11 Vacancies in Downtown Los Gatos

There are a total of 11 vacant tenant spaces in downtown Los Gatos, the town's economic vitality manager has announced.

The revelation came after , most of them along No. Santa Cruz Avenue.

Three of the 11 empty commercial spaces are in the building/tenant improvement process expecting to open this fall and are marked "coming soon," in the attached PDF document that von Borck produced.

And three more have tenants in the use entitlement process, marked "in planning process" in the document.

The American Wireless Retail lease, 130 No. Santa Cruz Ave., is still active, although vacant and being “unwound,” per the property owner, she said. The business announced several months ago it had moved to a new location at 1040 D. Regstorff in Mountain View.

Both the 5,000-square-foot Borders, 50 University Ave.; and the 4,500-plus square-foot GapKids and babyGap, 120 No. Santa Cruz Avenue, are seeing lots of prospective activity, but mostly from restaurant and/or personal services tenants, von Borck explained.

However, the old Los Gatos Chamber of Commerce location, 239 No. Santa Cruz Ave.; and Scooterland, 130 C No. Santa Cruz Ave., have the least activity or interest so far, she said.

The former chamber building has been empty for more than a year since the organization left the premises in June of 2011 to make its home at 10 Station Way.

The , 40 No. Santa Cruz Ave., has three possible businesses moving in such as Los Gatos Beauty Supply, Lexington House Restaurant and another retail establishment, von Borck said.

Von Borck announced that the 19 Market Vietnamese restaurant is coming to the old 2,000-square-foot Tandoori Oven location, 133 No. Santa Cruz Ave. She also said is expanding into the Jigsaw Salon space at 201 No. Santa Cruz Ave.

And the old Inspire Interior Design space, 208 No. Santa Cruz Ave., is going to become The Natural Mattress Store, she said.

"Our offices do monitor the vacancies in the downtown and we serve as a business liaison to prospective businesses seeking to open a storefront in downtown assisting them through the entitlement process where appropriate and necessary," von Borck explained. "Overall, we maintain a connection to the brokerage and property owner community downtown to monitor store activity.

When asked about two spaces available at Lyndon Plaza, 20 Santa Cruz Ave., that were not included in the town's document, von Borck said second-floor office space is not monitored and is not included it in the downtown’s overall vacancy calculations.

Even if those spaces were added to the town's vacancy list, the overall vacancy rate would still remain at 2 percent, which, in comparison to other downtowns that are trending at 9-11 percent, is very healthy, von Borck added.

As a rule of thumb, commercial districts are never at a zero percent vacancy rate due to market fluctuations and rates tend to hover at their lowest around 2-3 percent, she continued.

"At the end of the day, the community will be welcoming six new businesses to downtown. Now that is a headline," she said.