Thanks for writing this article and bringing light to this unfortunate situation. I think the WhatsApp team isn’t housed in that office anymore.. they were absorbed into the the Facebook Mothership in Menlo Park. Do you know if the space was leased or subleased to another tenant? Facebook/Whats app can afford to pay more for this cafe space to keep it empty that what an actual cafe could afford.

The fact that this was all within the rights of the business demonstrates that the Downtown Precise Plan needs to be revisited to include protections for retail and historic preservation.

@MV Mom (resident of Shoreline West):

"Do you know if the space was leased or subleased to another tenant?"

Re-read the article.

"The problem is WhatsApp is currently paying to rent it out and keep it vacant for its private use, she said."

But would the 900 Villa Street project at least lead city officials be more skeptical of future promises by developers?

"No, we don't learn from our mistakes," she said.

Isn't it the City's responsibility to ensure that the developers do what they promise. Typical City, just caring about the money.

The way to handle this is to require ground floor be retail, no exceptions and let the developers come up with a plan and plus a requirement to provide enough parking for the retail.

The risk is on the developer if you want to build in downtown than you have a risk, if you don’t attract retail then the space will remain empty for years, no whining to city staffers or officials.

Employees break rooms are on the floors above the retail floor, in fact let’s designate the name of the first floor as Retail!

Yes they can do something moving forward. It's called a "contract".

I am stupefied by Stephanie Williams' comment: "No, we don't hold vendettas" re whether the city will be more skeptical of future promises by developers.

That's either an incredibly poor choice of words or just an incredibly dumb comment. It isn't a "vendetta" to learn from your mistakes and to be wary of smooth talking shysters promising whatever you want to hear in order to get what they want. I'm reminded of the parable about the venomous scorpion stinging the frog trying to help him cross a river. As they're both drowning, the frog asks why the scorpion would do that, and the scorpion replies it's in his nature.

Refusing to be a dumb, sucker, and soon to be dead frog isn't the same as holding a vendetta.

When the office tower was built at the corner of Castro and Church St a couple of years ago, we were assured that the first floor would be retail. So the company that moved in opened an employee only cafe. I asked about this at the MV building department. I was told that this meets the definition of retail. In my opinion, the city’s definition of retail needs to be changed so that retail means “open to the public”.