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Landlord doubles rent, forces gym out of downtown

Original post made on Jul 10, 2012

It's like the dot-com boom all over again. Facing a huge rent increase, Custom Fitness has been forced from its longtime Castro Street location, and Mountain View city officials won't allow the owner to relocate elsewhere on the city's main street.

Read the full story here Web Link posted Tuesday, July 10, 2012, 11:14 AM

Comments (12)

Posted by Chick a fil lover
a resident of Old Mountain View
on Jul 10, 2012 at 11:31 am

Laura Macias supports the homosexual community. Thats where she made a mistake. Turning to her


Posted by juniperk
a resident of Gemello
on Jul 10, 2012 at 12:08 pm

Greed is back with a vengeance like we have never seen before. dotcom boom pales to what I see now. I see apartment rents skyrocketing like we have never seen before. 1BR for more than $2000 and 2BR for $2500 in many average neighborhoods in this town now. There is no stopping this unless we have a real serious calamity in this area.


Posted by tommy_g
a resident of Willowgate
on Jul 10, 2012 at 12:13 pm

ok sorry bout this.....this was there how long? since 2004? on castro? I never heard of it.....I live in Mountain View, and know everything.....or I thought I did.......where on castro was this? must have been tiny.......wow.....oh well.....


Posted by MV Resident
a resident of Jackson Park
on Jul 10, 2012 at 2:05 pm

@tommy_g:

Well, the article does say the space was 2200 square feet, so not enormous.

According to the website, the entrance was actually on Church Street, so it was one of the businesses that looked to the back of the building. You couldn't see it if you drove by on Castro.

I hope they land on their feet nearby and that old customers will continue to patronize them.


Posted by Sabrina
a resident of The Crossings
on Jul 10, 2012 at 2:33 pm

I never used Custom Fitness but it's sad to see a small business that looks out for the community being replaced by some fly-by-night startup. What exactly are we doing to ourselves?


Posted by George
a resident of Rex Manor
on Jul 10, 2012 at 4:01 pm

I'll bet that Promethius gives more donations to the Council than did Custom Fitness.

Thanks Planning Commision and the City in general for regulating our City, the businesses and the world.


Posted by Frank
a resident of Blossom Valley
on Jul 10, 2012 at 4:21 pm

This is exactly why I wanna leave Ca, specially MV. Hey MV GOOGLE won't be here for ever, don't be stupid and force all the mom & pop Bussiness out. Then whet will you be???? WAKE UP!!


Posted by Squeezed2
a resident of Old Mountain View
on Jul 10, 2012 at 8:39 pm

There are some factual errors in this article. As noted, the gym address is actually Church Street. The building it was in is offices, not apartments.

FYI: Currently Prometheus is renting a 1 bedroom apartment in he building next door for $2950 a month. That is up from $1890 just 2 years ago.


Posted by John
a resident of Monta Loma
on Jul 10, 2012 at 8:43 pm

George you are so right on. The common Mountain viewer doesn't dtand a chance with the money the promo titan has to throw around.

Change the zoning - no problem, build, build, build no problem.

Regular citizen - you aren't a good fit....


Posted by It's business
a resident of Cuernavaca
on Jul 10, 2012 at 9:41 pm

"Forces gym out of Downtown"?

Perhaps the cost structure of a gym doesn't fit with rents on the main street in downtown Mountain View. I can't recall any gyms on University Ave in Palo Alto or Santa Cruz Ave in Menlo Park or... I bet lots of gym owners would like to be situated on a bustling main street within walking distance of floods of customers.

It's possible the building owner paid a large amount for the building and has been operating at a loss during the low-rent period of time. Are people suggesting this particular property owner should now be charitable because some folks feel bad for mom & pop? Hey, then pony up and help the gym out...or maybe people can flood City Council and ask for a subsidy.

It's easy to play with other people's money...


Posted by Old Ben
a resident of Shoreline West
on Jul 11, 2012 at 7:12 am

Mountain View continues to follow the old Rust Belt pattern: put all of your eggs in one basket. When the tech sector nosedives, and it will, San Jose will be Detroit, and Mountain View will be Flint.


Posted by Name hidden
a resident of Jackson Park

on Jun 4, 2017 at 10:18 am

Due to repeated violations of our Terms of Use, comments from this poster are automatically removed. Why?


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