March 24, 2004

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Publication Date: Wednesday, March 24, 2004

Menlo Park: Hardware store plan in, bookstore out

By Rebecca Wallace
Almanac Staff Writer

With residents clamoring for a hardware store to return to downtown Menlo Park, officials at the Menlo Park Presbyterian Church are shelving their plans to put a Christian bookstore at 700 Santa Cruz Ave.

Church officials will still pursue having a meeting room in the back of the 8,255-square-foot space, but hope to have an Ace Hardware store fill the front, instead of the bookstore.

"We want to be a good community partner. People are lamenting the loss of the hardware store," church business manager Bill Frimel said. "It's very obvious this is what the community wants."

Mr. Frimel added that he hoped a Christian bookstore could still be possible in another site downtown.

Mr. Frimel spoke to the Almanac at a March 16 open house in the vacant Santa Cruz Avenue site, which has wooden ceiling fans and a mezzanine area in the back that was used for storage. The building also sports wall paint inside in chartreuse and peachy-orange, thanks to the IMG Home discount rug and furniture store that came in after Menlo Park Hardware closed in 2001 after 77 years.

Menlo Park Hardware filled the entire space, but closed due to concerns over high rent. In this new plan, the hardware store would use only about 3,000 square feet.

An owner of an Ace Hardware store in San Francisco is very interested in opening a franchise at 700 Santa Cruz and has signed a letter of intent, said David Johnson, the city's business development manager.

So now the next step is for the Planning Commission to vote on the meeting room plan. Retail uses of downtown sites do not need commission approval, but the meeting room must have a use permit.

The commission was scheduled to vote on the plan on Monday, March 22, after the Almanac's deadline.

Meeting room

Mr. Frimel said the meeting room would be used by school and young adult groups on evenings and weekends; because of the downtown parking crunch, no weekday uses are planned, he said.

Such groups, Associate Planner Jeffrey Smith wrote in a staff report, "could add to the vitality of the businesses and broaden the customer base of the downtown."

But the report also raised the concern that the meeting room would not directly generate sales tax revenue for Menlo Park. Therefore, staff members are asking the Planning Commission to require that the church annually pay the city $16,510, the estimated amount that the space would generate if used for retail purposes. Church officials have agreed to that condition, Mr. Smith wrote.

Another recommended condition is that the use permit for the meeting room could be revoked if the front of the space is not used for retail purposes for a continuous period of six months.

As of last week, staff members said they had received six letters from residents on the topic: two in favor of the Christian bookstore, and four opposing the meeting room, saying it is not compatible with the retail stores downtown and would worsen the parking shortage.

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