Sausalito considers 'formula retail.'
There’s a 124,000-square-foot office building at 100 Wood Hollow Drive in Novato. It has just one tenant. There are eight spaces available in the 3-story building with lease rates at $33 a square foot.
But the lease rates and vacancies aren’t really the story. You should go by and take a picture of it because Align Realty has plans to build 66 homes on the site, nine of them deed-restricted affordable homes.
Normally there would be no rush to snap that photo. Gaining approval to build something in Marin takes time—and by time I mean endless public meetings, kids being born and then going off to college, and weather patterns changing and then changing again.
No, this is different because the Novato City Council gave the project its blessing in mid-May. The final project plans were filed in July 2024. That’s the kind of approval process that causes whiplash.
This is the new new thing.
Housing regulations in California have seen a sea change—and in Sacramento backrooms Marin’s name has come up frequently. While the county carries a national reputation for its beauty, wealth and education, to housing officials and developers, Marin’s hook is more about always placing Mom Earth first. It’s known as a place where the wheels spin endlessly—traction be damned—and where cash burns at a rate only slightly slower than a Tesla zero to 60 time. And where the word that precedes “developer” begins with an F and means sexual congress.
It’s fair to say that a drawbridge mentality has been pervasive in Marin—where those lucky enough to call it home are not always anxious to see it change.
Let’s be honest, change is a…challenge.
But the reality is that the rules of engagement around development have changed—and those rules will bring a reality that when the market and the economy catch up, building in Marin will be a different animal. And that animal won’t be a lumbering elephant, but rather a nimble and sure jungle cat.
Sausalito Ponders its Downtown
Sausalito is a different place than the rest of Marin, and I say that having lived in three different places there over the years. To begin with, it sits across the bay from San Francisco, and its economy is reliant upon that fact. It’s not that Sausalito isn’t a fine place in its own right, but without visitors from San Francisco and other spots, the town’s value would drop.
Next, it’s frequently a place full of fissures. Whether locals vs. visitors, residents vs. city government, or hill dwellers vs. flat landers, you don’t hear a lot of choruses of Kumbaya on the downtown sidewalks, though foreign languages is another matter.
So the city is currently wrestling with what to do about chain stores, or “formula retail”—or nationally known businesses that attract customers. It’s a real issue in that Sausalito also has too many empty store fronts and there are businesses that would like to open in the bayside town. On the other hand, some chains have been known to win so many customers that locally established businesses have been harmed or closed. Looking at you, Starbucks.
After a public meeting in May that featured spirited debate on what action, if any, the city should take, the Sausalito City Council instructed its planning staff to come up with different concepts on chain retail setting up in downtown. One option would be to prohibit them all together. Another would be to change the current concept of a chain from a business with six or more locations to one with less than 50.
Determining a business mix that works is always tricky, just ask any mall management team. On the other hand, read the last item in this column for proof that any mix may have interesting choices to satisfy consumers.
One thing is for certain. At this writing, Sausalito has 17 commercial vacancies in the downtown area. That number isn’t making anyone happy.
Your Marin Moment
From the “You Can’t Make This Stuff Up Dept.”, we have a brand-new entry: a business called Slime Kitchen in the Village at Corte Madera shopping center. There are almost a dozen locations across California, Nevada, Oregon, Iowa and soon Texas.
In the kitchen, kids (and presumably also adults) can gather together and create slime in a process which, according to its website, has 10 steps that include picking a base, color and scent.
I’m so old that I remember when creating slime involved politicians, lies and opposition research.
Please insert your own dinosaur joke here.
Bill Meagher is a contributing editor at NorthBay biz magazine.
