MORGAN HILL
– The City of Morgan Hill recently asked for ideas on spending
$3 million to improve downtown. It got them.
Twenty separate responses to the Request for Concepts poured
into the city’s Business Assistance and Housing Services
department.
MORGAN HILL – The City of Morgan Hill recently asked for ideas on spending $3 million to improve downtown. It got them.
Twenty separate responses to the Request for Concepts poured into the city’s Business Assistance and Housing Services department.
The funds were designated by City Council members, acting as Redevelopment Agency directors, to encourage development and improvements to downtown dining, shopping and entertainment, following the concepts of the new Downtown Plan. The city sought transit-oriented, mixed-use commercial and all-residential projects or plans designed for entertainment.
Ed and Irene Enderson, owners of the Granada Theater, submitted two ideas for overhauling their facility.
“We have big plans,” Ed said this week. “We’re not just talking about a fresh coat of paint. It needs new seating, too.”
Enderson would also like to recondition the inside, put in new carpeting, upgrade the projection booth, the sound system and the snack bar and restrooms.
The Endersons responded to a request for ideas from the city on improving downtown. Their proposal listed the cost for the improvements at around $300,000.
The Enderson’s other idea involves remodeling the Granada into four 125-seat screening rooms as well as making the other improvements, and would cost a total of $700,000.
CineLux is interested in taking over the building’s lease but is reluctant to undertake such a massive project in an old building without help. The Endersons said they are in no position to invest in the renovation.
In the past, the Endersons have leased the building to operators, most lately Peachtree Cinema, which operated Cinema Six at Tennant Station.
“None of the tenants seem to be keeping it up properly,” Enderson said, “especially Peachtree.”
Now Peachtree is ending its operation of Cinema Six at Tennant Station and is renting the Granada month-by-month. CineLux will close the Tennant Station theater on Sept. 1 with plans to renovate it into an eight-screen theater by Christmas.
“We’re looking for a professional theater operator to take over,” Enderson said.
Besides the proposal from the Endersons, there were two ideas for the Gunter Brothers Feed Store building on Monterey just north of Main – one for affordable housing and one for a restaurant and retail.
One landowner offered the city ownership of the parking lot behind shops and the movie theater between East First and East Second streets. If the owner were to develop the lot into housing or other retail, a significant amount of parking would be lost.
Le Boulanger, the Sunnyvale-based café/bakery, sought help in locating one of its popular shops in the downtown area. Kevin Kemp, a two-year Morgan Hill resident – introduced sketchy plans for Depot Street between Second and Third, for the Gunter Brothers property or for the Morgan Hill Times building.
Geno and Cindy Acevedo of El Toro Brewery, who recently proposed turning the soon-to-be-vacated and sold police department at Monterey and West Main into a brew pub and family restaurant, suggested entry banners for Monterey Road.
Page Holdings, LLC, a partnership headed by Rick Page, a Parks and Recreation Commissioner, suggested building new structures on two vacant lots: one just south of Wells Fargo Bank and the other between Third and Fourth streets, north of the new Trail Dust barbecue location, formerly Tashi’s.
Page said he seek a Home Chef franchise, “a confectionery, a bakery and/or restaurant/entertainment franchise” for the first building and office uses for the second.
Page Holdings, LLC has previously submitted a SOI on the police building, also with the idea of developing a brew pub/restaurant.
Brad Jones and Cinda Meister of BookSmart, which they have owned for more than seven years – plus the high-end toy store Thinker Toys three doors south – would like to give up the joys of renting, rescue a blighted downtown building and expand their business, which would in turn increase the sales taxes provided the city.
Several concepts entertained the idea of mixed-use development, with retail or restaurants on the ground floor and offices or residential space above, as encouraged by the Downtown Plan and current urban developers.
