For the last year, the site of the Rose Market, a Mediterranean store, has been closed and drew questions from passerby about what might take its place; a common occurrence in Saratoga Village.
There were about 13 vacant storefronts in the Village, based on an informal count about a month ago, said Mayor Belal Aftab. The issue posed by vacancies is twofold: If there aren’t enough stores downtown, then people aren’t drawn to the area. And if there aren’t people shopping, prospective business owners are less likely to set up shop there.
“It can become pretty quickly a downward spiral,” Aftab said.
Councilmember Kookie Fitzsimmons has lived in Saratoga for over 60 years. Growing up, she said she and her siblings would pile into a station wagon and pick up their school uniforms, try on shoes and stop by the bakery in the Village. In her memory, it was a “quaint small town” life, where the nearest hardware store or grocery store was downtown. But that’s not the case in Saratoga today.
Aftab said part of the reason why there hasn’t been a lot of foot traffic in the Village was due to the construction of Highway 85. The Village is located on Big Basin Way, which actually runs along Highway 9. Aftab recalled that when he was growing up, traffic had to use Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road, which connects to Highway 9, to get around Saratoga. But since traffic has been diverted to Highway 85, tens of thousands of cars that used to regularly drive by downtown haven’t done so since the ’90s.
The mayor added that another reason for declining foot traffic is that more people are shopping online. He said that while Los Gatos and Campbell are closer to freeways and therefore more accessible, Saratoga is a little more out of the way.
Jim Cargill, incoming Chamber of Commerce president, said the lack of foot traffic may also be influenced by the fact that many businesses in the Village tend to close early. Those factors combine to make downtown Saratoga more of a destination shopping spot, rather than an area where shoppers visit multiple stores in one visit.
Fitzsimmons echoed this sentiment, saying that the market demands in the Village are not the same as they were when she was growing up.
“It just evolves and changes, and there’s nothing wrong with that,” said Fitzsimmons. “You need to evolve, you need to change if you’re going to survive.”
This issue isn’t confined to Saratoga Village; Prospect Avenue also has some vacant storefronts, Aftab said. Despite this, he said that the vacancies in Saratoga Village aren’t a huge issue to the city council, because sales taxes make up very little of the city’s revenue. Sales tax revenue is aggregated with revenue from transient occupancy taxes in the city budget and is listed under “other taxes.” In the 2023 fiscal year, “other taxes” only raised about $2.6 million. Most of the money in Saratoga is raised through property taxes, which brought in a whopping $18.2 million in the same time period.
To tackle the vacancies, a group of residents known as the Saratoga Vitality Neighbors have taken to encouraging businesses and the city council to prioritize “active use” businesses in the Village. Active use refers to businesses like retail stores or restaurants that are meant to inspire pedestrian traffic or activity, usually at the ground level of streets or around public open space.
Usually, businesses at ground level are meant to be active use, but in Saratoga, offices are allowed with a conditional use permit. The Neighbors group argue that prioritizing active use businesses can prevent any more closures from happening by stirring up the downtown economy.
Sheryl Cancellieri, owner of the building at 14445 Big Basin Way, said that after the Rose Market shopkeepers left the site, they started remodeling the whole building for what she hopes will be a mixed restaurant and retail concept.
“I see this time of vacancies as opportunities to bring in a handful of active storefronts with strong business concepts and operators to thrive here in Saratoga,” Cancellieri said. “The community wants new businesses to be here and are ready to support.”
However, Cargill said that there should be a balance between “wet” businesses like retail, restaurants and services and “dry” businesses like professional offices.
“There needs to be a mix of businesses and a symbiosis; You can’t have 100% restaurants and you can’t have 100% hair salons,” Cargill said.
Aftab said it would take a combination of short-, medium- and long-term policies to revitalize the Village. Some of his suggestions included a law that would require landlords to pay more for vacant spaces to encourage them to find renters, upgrading buildings for mixed commercial and housing use or streamlining the process for business owners to set up shop and encouraging outdoor dining.
“As people are aging in place, you need places to go and walk and see people, and so a thriving downtown is actually good for all of us,” Aftab said.
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