What's happening: This week the Briefing walked every block of downtown and counted 93 street-level storefronts. Sixteen are currently without an open business. Seven sit empty with no tenant lined up, and nine already have a confirmed new tenant that hasn't opened yet, meaning the street looks emptier than the market actually is.
The Throckmorton block going up to E Blithedale features two spaces with new tenants renovating their spaces. (MVB)
Why it matters: That puts downtown's real vacancy rate at 7.5%, seven of 93 spaces genuinely dark, above the national retail vacancy rate of 6% in the second quarter of this year, and right around the historical average of 7.4%, according to Cushman and Wakefield.
That comparison only tells part of the story. Count the nine spaces being renovated, and the number climbs to 17.2%, because a pedestrian still can't walk into any of them. Some of these buildings have sat empty for many months, and in a few cases, like 57 and 60 Throckmorton, for years, even with new tenants now confirmed.
That's higher than the national retail average, but not unusual for a walkable downtown core specifically. A similar block-by-block survey of downtown Evanston, Illinois, found 21 percent vacancy earlier this year, and vacancy in San Francisco's own tourist-heavy retail corridors, Union Square and Fisherman's Wharf, runs near or above 10 percent.
The context: This spring the city finished rewriting the rules that govern how a business opens in the city. A November ordinance eliminated new parking requirements for most changes of use under 5,000 square feet. In April, the council followed with a zoning rewrite that took effect May 20, replacing the old Conditional Use Permit process with a faster Administrative Use Permit for most ground-floor businesses.
"Putting $8,000 or $10,000 into the city coffers before I even sell one item is just a huge hurdle," said Councilmember Urban Carmel, describing what he'd heard from prospective business owners under the old rules. The new administrative permit fee was set at $1,954, and the standard use permit fee was cut from $7,339 to $5,647, according to Senior Planner Daisy Allen.
On the ground: Nine of downtown's dark storefronts already have a future, albeit with varying timelines. Treehouse MV, a retail and co-working space, is set for the old Bank of America at 60 Throckmorton. Lima Nikkei is taking over the former El Paseo space. The House Realtors has signed at 55 Throckmorton, and Indoorra, a kitchen systems retailer, next door. Wonderhouse, a family co-working space, is opening at 55 Sunnyside, the former Post Office building, this fall.
On Miller Avenue, Delphine is preparing to open in the old Gravity Tavern space, and Bootjack bakery is taking over the former Urban Remedy storefront. Milkweed, a kids' clothing store, is set to open at the old Sprout space in September, the same month Dorado 806 opens an art exhibition at 38 Miller Ave.
The downtown storefront tracker shows which street-level spaces are sitting empty. See it here.
Seven storefronts remain genuinely empty with no tenant announced: 23 Sunnyside, formerly Kim Eagles-Smith Gallery, where work is underway inside though no tenant has been confirmed; 77 Throckmorton, formerly Mili; 32 Miller Ave, formerly Compass Real Estate; 111 Throckmorton, formerly Two Neat; 153 Throckmorton, formerly Oska; 88 Throckmorton, formerly Peet's Coffee; and 108 Throckmorton, the former Chandler Gallery.
What's next: Downtown's mixed picture, empty storefronts alongside a wave of quiet signings, isn't lost on the people who work with these buildings every day. "Developers who have money to purchase, but don't yet have a vision for their space" are part of what's holding some corners of downtown dark, said Jim Welte, executive director of the Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce. "We must do more to exemplify and bolster our amazing town," he added.
You can see the downtown storefront tracker here: millvalleybriefing.com/storefronts
We'll keep every address on this list updated as spaces open, tenants confirm, or new information comes in, and expand the map beyond downtown in the coming months. You can help by dropping us a quick email when you spot a new sign in a store window.
🌱 If you think Mill Valley deserves this kind of coverage, sharing it with one person today is the most direct way to help it grow.
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MILL VALLEY HISTORICAL SOCIETYThis week in Mill Valley history: The school that started in a shack
This week, students across Mill Valley head back to school. 118 years ago, they were doing the same.
