Mountain View is not a venture funder Mountain View is not a venture funder (July 15, 2005)

The city council did the right thing last week when members voted to accept the bid by Longs Drugs for the commercial space in the new downtown parking garage, despite a lot more public support for leasing to a high-end grocer, which wasn't nearly as good a deal.

Ranked side by side on a strictly monetary basis, the decision was a no-brainer. Longs, the ubiquitous drug chain which already has multiple stores in Mountain View, offered far more rent and fewer monetary demands than Zanotto's, a San Jose-based grocer that specializes in upscale markets.

The Old Mountain View neighborhood pushed hard for the grocery store, with some residents even demonstrating at the parking garage site, carrying signs that said Zanotto's was the best choice. But while members of the council acknowledged the seemingly wide support for the grocer, only Laura Macias stuck her neck out to vote against Longs and for the grocery store.

In cases like this, the council cannot jump into risky ventures when solid income to the city is at stake. Macias obviously felt that a grocer would add to the quality of life for the downtown neighborhood, and she may be right. But this question boiled down to cold, hard cash. The Longs deal will generate $3.5 million for the city over the life of the lease, about $850,000 more than Zanotto's.

In addition, the grocer wanted free parking spaces in the garage, and would have generated far more solid waste and truck deliveries than a Longs drugstore.

And finally, the offer from Zanotto's was apparently related to the company receiving a grant from the federal Small Business Administration, which some city officials saw as a "red flag" that could indicate that the venture would be undercapitalized.

Neighborhood activist Julie Lovins is planning an effort to get another grocer to consider locating downtown, even though the Mountain View Market, a purveyor of Asian foods and fresh fish, already is a fixture on Castro Street.

As Mayor Matt Neely noted, if a grocery store is really viable, the private sector should take note of the high interest level expressed during this discussion, and act accordingly. There is no shortage of commercial space downtown, and most areas have plenty of free parking as well. The decision to lease the parking garage space to Longs does not have to be the final word on a grocery store downtown.

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