A group of developers and restaurateurs based in Mountain View and Santa Clara plan to bring four regional brands to downtown Morgan Hill, transforming a key site into a hub of dining, drinking and socializing.
The Morgan Hill City Council March 2 approved the planned development zoning for the property at the corner of Third Street and Monterey Road, the former site of Simple Beverages which the Redevelopment Agency purchased in 2009.
Developer Ken Rodrigues told the council that his plans for the property include four restaurants owned by The Opa! Group within two new buildings on the site. These restaurants are Opa, a Greek restaurant; Mo’s…the Breakfast & Burger Joint; Willard Hicks (steaks and American food); and Tac-Oh!, the group’s fledgling “designer Mexican food” restaurant that recently opened a location in Willow Glen.
The two buildings, which would both front the Monterey Road side of the property, would be 5,600 and 6,425 square feet, respectively. The project proposal includes an outdoor dining patio with a fire pit and other features that would serve both buildings and all four restaurants.
The four restaurants currently have locations throughout the South Bay, including in Palo Alto, Campbell, Walnut Creek, Redwood City and others, Rodrigues explained.
In downtown Campbell, three of the restaurants (excluding Tac-Oh!) are neighbors and share an outdoor dining area, similar to the concept proposed in Morgan Hill.
“If you see it in Campbell, it is the place to be almost any night of the week,” Rodrigues told the council. “It’s just roaring. (The location) went from above average to something nobody had ever anticipated.” He added the addition of Willard Hicks to that location is recent, and only increased the traffic, sales and activity of the area.
Rodrigues, who partnered with Imwalle Properties to purchase the Morgan Hill site from the city last summer, said all four restaurants feature full-service alcohol bars on site. He plans to do the same in Morgan Hill, but will have to request a conditional use permit from the city to allow such uses.
A “general statement of operations” written by the developer, submitted to City Hall, further describes the project. The proposal includes a pedestrian walkway from the parking garage traversing between the two new restaurant buildings.
“The architecture of both buildings speaks directly to the vernacular of downtown Morgan Hill. The height and scale of each building mirrors those of its neighboring buildings,” the developer’s description reads.
A low wall on one side—and a wrought-iron fence on the other—will separate the outdoor dining areas from the public sidewalk.
These areas will feature a wooden overhead trellis to provide shade and host growing vines on one side, with string lights above the diners, tables, chairs and umbrellas on the other, according to the developer.
The design of the patio addresses grade changes in the property that make the site susceptible to flooding during heavy rains, city staff said. The developer has proposed raising the building out of the 100-year floodplain, and build both structures on a single grade.
Proposed hours are 7 a.m. to midnight for Mo’s, and 11 a.m. to midnight for the other restaurants.
Dan Creighton, owner of Huntington Station next door to the Third Street proposal, said he recently dined at Willard Hicks in Campbell for research, and he enjoyed the food. He noted that Morgan Hill might not be as crowded as other communities where the four-restaurant chain group hosts its other locations, and thus might not be as successful here.
But he’s not worried about competition, he said.
“More business downtown is good for everyone,” Creighton said.
The RDA purchased the 18,400-square foot Simple Beverages site in 2009 for about $1.5 million. The state of California shut down the RDA in 2012, but allowed the city to develop the property for the purposes it originally intended: a mixed-use retail, restaurant, entertainment or commercial project that stimulates the downtown economy and attracts visitors and family-friendly activity.
Thus, Rodrigues and Imwalle purchased the property from the city last year for $525,000, after the city bought it from a trust that controls former RDA assets until they are ready to be put to use.
The city has identified the Simple Beverages site as one of the key “opportunity sites” for the future of downtown Morgan Hill, and The Opa! Group’s owner, Angelo Heropoulos, seems to agree.
“The amazing corner location along with the investment by the city into downtown Morgan Hill helped support our decision to open all four concepts,” Heropoulos said in a Feb. 26 letter to City Hall. “For us, the two elements that make this location stand out (are) the large unique outdoor dining patio that has been integrally designed into the project and the new city garage that will help support critical, convenient customer parking.”