On Monday, Aug 3, 1908, seventy students filed into a rough-board structure with a canvas roof on a sloping knoll near Mill Valley Junction and began the first day of classes at Tamalpais Union High School. The permanent $30,000 building was under construction next door. Contractors promised it would be ready in six weeks.
Tamalpais High School's first classroom, known as "The Shack." Rough boards with a canvas covering, built on one corner of the school site while the permanent $30,000 building was under construction next door. (Courtesy of the Lucretia Little History Room, Mill Valley Public Library)
The opening was attended by a large number of interested citizens from Mill Valley and Sausalito - the two towns whose school districts had joined to create the new school. Principal Ernest Everett Wood gave a short address that the Mill Valley Record described as "strictly to the point" and said it "created a very favorable impression among both his pupils and their parents."
The school existed because five students had petitioned for it. Before Tam High opened, students from Mill Valley and Sausalito who wanted a high school education had to commute to San Rafael. In December 1906, five students who were tired of the journey circulated a petition. The district was formed. Two years later, here they were.
The railroad platform outside was still being built on opening day. Train service began August 8, with the 8:17am from Sausalito and the 8:45am from Mill Valley stopping at the school, and return trains after 3pm in both directions. A $2 commutation rate for students had just been negotiated.
By 1926, after the Ross Valley districts voted to join the district rather than tie with San Rafael, enrollment had reached 952, with 98 courses and 47 teachers. A five-car train called "The Special" brought students from as far as Fairfax each morning - two cars for boys, two for girls, one coed - through the tunnel in Corte Madera and backed into the Tam High stop next to the gym.
Tam High in 1929 - two decades after seventy students started class in a canvas-roofed shack on the same site. The railroad tracks running alongside the campus carried students from across southern Marin each morning. (Courtesy of the Lucretia Little History Room, Mill Valley Public Library)
Not everyone came by train. Boyd Stewart, who attended from 1918 to 1922, lived on a 500-acre dairy ranch in Nicasio. Each morning he rode a horse five miles to San Geronimo to catch the 6am steam train, transferred at Manor to the electric train, got off at Almonte and walked up the County Road to school. The return trip brought him back to San Geronimo at 6:30pm for another five-mile ride home.
Ernest Everett Wood remained principal for thirty-six years, retiring in 1944. He was there on December 8, 1941, the morning after Pearl Harbor, when he addressed the school in Mead Theatre in a voice choked with emotion.
Mill Valley's two grammar schools - Summit School on Cornelia Avenue and Homestead School, which had opened just months earlier in Homestead Valley - reopened the same week after summer vacation, with 335 students enrolled on the first day and thirty or forty more expected through the month. Several classrooms were already crowded to capacity.
That first week of August 1908, three schools were running in Mill Valley: almost 400 students in two grammar schools and a brand new high school in a canvas-roofed shack.
Sources: Mill Valley Record, Aug 7, 1908; Mill Valley Historical Society vignettes: Tamalpais High School (September 2014), Tam High Expansion (December 2013), Tam High Early 1940s (October 2021).
This story was sponsored by the Mill Valley Historical Society. Visit their new website at mvhistory.org.
Sponsors pay for placement, not coverage. Our reporting is always produced independently, without sponsor review or editorial input.
Mill Valley council, school board head to November unopposed
The filing deadline for the November 3 election closed this week, and the ballot is set for the races that shape Mill Valley and its surrounding communities. The headline: both Mill Valley City Council seats and all three Mill Valley School District seats drew no opposition, meaning Max Perrey, Stephen Burke, and Yunhee Yoo, Natalie Katz and Sharon Nakatani are running for re-election unopposed.
*incumbent
Mill Valley City Council | Mill Valley School District |
|---|---|
Two seats are up for election | Three seats are up for election |
Candidates: | Candidates: |
No incumbents are stepping down. | No incumbents are stepping down. |
Tamalpais Union High School District | Southern Marin Fire Protection District |
|---|---|
Three seats are up for election | Four seats are up for election |
Candidates: | Candidates: |
Emily Uhlhorn is not seeking re-election. | No incumbents are stepping down. |
🗳️ Marin County’s Election Department has much more on the Nov 3 election, including all the candidates across special districts covering Tam Valley, Homestead and Strawberry here.
