Longs plan draws ire of neighbors

By Jeff Kearns

Judging by the community meeting held by Longs Drugs last week, the company will be in for a serious showdown when its application to open a new drug store on Pollard Road comes to the town.

The packed community meeting on the proposal March 29 at a nearby donut shop turned into a shouting match between Longs officials and angry neighbors, who charge that the Rinconada Hills Shopping Center landlord is trying to push out Rinconada Pharmacy in favor of a new corporate tenant with deeper pockets.

Longs came on the scene after a dispute arose over Rinconada Pharmacy's lease, which Santa Monica-based Duckett-Wilson Development Company claims is no longer valid. The Matsuos filed a lawsuit to keep the lease with the landlord.

At the meeting, Duckett's leasing manager, Patrick Conway, said that he had sent two renewal notices to the Matsuos which went unanswered. "We made two attempts to extend the lease with the same terms," he said. After that, Conway said he went to Longs.

David Matsuo said he couldn't comment on the lawsuit.

In the complaint, filed in December, the Matsuos charge that Duckett terminated the renewal option that was agreed to when the lease was originally signed in 1995, and that the termination came after Vivian Matsuo informed Duckett that "there were numerous serious structural, mechanical and electrical problems that existed at the shopping center." The Matsuos say they spent about $20,000 on improvements to their store before their lease was terminated.

Right now, Duckett claims the Matsuos are leasing the space on a month-to-month basis, but the Matsuos contend their lease extension, for five years, is still valid.

John Machado, a commercial real estate agent for Longs, said Longs is just filling space: "We saw a vacancy, it was represented to us, and we're trying to fill that vacancy," he said. "We're not in the business of trying to put this business out of business."

Conway said he just wanted a tenant: "If you don't want a Longs in here, I've still got 3,300 square feet of space I'm trying to lease," he told neighbors. "If you want a local owner, who's the neighborhood entrepreneur I can lease to?"

Nearby residents say Rinconada Pharmacy, has become invaluable to them.

Neighbors also questioned why Longs needs another store in the area, when it already has two each in Los Gatos and Campbell.

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