Downtown Gilroy Update
I
f you have walked or driven through Downtown Gilroy
you will notice a significant amount of construction
activity. Is the area turning the corner into the more
prosperous and vital downtown we all want?
Gilroy residents watch with envy as downtown Morgan
Hill has been transformed into a dining and entertainment
destination. Restaurants, apartments, condos and shops are
blossoming everywhere. Thanks to significant municipal
support and significant private investments, downtown
Morgan Hill has arrived.
Downtown Gilroy is also changing, but at a much
slower pace and much less large investment. In the area of
affordable housing, two major projects will be accepting
tenants soon—the large Alexander Street Apartments, a
262-unit development on 10 th Street, plans to welcome its
first residents by the end of November and the Cannery
Apartments on Lewis Street, with plans for 104-units and
7,000 square feet of commercial space, advertises a grand
opening in the winter of 2018-19.
Along Monterey Street, in the historic core from 3rd to
6th Streets a number of things are happening: Intero Real
Estate Services will be moving into their new offices at
7652 Monterey Road soon; Downtown Skateboards at
7600 Monterey Road opened recently in the Garlic Festival
Building; further towards 5th Street, Garlic City Mercantile
has new owners; and Downtown Furniture recently opened.
Across the street, the downtown welcomes
The Realty Society.
While the doors are closed at Golden State Brewery
right now they are promising a grand reopening in early
December. The Brewery will have a wide variety of beers on
tap, a full bar and a two hundred seat full-service restaurant.
The kitchen will be open so patrons can watch the cooking
54
GILROY • MORGAN HILL • SAN MARTIN
operations and a large bar will face the brewing tanks.
The tall folding doors and the outdoor patio will continue to
offer that indoor-outdoor dining experience.
Across the street, on the west side, progress is being made
on several of the URM buildings. In the Mafalda Building at
7539 Monterey Street, a two-story restaurant with a roof-
top deck is scheduled to open late in the summer of 2019.
Nearby at 7554 Monterey Street, a beer, wine, and sandwich
shop, with a courtyard dining area in back, is scheduled
to open soon. Rumor has it that it might be called Gilroy
Public, a throwback to the British Public Houses or Pubs.
Back on the east side of Monterey the parking lot at 5th
Street has a new mural celebrating the thriving local wine
businesses. A downtown favorite, Amoretto Boutique, has
now changed hands and is now called Ivory Boutique.
The smaller shop in the back, once home to itty bitty
boutique, is now a skin care center called Beauty Marks.
A new venture, the Neon Exchange (co-working center)
is taking over the old historic Gilroy Hotel between 6th and
7th Streets. The Neon Exchange website says:
“The Neon Exchange is a community of women seeking
to enrich the mind, body and soul all in one platform. We
accomplish this by leveraging our gifts and talents with one
another with four guiding principles in mind.
Educate, Enlighten, Encourage, Empathize.”
The Neon Exchange does not have a firm opening date
yet but hopes to begin accepting co-working partners soon.
A few doors down, another brew pub is in the works.
Lonely Oak Brewing Company will be located at 7373
Monterey Street.
december 2018-january 2019
gmhtoday.com
RICHARD
Written By Larry J. Mickartz