BY EMILY MIBACH
Daily Post Staff Writer
The Beltramo family, which has been receiving the ire of residents over the closing of the Oasis Beer Garden, won approval last night (Feb. 26) from the Menlo Park Planning Commission to replace their former wine and spirits store with offices and apartments.
The commission unanimously approved the family’s plan to build two buildings at 1540 El Camino Real.
One building facing El Camino
will be two stories tall and have 40,759 square feet of office space.
The second building will be three stories tall, and have 27 apartments, five of which will be for low-income earners. This building will face San Antonio Street.
The project will have 182 parking spaces. Most of the spaces will be under the buildings.
The building currently holds Treadmill Outlet, which moved in after the Beltramo family shuttered its 134-year-old wine and spirits business. The store had been at the 1540 El Camino location since 1935.
The Beltramo’s site is not the only historic Menlo Park establishment to be changed. Another Beltramo property, the Oasis, at 241 El Camino, announced it would be closing on March 7.
The Tougas family, which runs the Oasis, announced last week that they are closing the restaurant after being unable to negotiate “a reasonable lease for our business nor meet the requested terms of the building’s owner.”
However there are no plans to redevelop the Oasis. The Beltramos’ are looking for a new restaurant operator to take over the location.
Great…. Just what the community needed.
Stopped in last night to say goodbye and find out more about what was happening. According to several regulars there are two points of contention between the Oasis and the Beltramo family.
1. Rent: the Beltramo’s raised the rent from $14K/month to $25K/month. That’s a 44% increase for anyone without a calculator handy. Not sure I buy that the family is “sad” about the closing when they are dumping this kind of rent hike on a tenant after 60 years.
2. Liquor: The Beltramo’s get 10% of the take from the Oasis and believe the business could be more profitable if it sold liquor instead of just beer and wine. While they may be right about the $, they would be tearing at the fabric of what makes the Oasis so great; it is a place you can go with your family and expect a friendly crowd, safe environment for your kids, and good food. Liquor does not always lead to more fighting and less savory characters, but it doesn’t help. One thing it definitely results in is more drunk kids that don’t realize how inebriated they are until 3-4 drinks in.
These types of folks would detract from the vibe of the place and would probably reduce the amount of people that were coming back regularly.
This information came from several different sources at the Oasis, lines up with the what has been reported, and makes sense so I am inclined to believe it.
If it is true, shame on the Beltramo family for putting profit before people when they already have enough money to live comfortably.
A lot of good information here. But how do those rents compare to what the “market rate” for a restaurant? That would be helpful to know if the increase the Beltramos wanted was out of line.
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