By Clyde Noel

Graphic Courtesy of City of Mountain View

Large development projects change cityscape of downtown

Town Crier correspondent

In the spring of 2000, the Mountain View City Council approved changes to the Downtown Precise Plan. The city has been caught up in a building surge ever since.

The Economic Development Department has recast the city’s approach to downtown development by bringing the residents closer to the downtown area. In the future, three- to four-story buildings will predominate the area surrounding Castro Street.

“Castro has become the focal point of the city and is reflective of a lot of interest and development in the city,” said Ellis Berns, economic development manager for the city of Mountain View.

According to Berns, when the Tasman West Light Rail project was completed, it impacted the city in a positive way and that is the reason for the increase in downtown development.

Mountain View’s plan allows the commercial district to expand to the east side of Bryant Street from Castro, and allows residential development on both sides of Bryant.

Today, downtown Mountain View presents hundreds of specialty businesses offering a wide variety of goods and services. It has one of the largest selections of restaurants in the Bay Area.

The largest commercial construction project in downtown since 1970 is the council-approved 150,000-square-foot office building under construction at the corner of California and Castro streets. Designed for retail/office space, the six-story office building will include 9,500 square feet of retail space on the first floor. Cement for the foundation has been poured.

At the council meeting last March, there was much discussion on having a national chain occupy the large retail space. Carol Olson, president of the Chamber of Commerce, requested the council view national chain store issues as a policy matter and not include them in the downtown development plan.

Other developments under construction are:

401 Castro St.: A 35,000-square-foot retail/office building with two levels of below-grade parking. Foundation will be poured in early July.

303 Bryant St.: A 20,000-square-foot retail/office building with two levels of below-grade parking.

Residential development is also on the increase in the downtown area. Several residential or mixed-use developments are currently proposed or under construction in the area, representing a total of more than 200 dwelling units. These include:

364 Bryant St.: 20 residential units with below-grade parking.

939 West Dana St.: Eight residential units with below-grade parking.

933 Villa St.: 20 residential units.

231 Hope St.: Eight residential units.

The city’s population of 76,000 swells to more than 100,000 in the daytime as transportation brings more Bay Area residents to job sites in the technology, research and service industries. With the new Tasman West Light Rail project having five of its 12 stations in Mountain View, housing is in demand downtown, and as that develops retail expansion is expected to follow.