Mountain View to tackle downtown office vacancies as rate tops 30%

As Mountain View enters the third year of a 10-year plan to revitalize the local economy, the city is seeing retail vacancies trending down in the heart of town, while downtown office vacancies are increasing.

The retail vacancy rate in the downtown area was 6.1% in April, down from 8.5% two years ago. In contrast, the downtown office vacancy rate sat at 31.5%, up from 25% in 2024. The data came as part of an annual progress report on Mountain View’s Economic Vitality Strategy, which the City Council unanimously approved at a May 26 meeting.

In the report, city staff highlighted their efforts to implement various initiatives, including zoning code updates meant to help small businesses, direct grants for storefront improvements and the installation of public art around town.

“We’ve done a really effective job at having a broad portfolio of programs and strategies,” Economic Vitality Manager Amanda Rotella told councilmembers.

In total, the city has completed six out of the 164 action items that are outlined in the Economic Vitality Strategy. Another 71 are in progress and 38 are considered ongoing actions without a defined end point. That leaves the city with 49 items that haven’t yet been started.

To judge the effectiveness of its work, the city has developed more than a dozen “measures of success” for the strategy, including the office and retail vacancy rates. Many of the metrics are trending in a positive direction, including a 10.1% year-over-year increase in downtown sales tax receipts and an increase in the number of downtown businesses.

The Economic Vitality Strategy’s overarching goal is to align residents, business owners and city leadership around a “shared economic vision” that fosters a strong community and economy, the staff report said.

Staff touted the city’s recent creation of an “entertainment zone” in the downtown area, which  allows public drinking along parts of Castro Street during special events. The city plans to activate the zone during upcoming World Cup soccer games. The city also pointed to its work to launch a pop-up shop selling art by Bay Area artists in a formerly vacant Castro Street storefront.

Councilmember Lucas Ramirez praised city staff for their progress thus far, but raised concerns about “the erosion of the industrial base” in Mountain View. He suggested adding a metric tracking the share of the city’s land zoned for industrial uses, along with a target percentage to stay above.

“As we approach that percentage, we should start to be very mindful about industrial-to-residential conversions, or any other land-use change that continues to erode our industrial base,” Ramirez said.

Tackling downtown office vacancies