The proposed redevelopment of San Rafael’s Northgate Mall should be required reading for any developer doing business in Marin. While the game plan to build 1,320 housing units along with retail, restaurants and community facilities isn’t perfect, the owner, Merlone Geir Partners, has done a good job of walking the line between what it wants, what the community wants, and what the city of San Rafael will sign off on.
Merlone has talked about listening to the community, a tried-and-true strategy in the development game. But the San Francisco real estate investor appears to actually be hearing what residents are saying. Listening and hearing aren’t always the same thing.
The application from Merlone changed—now it wants to sell 85 three-story townhomes. To accomplish this, it scrapped 309 apartments in one section of the proposed project and added 224 apartments in another area.
The project has solar power, 138 units of affordable housing and a 50,000 square-foot town square. Merlone has donated two acres of land to San Rafael affordable housing specialist EAH for 96 units, ingratiating itself to affordable housing advocates, while tapping into a community resource in EAH.
The project is far from being a done deal, but the community appears to have captured Merlone’s attention.
Bowling for dollars
Staying in San Rafael for a moment, the now-defunct Country Club bowling site took a step closer to transformation when the city’s Design Review Board approved plans for 70 townhomes on the Canal District property.
The project could include 14 three-story buildings and a small community park. The redevelopment qualified for a density bonus since it’s slated to include six affordable units. The project still requires more approvals.
New Novato nosh
This month Marin restaurateur Perry Butler brings his fourth Perry’s eatery public, this one in Novato, off Highway 101 in the former Wildfox location next door to the Best Western Novato Oaks.
The original Perry’s on Union Street in San Francisco gave birth to the “Fern Bar” concept, where a singles bar mated with a pub reminiscent of bistros found on the Upper East Side in Manhattan. While the food was a draw, libations poured by barkeeps that became celebrities were what kept the beautiful people coming back.
Marin, of course, already has its own Perry’s in Larkspur, in the location that Bradley Ogden made famous with his Lark Creek Inn eatery.
You call it garbage
Still in Marin’s most northerly outpost, the city of Novato abandoned its idea of going into the garbage business. The city council studied taking over the refuse collection in Novato, currently managed by the Novato Sanitary District and operated by Recology. Recology, formerly known as Norcal Waste Systems, is based in San Francisco.
The city has been noodling on the idea since 2020, seeing the operation of a refuse company as a way to generate cash for the city. But a study found the city would have to raise collection rates for residents. So, the council voted the idea down by a 4-1 margin.
And now a word from Gary Friedman
Wall Street earnings calls are famously boring, generally, a lot of numbers and corporate-speak mixed with execs explaining why they are the smartest folks in the room. In RH’s (Restoration Hardware) first-quarter call, CEO Gary Friedman dished out some hard honesty on the economic reality we all face. “I don’t think anybody really understands how high prices are going to go everywhere, in restaurants, in cars and everything. It’s going to outrun the consumer. And I think we’re going to be in some tricky space.”
When you are selling couches at $12,000 a pop, the room where they go can become a tricky space as well.
Your Marin moment
Local boy makes good! Evan Neumann, the Mill Valley entrepreneur and luxury purse purveyor who is being pursued by the FBI for his role in the January 6 Capitol riot, has been granted asylum in Belarus.
Neumann, the owner of handbag company Aslean Vaugn, fled the United States earlier this year, after being questioned about his activities on Jan. 6. He traveled to Italy, Switzerland, Germany and Poland before settling in Ukraine. He later departed for Belarus where he asked for asylum, saying he feared for his life if he returned to the U.S.
Belarus has no extradition treaty with the U.S., so Neumann needn’t concern himself with prosecution for the half-dozen crimes for which he’s charged. In a video aired by state media Belta in Belarus, Neumann characterized his extended European holiday as “bittersweet, like eating cranberries.”
The rumor he approached Ocean Spray to be a commercial spokesman couldn’t be verified.
