Downtown HMB suffering along with the rest of us

Downtown landlords have been working with tenants to cope with the recession, reports Julia Scott in the County Times. 

Burlingame attorney Joe Cotchett, who owns seven buildings in town, actually lowered the rent for all his tenants by 10 percent last August. He will be lowering it at least another 10 percent through January 2010, he said on Tuesday. ...

Half Moon Bay real estate magnate Keet Nerhan said he has already lowered the rent for his tenants on Main Street and at the new Harbor Village Complex in Princeton, where 50 percent of his retailers have bailed on their commitment to lease a space in his indoor mall. He is also now waiving the monthly rent for several tenants. ...

Robin Jeffs, [Tu Pueblo Imports’] former landlord, has had trouble filling two of the three storefronts in his Francis Building since the tenants moved on.

"The story of high rents on Main Street is not the problem. The problem is the combination of not enough stores and not the right stores," said Jeffs. "We’ve not been able to raise rents in the last five years and now we’re having to reduce them, and reduce them quite sharply."