I am sad for the owners of all affected businesses. Hoping that all are well insured.

How long had the Dry Cleaners been closed, I wonder. This is a well used group of businesses and will be very much missed by the local community. Very pleased nobody was hurt but sad to see the businesses unable to open.

Oh no!.
These businesses are side by side on Middlefield, taking up the entire block. If this was on University Ave, would it have been referred to as happening at a strip mall? Hardly. So why here?

This is awful. These businesses all provide wanted and needed services to Midtown residents and others in town.

My heart goes out to the business operators and neighbors. Thank you fire fighters for you work.

Someone needs to explain how long it took for the firefighters to arrive. There are no fire engines in south Palo Alto. Station 4 on Middlefield and Charleston is closed except for medical responses. The fire engine would need to come from either the Arastradero station or the Embarcadero and Newell station.

Dealing with insurance companies can be a nightmare. I don't know enough about city finances to know if there is some sort of emergency fund. Many businesses like this received PPP loans during the worst of the COVID pandemic. Having to be closed, whether for a pandemic or a fire, can be a disaster for a small business. I do realize that Philz and Bill's have other locations. But it's still a really hard blow to any business. I hope something is available to help them weather the storm.

@AlanDavis, my guess would be that the hour: 11:15 and the fact that the building is not right beside residences could account for so much of the fire happening before firefighters arrived. When there was a fire next door to me, in Midtown, they were there SO quickly. But it was around 6PM. I assume that firefighters come when someone calls 911, unless there is a magic signal that they get whenever there's smoke or flames.

I've been going to AJ's Quick Clean since 1985. Chris and his whole family are wonderful. The pandemic and now this tragic fire. I am so very sorry and heartbroken for them.

This is a tragic loss for our community. Even though I live in North PA, my family and I frequent(ed) Pete's and Bill's--and we are/were regular (at least twice/weekly) customers of AJ's Cleaners. We also have visited the liquor store in the past, and found everyone there-like at the other 3 businesses-to be friendly, professional, helpful, and very good at their jobs. Bill's is/was my son's (and many of his teammates on the Paly Baseball Team's) favorite spot for breakfast & brunch. These businesses have been essential to our community. They are invaluable.

I feel particularly bad for AJ's. Not only are they the best and most ethical dry cleaners I had found in decades, but they are a local family-owned business that has served our community for decades. I have had the pleasure of getting to know the owner (because he does much of his own delivery and many other customer-facing jobs) and personally admire and respect him and his work, and appreciate the high-integrity service he has provided for our community. This loss is heartbreaking.

So much is under investigation, which takes time, including what started the fire, and whether it was intentional or accidental, but missing from press coverage is who owns this commercial building.

I searched public records and found:
Owner:
3155-3199 MIDDLEFIELD ROAD LLC
25 E Pier, Kappa's Marina
Sausalito, CA 94965
which points to Web Link
and Web Link (search for "3155-3199 Middlefield Road LLC"), which indicates that the LLC has not submitted its mandatory information statement, but past records suggest ownership by Lenore & Robert Cavallero, who may live in Hillsborough.

The owners usually are responsible for maintaining property in safe condition. That may not be relevant here. Owners also usually control insurance proceeds & decide next steps. Will they (try to) rebuild as commercial office? What do they say?

It is a very sad day.

Wait and see. This will be an excuse to rebuild a 6 story condo at the site. All businesses in PA are being driven out one way or another.

And after they drive the businesses out they can hire more staff and consultants to tell us to get out of our cars tand to stop driving to where the businesses relocate.

Go glad mental health is a priority.

When I lived in PA (Midtown) I patronized all these businesses. Especially the wonderful deli-restaurant, that preceded Bill’s. I can’t recall the name(s) of this charming place, and wonder if any PAWeekly readers can refresh my memory. I sincerely hope the wonderful patio remains.

I agree with others that this will probably be replaced with condos and retail on ground floor but not the same useful amenities and the outdoor seating area which has been there as long as I remember with a Mediterranean ambience, will be lost forever. Such a shame that another place with character is no longer going to exist.

Hope I'm wrong.

So sad. I used to frequent the Pommard deli which occupied the space before Bill's, and also remember the Creme de Cafe which preceded Philz (and the previously-named Century Liquors). All the businesses there have been well-loved, and the outdoor seating and trees are really wonderful. It's a very inviting spot. Hope they can preserve as much of that as possible--it's a large part of what draws people there.

