Village Square shopping center up for sale? Village Square shopping center up for sale? (December 17, 2003)

** On paper, it was, but no one's talking.

By David Boyce
Almanac Staff Writer

The redwood-shaded Village Square shopping center in Portola Valley may have been up for sale recently. The asking price: $6.5 million for about 19,000 square feet of office and retail space on 2.25 acres, including a two-bedroom, one-bath cottage.

The subject came up at the December 10 meeting of the Town Council when Councilman Ted Driscoll announced that he had received a packet of documents that included a real estate brochure offering for sale the shopping center at 884 Portola Road.

The packet included a letter dated December 6 from a Coldwell Banker real estate agent referring to a conversation with Mr. Driscoll, who was mayor at the time.

The letter described the shopping center as "listed for sale" and implied a possible interest by the town in buying it, given the plan to relocate the town offices away from an earthquake fault in the nearby Town Center.

Among the retail and professional enterprises located at the shopping center are the Parkside Grille, the Carousel Saddlery, Portola Valley Feed and Windy Hill Veterinary Practice. Two beauty salons, including the Tamed Mane, recently went out of business.

At the Town Council meeting, none of the councilmen expressed any interest in buying the center, citing the high purchase price, the probable bad fit of the buildings for municipal uses, and the risk of getting the town involved in ownership of commercial space.

"We ought to do our best to make optimal use of the land we already own," said Councilman Steve Toben in a reference to the council's preferred site for the town offices at the rear of the 11.2-acre park-like Town Center, which the town owns.

Not for sale?

A Coldwell Banker real estate agent who preferred not to be named said a "private party" had expressed an interest in buying the property recently, but that nothing had come of it. "There's no validity to [the offer]," he said. "It's done. It's over."

This agent would not elaborate further on why the site had been listed in the first place or whether it had been delisted.

The owner of the center, Shirley Cronk of Stanford Partners in Newhall, California, told the Almanac that the shopping center was not for sale and that she was "in a state of shock" upon learning of the substance of the discussion at the Town Council meeting. She said she would be contacting the mayor.

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