Though the developer behind Phase 2 of the North 40 development outlined sweeping changes to prior plans—and outlined a slew of new residential options, including high-density—during last Thursday evening’s Democracy Tent community meeting, it was quite a civil affair.
The tone of the meeting was set right off the hop by facilitator Lee Fagot.
“The goal is to get objective information,” he said. “In that way we all move together collaboratively.”
In the company’s first in-person meeting in around two years, Harmonie Park Development rep Don Capobres began by retelling the saga of his 13 years working on the mixed-use project in northern Los Gatos, as it changed hands, and now form.
The crowd of 15-20 people listened intently as he described how Grosvenor Americas sold Phase 1 to market-rate residential builder SummerHill Homes, and how Harmonie Park turned around and bought the retail portion of the development from SummerHill.
This portion of Phase 1’s been on hold for a year due to Covid-19, but Harmonie Park hopes to get things going again in the next couple months, Capobres said.
Grosvenor Americas is handling Phase 2 (although it’s still owned by the Yuki family), and Harmonie Park represents its interests, according to Capobres.
In the prior iteration, Town planners imagined a regional shopping mall with about 400,000 square feet of retail, envisioning healthy sales-tax inflows.