It’s the place to go if you want to get lingonberry Swedish pancakes, peek at the jarred reptile on your way to a $20 beard trim, or send out some packages all in one trip.
And now, El Gato Village—the 15710 Los Gatos Blvd. space that’s home to a Nob Hill Foods, a Chase Bank, and an Una Mas Mexican Grill, among others—has sold to San Francisco real estate developer Prado Group for a reported $33 million.
Girish Patel, who owns the Postal Annex, said he doesn’t have any issues with the change in ownership.
“Everyone has the right to sell their business,” he said, adding he feels he’s received good communication about the sale. “They’ve been talking about it for the last six to nine months.”
Patel said current arrangements are still in place, and he says he’ll have a better idea about their future by March.
“We’ll find out once we sign the papers with them,” he said.
Julie Kosasih, a manager at Baskin-Robbins, said she’s happy to wait for a few months before deciding how she feels about the Prado Group deal.
“We’ll see,” she said, adding she saw new reps come in to announce the sale a couple of weeks back. “Give them a chance.”
Kosasih added she’s hopeful new owners might mean access to better technology and possibly even more frequent pressure washing, or trash cleanup.
According to loopnet.com, the property was advertised for $37 million.
The listing noted the locale “offers an investor a potential future redevelopment opportunity.”
Some workers said they hoped a remodel might be in the cards.
Others wonder about the company’s long-term plans for the location.
Recently, Prado CEO Dan Safier told the San Francisco Business Times the company aims to have a positive impact in areas it joins.
“Everything that we do, we have to really believe that we are improving the built environment—improving the neighborhoods and communities that we’re working in.” he said.
And Eric Singer, one of the partners of Los Gatos Café Uptown, says he isn’t concerned they’re going to be kicked out any time soon to make way for a fancy mixed-use project.
“I don’t see that,” he said. “If that’s in the cards I imagine that’s going to be long after we’re gone.”
Singer recalled how his friends opened the first café location downtown in 1987 and invited him to be part of the El Gato Village spot, about 15 years ago.
Since then, there hasn’t been much in the way of changes, he said, as the hubbub of a recent lunch rush finally started to subside.
“This is the first time that it’s sold,” he said. “It’s been owned by a family for a number of years.”
But after patriarch Steve Musich died, the family decided it was the time to sell, he continued. Singer says he was aware of the impending sale for months.
Musich was “real easy to work with,” Singer remembered, calling him a “really good landlord,” who “really cared about his tenants.”
And yet, Singer isn’t afraid of change, either.
“I imagine they’re going to do some sort of facelift,” he said, adding he’s confident Prado will keep things mostly as-is, in the hopes of cashing in on newcomers to the town. “I think they were looking at all the development that’s going on down the street.”
