Bringing Munich to Mountain View WEEKEND | 18 SEPTEMBER 27, 2013 VOLUME 21, NO. 35
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MOVIES | 21
Plans make room for Rose Market, others DEVELOPER PROMISES SPACE FOR SHOPS IN NEW APARTMENT COMPLEX AT CASTRO, EL CAMINO By Daniel DeBolt
A MICHELLE LE
Thomas Espinosa coaches Jon Kimzey on his technique at Contenders Gym in Mountain View.
Strength, stamina and smarts BOXING GYM’S SIMPLE STRATEGY IS TO KEEP MEMBERS SHARP INTELLECTUALLY AND PHYSICALLY
By Nick Veronin
I
n Silicon Valley’s knowledge-based economy, where intellect is prized, voluntarily putting your head in the way of a flying fist might seem
counter-intuitive. But according to Tom Espinosa, founder of Contender’s Gym, there is no better way to stay sharp. “Boxing is about thinking,”
Espinosa says in a gravelly voice that sounds exactly like you might imagine coming from a former bartending school See CONTENDERS GYM, page 10
developer is promising that several popular businesses at the corner of El Camino Real and Castro Street won’t have to leave if 170 proposed apartments are built there. In a City Council study session held Tuesday, Sept. 24, Dan Diebel of developer Greystar said his firm is making agreements with Rose Market, Peet’s Coffee and Tea, Sufi Coffee shop, Tanya Hair Design and Le’s tailoring giving them space in the new mixed-use, fourstory project that’s proposed. Efforts are even being made to temporarily relocate the businesses to an open lot across the street, though the largest of the bunch, the Rose Market, wouldn’t be one of them. “I think this is a moral issue,” Diebel said. “We’re making deals with them now to relocate them and move them back in. We would accept a condition to do that.” A council majority did not
have major issues with the first look at a rough initial design of the project as it was proposed Tuesday. Another study session on the project is planned. Council members and several members of the public praised the developer for making the unusual effort to save the local businesses on the “gateway corner.” “I can’t think of another developer we’ve worked with that would keep Rose and Peet’s and everybody else,” said longtime council member Mike Kasperzak. “What they are doing to keep the sense of community is really laudable.” It turned out that Rose Market’s owner Javad Mehran was still concerned about employment for his 25 employees during construction, an issue Diebel said he promised to continue to work on. Despite several neighborhood meetings with a developer who was said to have pitched over a dozen different designs for the See ROSE MARKET, page 13
Rengstorff property will be a park SENIOR HOUSING IDEA IS A NO-GO FOR STIEPER PROPERTY By Daniel DeBolt
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ouncil members voted against any possibility of redeveloping a lush, 1.22-acre piece of property on Rengstorff Avenue Tuesday, deciding instead to preserve its numerous fruit trees in a unique park. Council member Ronit Bryant called the park-to-be, which sits in the middle of a
INSIDE
neighborhood that is notable for lacking parks — “a gift for the entire city.” “I see it as a green oasis, a place of respite for the neighborhood,” Bryant said at the Sept. 24 meeting. “I would like to leave it, as much as possible, as-is.” Council members agreed, voting 6-1 to preserve the trees on the site and not pursue the possibility to build anything there,
including an option to build affordable senior housing on half of the site. Mayor John Inks was opposed. In June the city closed escrow on the $3 million property, purchased from its longtime owner, Frances Stieper, who will continue to live there until November. It has 145 trees — COURTESY CITY OF MOUNTAIN VIEW
See STIEPER, page 9
VIEWPOINT 16 | GOINGS ON 22 | MARKETPLACE 23 | REAL ESTATE 25
A view from Castro Street of the Southeast corner of the project.