea of the demographics it is dealing with. They also said the contractor was responsible for the wrong color being painted onto the tiles and this issue would be taken care of. I, myself, would never consider painting terra cotta tiles, but apparently the firm was trying to incorporate the tiles into the roof line. That being said, I have seen many things painted, with the right paint, it can handle the weather so I don’t know if it will chip so easily, it’s just plain ugly. The property owner, once again, referred to the economy reflecting some of the decisions that were made. He reassured me that it would be taken care of and the shopping center would be appealing. At this point, it is a wait and see attitude with me. I very much agree with you. If this shopping center is done cheaply, it will not attract any mid or high end stores and I will not be shopping at the shopping center when it winds up attracting stores like the Dollar Store or Mc Frugal’s (Big Lot’s whatever it is called). It seems that Fresh and Easy won’t be around any time soon, so I am not sure how the property owners or Fresh and Easy are going to re-coop any money that was put into the renovation of this shopping center. I think it will wind up being a waste of time and money when all is said and done, because I don’t know how they are going to save this renovation, but we will see!

[Felix]

My wife and I noticed the "odd" yellow tiles too. If paint, I expect it will eventually flake off the tiles. It looks to be an economical renovation and apparently doesn't add much aesthetic value from what it was. It would have to be extremely price competitive with decent quality to entice me from driving the extra mile to Trader Joes, Safeway, or Whole Foods ...

[Kathleen]

All I know to date is the opening has been pushed out due to the economy. When I asked the district councilman's office about the original meetings, they referred me to the following website regarding the meeting that happened in December 2008. They also followed up with a phone call stating that the opening date was pushed out. This is all I know. If I find out anything more I will post it, but I doubt I will hear much more. Pushing it out to 2011 is a long time.
http://www.sanjoseca.gov/district6/D6PlanningMtgs.asp

[Chrystal]

Is this going to happen? Is the Fresh & Easy on Bird and Minnesota opening or has it been totally dropped by Fresh & Easy?

[Kathleen]

I wanted to add to this blog that I have been informed by the city that the Fresh and Easy has now pushed out their opening date to 2011 or 2 years from now, what ever that means. I am so glad that the property owners decided to decline Zanotos offer to lease that retail space!

[Kathleen]

Yes, I understand and agree that we cannot have the fashion police or in this case the design police, but this was just so wrong and it has been so long since anything has been in this shopping center and the stores that really wanted to be in there that seemed to be excited about being there were turned down. I also don't want to feel like the neighborhood I pay so much to live in looks less then desirable and it is looking much less than that. And funny, you are right it is very costly here. I will hope for the best.

[Robert Tamero]

Thank god that we don't let city hall dictate aesthetics. Personally I would rather have an ugly grocery store than no grocery store, though it looks like the latter is panning out.

If every neighborhood group stuck their noses in every single project in town, that amount of obstruction would lead us to be one of the most unaffordable places in the country. (oh wait, they do, and we are)