New podcast ‘Voices of the Valley’ is live
Mill Valley Briefing's first podcast is out today. Voices of the Valley pairs longtime locals with the people who shaped this town: musicians, artists, teachers and characters who built it and are still figuring out what it's becoming. The first episode was recorded live at our April launch event at Sweetwater Music Hall and features panelists Veery Maxwell, Tim Ryan, Erma Murphy, Raven Twilling and moderator Joyce Kleiner. Listen right here or on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Future episodes feature Erma Murphy talking to Rita Abrams, Tom Killion, and more are being recorded. Subscribe on your favorite podcast app so you don’t miss any of them. More info and photos from those conversations are on our website.
🎙️ Want to be part of the next live podcast recording? Mill Valley Briefing's next community conversation titled ‘Where Mill Valley stands on wildfire, and what's still ahead’ comes to Sweetwater Music Hall on Wednesday, September 16. Panel discussion with audience Q&A. Free with RSVP, capacity is limited.
What we covered this week
🏟️ Rule-breaking youth sports groups face a three-month suspension under a new field policy. The Parks and Recreation Commission approved a rewritten field allocation policy Aug 5 on a 2-1 vote, ending a six-month process. We reported on the debate over how harshly to punish violators, the new pilot letting small trainers reserve partial fields and the no-show fee replacing the old warning system.
🏠 City moves to restore a tax break for ADU owners eliminated in 2021. The Planning Commission voted 4-0 Tuesday to recommend Council bring back a floor area exemption for accessory dwelling units. We reported on why staff dropped the break in 2021, what square footage qualifies under the new ordinance and the questions architects raised about existing ADUs.
📵 Tam High goes phone-free starting Aug 19. Students will lock devices in NuKase cases from the first bell to the last, including lunch. We reported on the contract behind the rollout and how it lands just as three of five TUHSD board seats head to a November election.
🏊♀️ A Mill Valley woman is trying to swim the entire California coast. Catherine Breed passed the Marin coastline this week, about six weeks into her 900-mile attempt from Oregon to Mexico. We reported on the job she left to do it, the crowds she's drawn along the way and where you can catch her next.
🌊 Tam Valley Cabin could flood by 2050. A new analysis puts a number on the risk, and the cheapest fix is raising the building about a foot. We reported on the design contract up for a vote and what the other three alternatives would cost.
🥐 Tartine soft-opened in Strawberry Village this weekend. We reported on Instagram that staff let walk-in visitors order and eat while practicing service ahead of the opening on Aug 19. The location carries a local thread: founders Chad Robertson and Elisabeth Prueitt ran Bay Village Bakery in Mill Valley from 1999 to 2002 before building Tartine into a national name. Follow the Briefing on Instagram.
If you want to read about any of these stories as they develop, the weekday Briefing lands in your inbox Mon/Wed/Fri at 6am. A paid subscription makes this reader-funded, local news operation possible. It’s $12 per month, which you can cancel anytime, and the annual subscription comes out to less than $2.50 a week. Upgrading is only two clicks if you use Apple Pay.
📅 Next week in Mill Valley
Mon, Aug 17 – Cuentos con Ritmo, Mill Valley Public Library, 10:15–10:45am. Brought by Colors of Spanish, this engaging music and rhythm storytime program in the Outdoor Amphitheater at 375 Throckmorton Ave is designed for kids ages 0–5 and their caregivers. Free entry; no registration required.
Tue, Aug 18 – Tuesday Night Comedy, Throckmorton Theatre, 8–10pm. Throckmorton’s weekly stand-up showcase returns to 142 Throckmorton Ave. Tonight’s lineup features headlining comic Cary Odes alongside Gina Stahl-Haven, Ben Feldman, Brett Harper Jennings, and host Michael Meehan. Doors open at 7:30pm.
Wed, Aug 19 – Free Noon Concert, Throckmorton Theatre, 12–1pm. Enjoy a midday classical performance at 142 Throckmorton Ave featuring pianist Janet Guggenheim, flutist Martha Aarons, and violinist Lev Polyakin. Free admission; all ages welcome.
