Business & Real Estate

Megan V. Winslow/Town Crier

The storefront signage for Petit Baking Co. at 209 First Street in downtown Los Altos has been changed to Sweet Diplomacy, reflecting the decision of owner Melody Hu to rename her company.

Mountain View resident Melody Hu had anticipated that her patisserie-style bakery would open in downtown Los Altos over the summer. She’s still waiting.

Renovations needed to be made to her new shop, located at the former home of Cho’s dim sum restaurant on First Street, to create the airy, inviting ambience she had envisioned for her Petit Bakery Co. But six months after she last spoke with the Town Crier and a few red-tape run-ins later, Hu has changed her company’s name and timeline as she navigates the delays.

Alicia Castro/Special to the Town Crier

Los Altos High School seniors march toward graduation ceremonies in June. Many families start 529 college savings plans long before their child graduates from high school. In some cases, there is money left over even after their child finishes college.

Despite the burgeoning cost of higher education these days, you might still find yourself with unspent money in a 529 plan after your child has graduated from college. As you may know, if you withdraw the money for nonqualified education purposes, you have to pay taxes plus an additional 10% penalty on the earnings withdrawn from the account.

First it was emails. Then it was text messages. Now the latest phishing scam involves calendar invitations.

According to the Better Business Bureau, scammers are infiltrating default calendar settings to plant phony events laced with phishing links on targets’ schedules.

Los Altos

1060 Golden Way, Schulte Family Trust to Wahrmann Trust for $3,060,000

1739 Joel Way, M. & B. Alsan to M. & A. Deo for $2,465,000

Megan V. Winslow/Town Crier

Chris Saccheri and Florina Grosskurth are the new owners of Linden Tree Books, taking over for Jill Curcio and Dianne Edmonds.

Linden Tree Books acquired new owners this month after a yearlong search for a community-based buyer interested in continuing the independent children’s bookseller’s legacy.

Founded by Linda and Dennis Ronberg in downtown Los Altos in 1981, Linden Tree was taken up by local parents Jill Curcio and Dianne Edmonds in 2010 when the Ronbergs retired. Nearly a decade later, Edmonds and Curcio wanted to hand over the reins, so they started a local search for a new caretaker.

Melissa Hartman/Town Crier

Bob Lane gained local attention after a Springer Trees neighborhood resident posted a picture of him on Nextdoor, questioning whether he was a scammer. It turns out the 18-year-old was going door to door as a part of his real estate license training.

A resident of the Los Altos Springer Trees neighborhood authored a post on the online Nextdoor site Aug. 23 with the title “Possible real estate scam.” Below the resident’s explanation of how a young man came to her door that afternoon asking if any neighbors were interested in selling their homes, she included a screenshot from her Ring security camera – a grainy image of 18-year-old Bob Lane.

The resident, who requested her name not be used, said she did not intend “to open a can of worms,” but she thought it curious that Lane was handing out Alain Pinel Realtors business cards that were worn (possibly from floating around in his pockets, she speculated) when the company had been acquired by the New York-based Compass Realty in March.