Business & Real Estate

Economic development manager 'concerned' about city vacancies

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asher kohn/town crier
Brown paper covers the windows of Cassalto at 169 Main St., next to The UPS Store. Cassalto, a home-furnishings store, looks like an empty storefront now, but Los Altos Economic Development Manager Jennifer Quinn noted the temporary nature of such vacancies.

Although she pointed out that not every empty storefront is an unrented space, Los Altos Economic Development Manager Jennifer Quinn expressed concern about the vacancies in downtown Los Altos.

“I’m always concerned (about vacancies), but I do know that we’re not alone in dealing with them,” she said. “A lot of cities are dealing with the changing retail landscape.”

Approved Mountain View project will impact Los Altos schools

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Renderings Courtesy of Anton Development co.
Architects’ renderings of the new complex in Mountain View show a four-story apartment building with busy interior courtyards, a lawn-game lounge and potential first-floor retail shops.

The Mountain View City Council last week approved a 144-unit apartment complex located within the boundaries of the Los Altos School District.

Children living in the four-story building at the corner of California Street and Ortega Avenue can attend Almond School and Egan Junior High in the rapidly growing district.

Sethi Couture's jewelry elevates the everyday

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Photos courtesy of Sethi Couture
Sisters Pratima Sethi, left, and Prerna Sethi plan to sell their jewelry at Sethi Couture in Los Altos after working in the jewelry wholesale business in San Francisco since 2009.

The space on Main Street occupied by Earthworks for 40 years won’t be empty for long.

Sisters Pratima and Prerna Sethi, who grew up in Sunnyvale and attended Castilleja School in Palo Alto, plan to open Sethi Couture, a “new jewelry concept,” by the end of 2016.

Owners seek landmark status for LA farmhouse

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courtesy of Daniil Reouk
A home on Grant Road in Los Altos built circa 1913 is considered by an architect to be a prime example of the Craftsman style. Originally constructed as a farmhouse, the property stayed within the family until a 2015 sale. The Historical Commission is considering landmark status for the home.

A former farmhouse could be a step closer to designation as a historical landmark after a Historical Commission meeting last week. The commission discussed recommending that a Craftsman house on Grant Road in Los Altos receive landmark status.

A report compiled by Sean Gallegos, assistant planner for the city of Los Altos, recommended the landmark status. The house, an original farmhouse built circa 1913, is listed on the Los Altos Historical Resources Inventory.

How the early use of big data made a mutual fund's trillions

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It was 40 years ago last month that Jack Bogle and his new firm The Vanguard Group launched First Index Investment Trust, the world’s first index mutual fund available to retail investors. Looking back on it today, you’d probably be surprised at just how difficult the effort turned out to be.

Not only did it take him two years to get the fund launched, as Bogle writes in an article in the Journal of Index Investing, its initial public offering flopped. It took several years of poor performance for the fund, later renamed Vanguard 500 Index Fund, to grow.