Water Warehouse recently opened the doors of its new facility after moving from its previous location a year ago.
Owner Mike Torres called the new purification and bottling facility at 591 First St. “the resurrection of Water Warehouse.”
“It’s up and running,” he said. “It’s beautiful. People love our water.”
The store sells water by the gallon with 11 fill-up stations inside. Customers can have their bottle sanitized with hot-pressurized and ozone-treated water.
The new, remodeled spot also has a much larger parking lot compared to its previous location at 8375 Monterey St., which had been an issue for customers, Torres said.
“We kept growing and growing and growing until we got so busy we couldn’t have been in that building anyway,” he said.
Torres said Water Warehouse’s move was prompted after it was unable to come up with an agreement with the landlord, who had decided to sell the building.
Torres said he had to “throw away $100,000 worth of equipment” because he had not yet found a new location for the store. He added that longtime customers were looking for available buildings around the city for the store to move to.
“Nobody wanted us to leave Gilroy,” he said.
Once the business found the 591 First St. building, Torres said he had to build the new purification facility from scratch, which led to the store’s delayed opening.
“The water had to be perfect,” he said. “That’s why we’re so well known in the city of Gilroy.”
To thank the community for supporting the store, Water Warehouse plans on holding a barbecue celebration once the county’s shelter-in-place restrictions loosen, as well as free water days as a way to give back, Torres said.
Water Warehouse is open from 9am to 5pm Mondays through Fridays, 10am to 6pm on Saturdays and closed Sundays. For information, call 408.848.5010 or email wa******************@gm***.com.