Wed, Aug 19 – Skeleton Crewe Quintet, The Junction Beer Garden, 7–10pm. An all-star lineup featuring Rob Barraco, Barry Sless, Stephen Inglis, Pete Sears, and Jay Lane takes the outdoor stage at 226 Shoreline Hwy. Blending psychedelic Americana, traditional Hawaiian influences, reimagined Grateful Dead favorites, and original songs co-written with Robert Hunter. All ages welcome; tickets $35 advance / $41 door.
Thu, Aug 20 – Trivia Night, The Depot Cafe and Bookstore, 5:30pm. Gather your team for a night of quiz show fun on the downtown plaza at 87 Throckmorton Ave. Features picture rounds, quirky categories, and gift card prizes. Free entry; open to all ages.
Thu, Aug 20 – Author Talk: Katie Gaddini with Isabeau Doucet, Mill Valley Public Library, 6:30–7:30pm. Author Katie Gaddini discusses her new book, Esther’s Army: The Christian Women Who Power the American Right, in conversation with Marin journalist Isabeau Doucet in the Creekside Room at 375 Throckmorton Ave. Free entry; registration required.
Thu, Aug 20 – North Mississippi Allstars, Sweetwater, 8pm. The Grammy-nominated blues and Southern rock powerhouse duo of Luther and Cody Dickinson brings their raw, electric Mississippi hill country blues sound to 19 Corte Madera Ave. All ages; doors open at 7pm.
Fri, Aug 21 – Miller Nights, Downtown Depot Plaza, 5–8pm. Downtown transforms into a lively pedestrian block party with a partial street closure on Miller Ave. Enjoy music, outdoor dining from local restaurants, a curated pop-up merchant market, plus kids' crafts and a bounce house. Free entry; family-friendly with a grown-up vibe.
Fri, Aug 21 – Musical Feast, The Depot Cafe and Bookstore, 5:30pm. Enjoy a live outdoor set of alt-country, folk, and classic rock on the plaza at 87 Throckmorton Ave. Free entry; open to all ages.
Fri, Aug 21 – The Unauthorized Rolling Stones, Sweetwater, 8pm. Frontman Rudy Colombini and his high-energy tribute band bring the classic swagger and hits of The Rolling Stones to 19 Corte Madera Ave. All ages; doors open at 7pm.
Sat, Aug 22 – William Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost, Old Mill Park Amphitheatre, 2–4:30pm. Curtain Theatre presents a free, live outdoor performance of Shakespeare's romantic comedy amidst the redwoods behind the library at 64 Cascade Dr. Free admission; bring a picnic or blanket.
Sat, Aug 22 – The Eldon Brown Band, The Depot Cafe and Bookstore, 5:30pm. Catch live acoustic roots, rock, and blues outdoors on the plaza at 87 Throckmorton Ave. Free entry; all ages welcome.
Sat, Aug 22 – Starman SF (David Bowie Tribute), Sweetwater, 8pm. Celebrate the music, theatrics, and catalog of David Bowie with Bay Area tribute act Starman SF at 19 Corte Madera Ave. All ages; doors open at 7pm.
Sun, Aug 23 – Marin Bluegrass Sessions, Sweetwater, 12pm. Enjoy an afternoon of traditional bluegrass picking, acoustic sets, and community jamming at 19 Corte Madera Ave. Free entry; doors open at 11:30am.
Sun, Aug 23 – William Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost, Old Mill Park Amphitheatre, 2–4:30pm. Curtain Theatre's weekend outdoor Shakespeare run continues at 64 Cascade Dr. Free entry; all ages welcome.
Sun, Aug 23 – Eduardo Nuñez y su Banda Tropical, The Depot Cafe and Bookstore, 4–6pm. Bring your dancing shoes to the plaza at 87 Throckmorton Ave for an energetic afternoon of tropical Latin beats, cumbia, and salsa. Free entry; open to all ages.
Sun, Aug 23 – Bermudagrass 20th Anniversary & Album Release Party, Sweetwater, 7pm. Local favorites Bermudagrass celebrate two decades of high-energy acoustic jam-grass and their latest album release at 19 Corte Madera Ave. All ages; doors open at 6pm.
🔍 Businesses and venues mentioned in this section are covered on editorial merit only. No business has paid for coverage. Promotional content is always labeled.
