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One of Mountain View’s well-established bars is the latest property in the cross-hairs of a rapid spree of development proposed for North Bayshore.
A subsidiary of LinkedIn signed a tentative deal to buy the site of the Sports Page Bar & Grill, a popular watering hole on Plymouth Street. The professional-networking company informed Mountain View officials they wanted to incorporate property into its larger plans to build a “gateway signature headquarters” along Shoreline Boulevard.
In a letter sent to the city last week, LinkedIn officials explained they envision a future hotel being built on the bar’s 0.87-acre site. But those plans may be years off — the Sports Page currently has a lease that runs through 2023. Developing the site sooner would depend on whether LinkedIn officials can entice the bar owners to terminate the lease early.
Even by dive bar standards, the Sports Page stands out. Along with typical bar trappings like ping-pong, billiards and darts, the pub also features a regulation-size sand volleyball court in its backyard. The customers are no less eclectic. Depending on the time of day it can be a mix of nearby tech workers, concert-goers heading to Shoreline Amphitheatre or longtime regulars.
Perhaps most remarkable is the old bar’s location — the 80-year-old building is situated just across the street from the edge of the Google campus. Fans describe the bar one of the few things in North Bayshore that has remained consistent as tech giants have expanded in the neighborhood, and many describe it as a melting pot bringing the disparate groups together.
Days after news spread about LinkedIn plans for the site, fans started an online petition over the weekend urging city officials to find some way to preserve the bar. Within three days, about 250 people had signed it. Sunshine Reyes, a 34-year-old who lived at the nearby Santiago Villa Mobile Home Park, said she started the petition to save the bar that had become like a “second family” for her.
“It’s like your own neighborhood Cheers,” she explained. “We really want to show the city that we do care about this place.”
Exactly what happens from here is unclear. Rob Graham, who has owned the Sports Page since the mid-1990s, intends to continue running the bar through the remaining eight years of his lease, according to his attorney, Camas Steinmetz. But what if LinkedIn offers a tidy sum or a newer space?
“He is willing to listen to and consider any proposals from LinkedIn to accommodate him in a new space or buy him out of the lease,” Steinmetz wrote. “As of yet, there are no such proposals on the table.”
LinkedIn representatives did not respond to the Voice’s requests for comment.
The Sports Page is hardly the only business in limbo amid LinkedIn’s plans for the Shoreline Boulevard property. In partnership with the landowner, LinkedIn is proposing a 10-building campus on a 6.79-acre site that is currently occupied by a row of businesses including Togo’s, Laser Quest and Gold’s Gym. The development would raze Century Cinemas 16, but the plans call for a new movie theater to be built on the south end of the property. As part of the project, the company envisions adding 50,000 square feet of new retail space for unspecified stores and restaurants.
In a letter to the city, LinkedIn representatives singled out the Sports Page as a business that they would offer to relocate to a new site in their future project. But for fans of the bar, this could be a deal-breaker.
“One of the great things about the bar is it the feeling you get from it, and the location is part of that,” Reyes said. “It’s not cliche; it’s not some off-the-production-line bar. It’s got a homey feel to it.”
That sentiment rang true for Steve Beck, a local plumber who counted himself among the bar’s regulars. On Monday afternoon, he was enjoying a Coors Light as he chatted up a Lockheed Martin engineer sitting next to him at the bar. Asked about the future prospects of moving the bar, Beck became grim.
“If they move this place, it kills it,” he said. “It wouldn’t be the same bar if they moved to a different building.”
I’ve had some serious fun times playing volleyball in the back on a hot day. There’s no place else like this in M.V. I guess that’s why it will probably be leveled. Everything cool must GO!
leave it the heck alone already. A great place and a rarity in the tech world we exist within.
I will miss the bar too. But things change and we don’t want to live in a museum where everything is kept static. After all, back when the Sports Page was built, I’m sure something else was pulled down to make room for it.
This conversation is moot until the owner speaks up. He may cash out. If you were counting on the sale of the place for your retirement, wouldn’t you?
While we all acknowledge that we now live in a “tech world” it does not mean that everything has to evolve around tech.
I am not against progress but I think we do need to be mindful about balance. The Sports Page is a dying breed in the area in terms of combining entertainment, food, fun, bar. Where else can you go and play volleyball, relax, drink, eat? It is also a good mid range (price) place for food. Not everyone wants to spend $30+ for lunch for two people which you can easily do on Castro Street and many other places now. It is good to have variety in a community. As a long time resident I want to see a mix…that has made Mountain View special in the past and I hope this is still our future. I do think both can co-exist with the right approach and planning.
Everything changes, this whole area has seen places open, close then reopen and close again. Hopefully this business doesn’t go the way of Walker’s Wagon Wheel or but even Swiss Chalet had to close.
Can LinkedIn officials entice the bar owners to terminate the lease earlier than 2023. ?$? that’s a good question $?$. Did Linkedin purchased the cinema 16 complex?
When you note the list of “one of a kind” businesses gone or going, Mountain View seems complacent about turning into MacCity.
California Billiards Club and Shoreline Billiards (in the same year)
Rose Market
Milk Pail
Maybe the owner of Sports Page wants to get out and he should have the option.
Maybe the pool halls were doomed by cost /sq. foot.
Still, it seems worth it to favor the unique businesses in Mountain View a little more when making development plans.
SyWest owns the Century 16 which formely owned the chain that operated Century Theaters.
SyWest retained the property after selling to Cinemark Theaters.
Sufy Theaters built the Moffett Drive In years ago.
Should we abandon all new development, walk away from all existing property, and simply return it all back to the Ohlone Tribe?
That’s the only fair thing to do. Right?
Should we end all development. Of course not. But that doesn’t mean we should re-develop every square inch to suit white collar workers. The Sports Page is also one of the last places to go to hear live music on occasion while having a drink. Not everyone prefers to go to coffee bars. Leave it be, please!
You know you can get those “Images of America” books that show you the treasures that were in MV before the current “treasures” took their places. Even Walgreens carries them