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As of May 6, the parking lot and temporary pop-up park on Monterey Road near the intersection of Third Street will be closed to the public as the property owner prepares for construction of a new restaurant complex.
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The parking lot is located between Huntington Station and Trail Dust restaurants.
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Developers Ken Rodrigues and Imwalle Properties will build a two-building, four-restaurant project on the site while it is fenced off to current downtown customers. They will demolish the existing vacant building at Third Street and Monterey Road, the former site of Simple Beverages, and rebuild on top of that site and the parking lot.
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Restaurants on tap include four establishments owned by South Bay restaurant group The Opa! Group. These restaurants are Opa Greek restaurant; Tac-Oh! Mexican restaurant’ Mo’s…the Breakfast & Burger Joint; and Willard Hicks (steaks and American food).
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The contractor’s construction timeline for that project—which will be built all at once rather than in phases—is 12 to 14 months, according to Assistant City Manager Leslie Little.
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Parking for the new restaurants will be available in the new 3.5-story parking structure behind Trail Dust and Huntington Station. That facility, which contains more than 270 parking spaces, will be open to the public later this month.
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The property was formerly owned by the Morgan Hill Redevelopment Agency, which purchased it as part of the city’s downtown revitalization plan in 2009. The RDA was shut down by the state of California in 2011, but the city was able to sell it to Rodrigues/Imwalle, who agreed to develop a project that will achieve the city’s goal of attracting visitors and bringing in more revenue.
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Rodrigues/Imwalle purchased the site from post-RDA regulators in 2015 for $525,000.
The pop-up park currently in front of the vacant liquor store building will soon be relocated to the southwest corner of Monterey Road and Second Street, the former site of the South Valley Bikes building which was recently demolished. The park should be set up and open to the public on that site June 1, Little said.