Feel terrible for the owners, workers, and clientele of the businesses!

I unfortunately picked last week to drop off all my work clothes at the cleaners. I imagine this will take a while to sort out, but does anyone have any advice on how I could submit a claim as well?

How often do Dry Cleaners burn down? Very odd with my limited knowledge.
I am very disappointed for the 4 businesses and patrons. Thank you Palo Alto Fire Dept
for the quick response. When/if open again, I will visit and use all the stores ASAP.
III

So very sorry to hear this. We've known Chris for years and been lucky to be one of his customers. Chris -- please know some of us don't need a 'claim' for our clothes that were in the cleaners at the time of the fire. It's the least we can do for your wonderful service. We are thinking of you and hope you can rebuild.

By chance I noticed this had been updated again. It is very confusing when an article is updated with more information. How many times should we check to see if an important news item has fresh information?

Daily? For how long?

So glad no one was hurt. I hope all businesses return as they were or better and thrive in the near future. I wouldn’t be surprised if fire started at the dry cleaners/laundromat. Anyone who looked in the door could see mounds of stuff all over the place, a real mess.

AJ’s is ethical? Sounds like Rebecca doesn’t know about AJ’s tax fraud case.

Ms. Eisenberg, how does the Secretary Of State's filing show that the people who have an LLC using the name "3155-3199 MIDDLEFIELD ROAD LLC" is the owner of the properties that burned down? I'm curious how you determined that. I once googled my mother's address and her name and address are also being used for an LLC that she may or may not know about. She's dead, BTW. And she never owned or operated a business at her house or anywhere else.

The County Clerk is the only one who knows who owns that property. And even though it's public information, it's not accessible to the public. Their website Web Link says this:

"Real estate records for Santa Clara County since 1850 are available after they have been recorded. These records will only be available for purchase in person or by mail. This affords greater privacy protections to all individuals whose information appears in the database, and furthers use of the index only for lawful and appropriate purposes."

Did you go to the clerk's office and pay the fees, or did you do it by mail, to discover the owners of the property that burned down? The article didn't identify the owner. Or did I miss it?

As for condos at that location ... driving on Middlefield through Palo Alto is like trying to squeeze a quarter into a dime slot. Scary. Housing at that location would be downright deadly. I wonder if Palo Alto wants to claim the "work from home" trophy where people just move in and never go out their door.

That's why I've long coined the phrase "PIMBY" for Prisoner in My Back Yard.

Re driving on Middlefield being like trying to squeeze a quarter into a dime slot, you can thank our former Transportation "leaders" for much of the problem ince they put bollards and EVEERY Middlefield intersection which prevents drivers from bypassing turning traffic, thus backing up traffic =-- sometimes into the middle of Embarcadero and/or Oregon.

@Online Name, just blame COVID. That's what everybody else is doing.

Since this was updated on Friday, there is no more news.

Except of course that the staff have been displaced and the customers are scrambling to find other places to take the place of these neighborhood favorites.

Bills was always busy at weekends and never empty weekdays. Philz was always busy with customers including local police and fire dept., so much so that crossing Middlefield/Loma Verde was always problematic particularly during morning commute time. Both parking lots were always hard to find a spot with cars backing up Middlefield and others idling in the center waiting for a spot to appear.

Nextdoor is full of questions about alternative businesses for regulars to use instead.

So where are people going? Are the Midtown and Charleston businesses doing better as a result? Is traffic worse or better at the Middlefield Loma Verde intersection? Are people driving to get their coffee instead of having a brisk walk to go to brunch or buy their morning Joe?

The consequences of this fire are only just beginning to hit home to the community.

It's weird, Bystander, how an article floats just above the bilge pump, trapped by half truths and false accusations, until it gets hooked and yanked out and replaced by a different related article. The internet is forever. LOL.

I drove past the site yesterday , on my way to the bank, and the rubberneckers made the traffic even worse than it ever was when the businesses were operating. I don't think they could EVER turn it into condos that would increase traffic at all hours of the day. No bike lanes, and with so many students coming and going. A kid was weaving through traffic on an electric scooter. Just a recipe for disaster. Google Street View from January 2023 shows a construction crew. I hope wise decisions are made in the restoration of the commercial ventures there. Because condos above retail would take YEARS to complete. We already have more detours, cone zones and flaggers than direct roads these days.