A taste of India P.14
MAY 25, 2012 Volume 20, NO. 18
MOVIES | 16
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MountainViewOnline.com
Developer seeks OK for high-rise at mall NEARBY SMALL BUSINESSES SAY THEY’RE BEING FORCED OUT By Daniel DeBolt
nesses face the possibility of havew plans for a large hotel ing tall buildings towering in the and office building at background. San Antonio shopping “I would trade the Milk Pail center were met with more shock for this whole development,” than support in a planning com- said resident Stephen Freiberg. mission meeting last week. “It’s much more important to “To realize we’re potentially my family and the people that I constructing the tallest struc- know.” tures in Mountain View, I was pretty surprised by that,” said Four-star hotel Environmental Planning ComMerlone Geier’s Mike Grehl missioner Chris Clark. said the 741,000 square feet of Developer Merlone Geier has office were necessary to subsiproposed a 12-story, 167-foot- dize the construction cost of the tall office building and parking hotel, noting the city’s longtime garage as part of phase 2 of its desire to have a full-service redevelopment hotel and how of San Antonio the need for a ‘ I think this is shopping cen$30 million city ter, an area that killed just over the top.’ subsidy encompasses efforts to put Beverages & one next to COMMISSIONER CHRIS CLARK More, Ross and Google’s headJo-Ann fabrics. quarters sevTo put that in eral years ago. perspective, the The developer city’s tallest building at 444 Cas- says several hotel operators are tro St. is 145 feet tall. already interested in operatThe project also includes a ing the “high-quality, four-star 150- to 200-room hotel, 66,000 hotel.” square feet of ground floor retail “A building that would be facing a park along the Hetch- the tallest in Mountain View is, Hetchy right of way and 2,858 quite frankly, an equivalent gulp parking spaces in garages that moment to a $30 million subare part of the four proposed sidy,” said commissioner Todd buildings. Merlone Geier is Fernandez. already under construction on Commissioner Clark said he’d phase 1 of the project just south support heights up to seven of the site, including a new stories, but “I think this is just Safeway, three apartment build- over the top in terms of heights ings and dozens of new retail that are acceptable,” echoing the spaces. sentiments of other commissionResidents packed the council ers. “This just doesn’t seem like chambers and expressed con- Mountain View.” cern about the project’s size and He later added that the prodesign and about several small posed uses would be “a good businesses, including the Milk mix.” Pail Market, at the corner of San “If you think about it, office is Antonio Road and California actually the perfect shared parkStreet on property that Merlone See HIGH-RISE, page 9 Geier hopes to buy. The busi-
N The former Shockley lab is now the site of the International Halal Market.
MICHELLE LE
Development plan threatens ‘Birthplace of Silicon Valley’ By Daniel DeBolt
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ilicon semiconductor technology was first introduced to Silicon Valley in a building that now houses a grocery store. The building at 391 San Antonio Road may soon be demolished if a developer succeeds in purchasing it. It’s said that over 400 computer companies can be traced
back to the Shockley Transistor Company once housed at 391 San Antonio Road, the original meeting place for those who would go on to create the products that give Silicon Valley its name. Developer Merlone Geier has offered to buy the building and four other nearby properties at the California Street intersec-
tion to expand redevelopment plans for a 200 room hotel and 741,000 square foot office building next door. “The real significance is not any invention made there,” said Richard Riordan, author of “Crystal Fire, the Birth of the Information Age.” “It was See SILICON VALLEY, page 9
Police use stun gun in brawl behind Zen Lounge By Nick Veronin
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olice officers used a Tasertype stun gun on a man who allegedly violently resisted arrest during a massive brawl outside the Zen Lounge last Friday, according to a police spokeswoman. But according to the man who was shocked with the stun gun, and his friend, who says she saw the majority of the incident, Mountain View police used excessive force on a man who was simply trying to go home after a
INSIDE
birthday party. The fracas erupted shortly after 1:30 a.m. on May 18, and quickly got out of hand, said Liz Wylie, public information officer with the Mountain View Police Department. According to Wylie, the May 18 incident got so wild that police from three nearby cities were called, even after every officer on duty in Mountain View had already arrived. At the height of the melee, officers estimated that about 200 people were engaged
with or watching multiple fights in the parking lot behind Zen, in the breezeway leading to Castro Street and out in front of the club. “Dozens upon dozens” of mostly male patrons were yelling and trying to instigate confrontations with police and other patrons, Wylie said. “It was essentially a mob. This was way more than we could handle, so we asked for assistance.” See STUN GUN, page 7
VIEWPOINT 10 | GOINGS ON 17 | MARKETPLACE 18 | REAL ESTATE 20