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Downtown Gilroy is buzzing with excitement about its future. Fifth Street Live’s partnership with Moveable Feast is bringing more people to downtown than ever before. Existing businesses are retrofitting facades for earthquake safety and potential investors could breathe life back into the area with new businesses.
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This is good for commercial real estate, but what about residential opportunities?
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“Right now commercial rents are low and residential rents are high,” says commercial Realtor Scott Herbert of Coldwell Banker.
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Herbert said there is an approved 104-unit apartment complex on Lewis Street that he hopes will be built soon. He and his business partner, Intero Real Estate commercial Realtor Rich Freedman, have a client who’s working on building a 40-plus unit complex on Monterey Road. They suspect other current building owners will also begin remodeling their second floors for residential use.
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But whether this will happen in five years or 10 years is difficult to determine.
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“It’s hard to predict the future,” Freedman says. “It really depends on the economy, housing strength and interest rates. Investors build when all three are going strong.”
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And although now might be a good time to invest, Herbert and Freedman say it’s bound to change at some point. It’s not a matter of if, but when.
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“We believe the success of downtown will be based on real estate,” says Herbert. “Investors building mixed-use projects, owners remodeling their second floors—this will bring people to downtown to live, which will increase foot traffic that’s key to commercial success, and more businesses moving downtown.”
