A long time in the making A long time in the making (February 18, 2005)

After orchards and retail, site ready for medical clinic

By Jon Wiener and Allison Gerard

As wrecking crews take to the Emporium building this week, clearing the way for the new headquarters of the Camino Medical Group, a new chapter is being marked in the 9-acre site's history.

"It is the front door to our house," said Lawrence Vallandigham, a neighbor and one of the leaders of the campaign to keep Home Depot from building a big-box store at the site many refer to as a gateway to Mountain View.

After several false promises and false starts, the walls will finally cave in at the empty Emporium building. And a new era will begin for a site that has mirrored Mountain View's development over the last century and a half, changing from farmland to bustling retail center to one of the last large pieces of land in a built-out city, and finally, to a sparkling new medical center.
Apples, peaches and pears

Before the construction of Highway 85 and the Emporium's appearance as a landmark shopping center, the area known as the "Dale triangle" had been farmed by one of the Mountain View area's oldest families since before the Civil War.

The patriarch of that family, Edward Dale, immigrated to California from Missouri in 1850. The Dale family's lasting influence in Mountain View is documented in two essays, Dorothy Regnery's 1967 biography of Eleanor Carter Dale and Frances L. Fox's 1970 "Dale History of Mountain View."

At the time of the move, Edward Dale was 36. He brought with him his wife and six children, joining the droves flocking to the Union's newest state to seek gold in the mountains and fertile farmland in the valleys.

He bought the property four years later from Don Mariano Castro, the beneficiary of an original Spanish land grant. Located between El Camino Real, Stevens Creek and the Sunnyvale border, the site would become part of more than 150 acres of Dale family holdings throughout Mountain View. Immediately upon his arrival, Dale planted his first apple trees on the site. He would later add the Valley's first pear orchard and a grove of peaches, which could fetch up to a dollar apiece at the time.

After the turn of the century, Dale's grandson James and his wife Eleanor Carter opened Dales Market on five acres along El Camino. It was the first highway fruit stand in the Santa Clara County and remained in operation until the state bought the parcel in 1967 to construct Highway 85. A year later, the Dales' farmhouse was knocked down to make way for an apartment complex.
The Emporium's quarter-century

Mike Couch, now the manager at San Antonio Shopping Center, started his career as an assistant for a Coldwell Banker executive. He remembers meeting Arton Batchelder, president of Emporium-Capwell Co., who had purchased nine acres of the Dale family farm.

Shopping centers and malls were proliferating across the Valley, and Batchelder wanted to open the company's fourth store in the county at the corner of El Camino Real and Highway 85.

"He was so proud of this site that he had gotten down in the middle of nowhere in Mountain View, miles from San Jose," recalled Couch. "We all thought he was crazy, but he was so proud of that site."

Batchelder's plans touched off what would be the first of many battles over the appropriate development of the site. City planners originally vetoed construction, saying the store would generate too much traffic congestion. The city also wanted to group all large stores in the Mayfield Mall and San Antonio Shopping Center, and they felt the store would tie up space more suited for smaller neighborhood stores.

The council members later reversed the decision, unanimously approving construction of the $6 million Emporium project in March 1969. During construction, El Camino Real was widened near the area and traffic signals were installed at El Camino and The Americana.

The department store opened on Oct. 29, 1970, employing 300 people and featuring a restaurant on the second floor. But the original concerns of the planning commission proved prophetic as the store shut down in 1994.

"It never really worked very well," said Couch. "Shopping centers need critical mass. A free-standing department store is hard to pull off."
Failed plans and one winner

The site has remained virtually empty ever since, despite the city council's approval of three separate projects.

"I don't think there's been anything I've been asked more about than that site," said City Manager Kevin Duggan, who has worked for the city for 15 years.

Home Depot, which purchased a 50-year lease on the land from the Tan Group in the mid-1990s, won approval for both a Home Expo and a hotel with a sports complex. But when the company changed its mind and wanted to build a larger store, the city council rejected its plans.

Home Depot's response, a referendum on the March 2002 ballot to approve the project, elicited severe resistance from neighbors and led to a crushing defeat at the polls.

"We mobilized much faster than Home Depot expected us to be able to," Vallandigham said of the "No on N" campaign. "I don't think they realized that we were going to respond as readily as we did."

Organizers of that campaign, funded in large part by the Avery Construction Company, quickly turned around to voice their support for the medical clinic. But city leaders wanted something that would generate sales tax revenue. And traffic congestion, an issue first raised against the Emporium and one that helped reject Home Depot, continued to be a concern.

Ultimately, last November, the council approved the new clinic for the gateway site.

"Most people would say that a hotel would have been the ideal thing," said Council member Mike Kasperzak. "But we could have been waiting another 15 years for a hotel."

Besides, he added, "It's not our property, it's theirs."

The Camino Medical Group made a $5 million contribution to the city's senior center project, an amount that, by some calculations, far outweighs the sales tax revenue that Home Depot might have produced for the city.

"I wish that would have gone through," said Kasperzak of the hotel idea. "But a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. It's not generating anything the way it is."

E-mail Jon Wiener at jwiener@mv-voice.com and Allison Gerard at agerard@mv-voice.com

Milestones

1854 Edward Dale buys land between El Camino Real, Stevens Creek and the Sunnyvale border. Turn of thecentury The first highway fruit stand in the county was opened by Dale's grandson James and his wife Eleanor Carter. 1967 The fruit stand was closed to make way for Highway 85. 1969 Mountain View City Council votes to allow Emporium Capwell Co. development. 1970 Fourth Emporium in the county opens, employing 300 people. 1994 Emporium closes and remains virtually empty for over a decade. 2002 Ballot measure to open Home Depot fails. 2007 Projected opening of Palo Alto Medical Foundation.

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