A local liquor store that once sold a winning $17 million lottery ticket could be running low on its luck. Joe and Shahr Mardini said their landlords plan to shut down Jerry’s Liquors & Delicatessen to convert the building into office space.
The Mardinis, who have owned and operated the San Antonio Road liquor store for the past 13 years, said they don’t plan on moving their business without a fight. The business owners said they purchased a 15-year lease from Gerald and Mary Ann Larkin in 1987 and plan to stay until it expires in 2002, despite allegedly receiving a 60-day notice last month.
“I don’t know how they can just say leave without any compensation,” Joe Mardini said. “People talk about us. They say we’re friendly. We bring in (sales) tax to the city.”
Gerald Larkin said the Mardinis opted not to renew their lease for an additional five years when it expired in 1992 and for the past eight years they have been leasing the building on a month-to-month basis.
The Larkins asked the Los Altos Planning Commission June 1 to grant them a special use permit that would allow them to lease the ground floor of the building as office space. The two-story building is located in an area zoned as Commercial Downtown, which requires a permit in order to replace retail space with service space, according to the city’s general plan.
Gerald Larkin told the planning commission that the opportunity to make a higher profit through office leases weighed partially on his decision to ask for a permit, but that was not the full reason.
“We want to clean it up and make it look better … landscape, take the sign down, run a cleaner-type of operation,” he said.
The Larkins were the original owners of Jerry’s. They remodeled the 1954 building and operated the family business from 1968 until 1978, when they sold the business but retained the building.
The Mardinis kept the name Jerry’s.
The store made the headlines in 1997 when a Los Altos couple purchased a winning $17 million SuperLotto ticket from Jerry’s. Joe Mardini said people still flock to the Los Altos store hoping luck will rub off on them.
About 400 people signed a petition to keep the store open.
The planning commission was deadlocked on whether or not to grant the Larkins a use permit June 1.
They could not agree if office space would be inconsistent with other businesses in the area.
The planning commission is scheduled to continue discussion on the topic June 15.
