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Patrons arriving at the Burke Williams Day Spa in the Rose Garden Shopping Center last week were surprised to find locked doors, as the health care establishment shut down after less than a year in operation.
A sign taped to the door of the posh spa blamed the closing on the poor economic conditions and directed residents to seek out appointments at either of their locations in San Francisco or San Jose.
On Sunday, some clients grumbled over not having been informed of the closing.
“You’d think they could have called the people with reservations for treatments, rather than have us come down here and see that sign,” admonished an unidentified resident.
The sign on the door also directed residents with gift cards to contact the corporate office at 1-866-239-6635 to learn how to get a refund.
The loss of the spa was not the only blow to the relatively young shopping center. Last week also saw the closing of Amaranta, an upscale Mexican restaurant located prominently on the Rose Garden site.
Blake Hunt Ventures is the property manager for the Rose Garden. CEO Brad Blake said he was unable to comment on the closing of Burke Williams, as there may be some litigation involved in the closure. Blake stated that Blake Hunt Ventures was in negotiations with the company when it suddenly decided to pull up stakes and close down its operation.
As for Amaranta, Blake said that his company is actively seeking a replacement for the restaurant and has already lined up potential prospects.
Businesses in the Rose Garden are seeing some difficulties due to the lack of traffic coming through the facility, a factor which led Blake Hunt to recently seek a parking variance from the Town of Danville that will allow more “personal service” oriented businesses into the shopping center.
Personal service businesses include tutoring, physical fitness, hair stylists and nail salons. Conceptually, businesses of this sort will bring in a stable base of clientele that would come for the service, then stay to eat or shop at one of the Rose Garden retailers.
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What this town (& Tri-Valley area) needs is an Olive Garden restaurant. The closest one is near Southland Mall (dingy area of Hayward), Pittsburg, Tracy or in Stonestown Shopping Center in SF.
I am so sad about Burke Williams closing. It was a beautiful spa, such a shame that it closed so suddenly. I hope they find a way to re-open, or to have another equal caliber spa open in its place.
Another restaurant that would be nice if it was more local is a Red Lobster.
I heard rumor that “McCovey’s” might be opening a 2nd location in the center.
That would be great! Family restaurant, good food, good value for the $.
It would be nice to have a Todai Restaurant. Its a buffet. There is one at Sun Valley and there was one in Pleasanton. Its not upscale. The place that just closed was advertised as upscale. We need a family place that is fun and has food that you could probably not cook at home.
Dear Dolores,
Let’s increase the contributions and recognize all as great ideas for casual, family-oriented dining.
But to make the commmentary lively, why not propose opening the Courtyard Cafe in the Rose Garden and let hundreds comment on the idea.
How exciting,
Hal, as Halamo
The Alamo Towne Fool, on loan to Danville
@ODDs, a Saloon for Fools
The Hotel Snaysmuth at the Rose Garden
Out of town in Danville CA
Oh ya!!!! a olive garden or a red lobster are you serious !!!!! you want your property values to plunge more. Danville is nice because the shops we have are high end.
Hal / Halamo –
Who requested your loan to Danville? For that matter, who wants you in Alamo – where you claim ‘not’ to live?
Go ahead and enjoy stirring with your big s… stick; your overuse of it ensures that you’re covered with the stuff by now.
Ah shucks, Dolores, I apologize!!
We just enjoyed Ron’s concise content and commentary in response to Diablo Vista neighbors’ concerns for a MAC and my humor simply drew another author as Alamo Ron back to “defamously speaking.”
I apologize to you and Ron!!
Let’s put the purpose of such humor in context. The Rose Garden is a very convenient place, just off 680, for our friends from the north and south to meet. Among these friends are young families, young professionals, their parents and, yes, grandparents. Casual, family dining is key to sufficient customer volume from Walnut Creek to Dublin.
This amazingly convenient location cannot be sustained by Danville customers alone. More, Danville is young families that want casual, family-oriented dining. There are those like me of grandparent age that simply enjoy the joyful noise of families having fun.
So, let me invite content from Alamo Ron as to the type of hospitality that should be at the Rose Garden? I am sure the Rose Garden would appreciate many responses on what hospitality would be supported.
I anticipate great ideas!
Hal, as Halamo
The Alamo Towne Fool
@ODDs, a Saloon for Fools
The Hotel Snaysmuth
2625 Crescent Moon Lane
West Willimantic CA 94507-1078
Good Morning
As executive director of Diablo Lodge (a senior residential community) It would be nice to have a place to take about 12 residnts our to lunch which would be wheelchair and walker friendly. Just becasue the are old and handicapped the would still like to go our to eat as a group instead of one at a time.
Thanks
Adding A fun locals place, like BJ’s Bree Pub, at Blackhawk Plaza would be great. Not only would it great a place for locals to meet for reasonably priced food and beverage, it would fill a gap left by the overpriced “Booby” that has been vacant for well over a year. It would also bring big screens in for sporting events and have our locals stay and support our local economy instead of supporting Walnut Creek!
The Rose Garden like Blackhawk Plaza are off the beaten path and have a very difficult time making it. The idea that an Olive Garden or Red Lobster would cause property values to plunge is silly.
How about a California Pizza kitchen? CPK is affordable and offers variety. And much better pizza than any other restruant in town… McCovey’s, Olive Garden, Epephant Bar, Claim Jumper are also great. Red Lobster is awful…Just my opinion from a family of 5 looking for additional affordable good local gathering spots….
People need to support local independent business. Not the corp mass chains. Buy local! All those chains serve sub-standard food and make their money off the backs of minimum wage workers. Look out your own back door!
Danville seems to lack a community pub — a locally-owned “Cheers,” where ‘everybody knows your name.’ Preferably one where the risk of getting your head stomped is very low.
There was that ‘680’ place for a while, but it was tucked away in a corner and didn’t seem to catch anyone’s fancy. Just in general, Danville lacks community, methinks, unless it’s organized around schools or dogs.
In Pleasanton, the downtown area is feeling the pinch as we don’t have enough variety in retail to keep people shopping and hanging around after their meals. When you have a shopping center with chain stores that draw people you need to compete with that by having a popular chain in your downtown area too. Chains have a regular clientele that shop so downtowns really need to accept that it will be an easy way to get the crowds to their sites. It will be up to the local businesses at that point to offer unique items at good prices to draw from those chains. A lone community cannot support their merchants alone, they need to draw $$ from customers from outside of the community to survive. I know, I’m an ex-merchant from Downtown Pleasantron.
The above states:
“Personal service businesses include tutoring, physical fitness, hair stylists and nail salons. Conceptually, businesses of this sort will bring in a stable base of clientele that would come for the service, then stay to eat or shop at one of the Rose Garden retailers.”
It hasn’t worked for Downtown Pleasanton where there are several banks and several nail and beauty salons, tutoring….. service oriented businesses. There are also a number of good restaurants but I feel, like many, that there is a need to have the majority of businesses to be retail to make a successful and active downtown. Too many local retail shops have closed because there just isn’t enough of a draw to the downtown with non-retail shops being the majority taking up space in Pleasanton. 80% retail 10% restaurants 10% service related would be a better mix.