Downtown Mountain View vacancies are down compared to this time last year – albeit by a percentage or two – but the trend is positive as downtown business inches closer to pre-pandemic levels.
In the city’s first quarter of this year, 23% of office and 6.8% of retail space was vacant in downtown Mountain View, the area bordered by Evelyn Avenue, El Camino Real, Hope Street and Franklin Street, according to Lenka Wright, Mountain View spokeswoman.
The data, provided by commercial real estate data source CoStar, is less than what was reported in the first quarter of 2024. During the first quarter of 2024, 25% of office and 8.5% of retail space was vacant.
While the numbers point to a positive outlook, Peter Katz, Mountain View Chamber of Commerce president and CEO, said there are hurdles to bring vacancy rates down in and around downtown Mountain View.
“Downtown is a historical district, so there are additional requirements and fees,” Katz stated in an email. “There are spaces in need of renovations and upgrades, which can be costly. There are internal spaces that were designed many, many years ago and are not sized for modern use – either too small or too big.”
Wright added that many of the spaces aren’t feasible locations for modern purposes, and some of the buildings are “physically obsolete” and don’t meet current retail needs. Other issues relate to property owners’ marketing pitfalls and elusivity.
“… These include absentee and difficult to contact property owners (and) property owners not actively marketing their available spaces,” she stated in an email. “… These varied reasons require unique approaches from the city, which the city is pursuing individually and with partners in the community.”
One such approach is the city’s Pedestrian Mall Vacant Storefront Activation Program, which Mountain View City Council members slated for the council work plan for fiscal years 2025-2026 and 2026-2027 during an April 22 city council meeting. The workplan is set to be finalized at the June 24 city council meeting.
The $300,000 activation program will “develop and implement vacant storefront display and pop-up program guidelines including both requirements and incentives for storefront maintenance and aesthetics,” according to city staff evaluation of the work plan project.
City staff identified the program as meeting the city’s Economic Vitality Strategy by its potential for decreasing retail and business space vacancies, reinvigorating downtown and its attraction for dining, shopping and entertainment, establishing commercial hubs and community-gathering spaces and encouraging business and entrepreneurship.
Katz said that while there is no “silver bullet” to solving downtown vacancies or increase visitor numbers to downtown Mountain View and the Castro Pedestrian Mall, which includes pedestrian-only areas of Castro Street between the east leg of West Evelyn Avenue and Villa Street, Villa and West Dana streets, and West Dana and California streets, downtown businesses are overall welcome to the city’s long- and short-term projects.
“The chamber works very closely with the city and collaborates often on matters concerning downtown – be it sustaining and supporting existing business, or making new investment more inviting,” Katz said. “We frequently share strategies and jointly execute initiatives that involve event planning, regulatory reform, marketing, information dissemination, training and tools.”
The chamber also meets with the city’s economic development team weekly, in addition to serving on the city’s Downtown Advisory Council, he said.
Currently, events are the most effective way to increase downtown foot traffic, Wright said. This includes the Mountain View Art and Wine Festival, concerts on the plaza and the Multicultural Festival.
When it comes to such bigger events, Katz said the collaboration between the city and the Mountain View Chamber of Commerce is beneficial for both parties.
“For the past several years, the chamber has worked very closely with our businesses to ensure they are an integrated part of the event,” he said. “Whereas 10 years ago some closed their doors during (the Art and Wine Festival) because they weren’t getting enough traffic. Now they are staying open with promotions, wayfinding and awareness campaigns directly supported by the chamber and are seeing more new customers come in.”
Beautification initiatives, like the Ribbons decorative treatment slated to begin May 6, are a way city officials hope to make downtown Mountain View more vibrant and attract more visitors, Wright said.
Springtime is an especially lucrative time for downtown businesses as the weather brings more people outside, Katz said. During the weekends, he noted business is almost at pre-pandemic levels for many businesses, but during the week business continues to struggle because of a smaller lunch crowd.
Restaurants bring the most traffic downtown as they’re the most numerous businesses in the area, Katz said. The lunch crowd – those who often leave their offices to grab a bite to eat at one of many restaurants in downtown Mountain View – is smaller as the surrounding office spaces remain empty as companies moved their employees to online work.
But as a whole, businesses and visitors have both voiced a desire to see more diversity in what’s offered downtown, like an increase in retail. Wright said the city is exploring how it can help that desire come to fruition.
“The city’s Economic Development staff is reaching out to brokers and property owners about the options downtown can offer as well as diversifying the types of businesses that can do well here including retail,” she said.
