Starbucks Coffee Shop Will Not Settle in Glenview, Calif.

Three years ago, Glenview residents won a major brawl with America's number one coffee chain, Starbucks. Their vehemence against seeing the Seattle-based roasters open up in their neighborhood eventually led them to City Hall, where the chain decided to withdraw its application to avoid bad publicity.

Looking to fill a vacancy in their Park Boulevard building, real estate brokers Steve and John Moyers found themselves trapped in the middle.

To this day, the two brothers have yet to find a tenant who will be a viable merchant in the space.

And the Moyers are bracing for another backlash. Although Steve Moyers is adamant there is no deal to bring in another coffee chain, word is spreading throughout the neighborhood that Tully's Coffee, another Seattle-based coffee company, is eyeing the spot.

In the last three years, a golf club store and a holistic healing center have moved in and quickly moved out. Moyers said the merchant that will eventually sign a lease will probably be a hair salon or barber shop owner.

"People should not get all worried and they should not anticipate great things because they are opposed to most of the things that would work in that space," he said. "Everybody in Glenview seems to be happy that instead of a Starbucks or Tully's, who would be viable tenants, we get startups and mom and pops who give it their best effort and fail."

With great fanfare and a sizable donation to a local charity, Tully's Coffee opened its first East Bay store this past May in downtown Oakland. Located at the corner of 14th Street and Broadway, with BART patrons coming and going mere feet from the front door, the coffee store is thriving.

"Sales are increasing each day at the Oakland site," said James Chittenden, regional manager of California retail operations. "We are real pleased with the location."

And the company is looking to expand its base in the East Bay in the next six months. But where those new stores will open remains unclear. Company officials contacted for this story either did not return phone calls or would not reveal specific locations.

"We are looking at locations in Oakland, but I am not certain about where or how many locations," said Judy Wolf, with the company's real estate office in Seattle.

Founded by Tom O'Keefe in 1992, Tully's has grown into the third-largest specialty coffee retailer in the U.S. It has 104 locations throughout the world, mainly in Washington, Idaho, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan and Sweden.

The company already has a foothold in San Francisco due to its purchasing the Spinelli Coffee company in 1998. It has numerous stores there and is the official coffee sponsor of the San Francisco Giants.

"I don't know too much about them except they are on the move," said Richard Campbell, owner of Ultimate Grounds, whose store is across the street from the vacant storefront. Ultimate Grounds became a central player in the fight against Starbucks. While customers waited for cappuccinos and lattes, they also signed a petition against Starbucks kept at the coffee shop's counter.

"Do I want competition across the street from a chain? No. But with Starbucks, because of its tremendous presence, you don't go there for coffee. You go there for Starbucks," he said. "But I don't know about Tully's."

To date, there is no pending deal to bring Tully's into the space, said Steve Moyers. "They never looked at the space so I doubt they are interested in it," he said. "Tully's Coffee would be great, but frankly, I doubt we want to fight the battle."

The vacant space probably will never house a coffee store or small food vendor, said Moyers. Since the skirmish over Starbucks, he said 10 other such merchants have looked at the space but have all fled after learning about the fight. "Any food user would have to go through a highly politicized permit process. We have had a procession of great, quality food users over the years, names of companies people would love to have in there, and they look at the space and then they see what Starbucks went through and they don't pursue it," said Moyers.

Two and a half years ago, San Francisco coffee purveyor Torre Fiziano Italia gave the Moyers a letter of intent for the space, then walked away, and Seattle Coffee Works looked twice at the store but backed off from pursuing the needed permits.

"The Glenview powers that be have created the impression to any coffee or food retailer it is not worth the fight to come in and pursue it," he said. Merchants and neighbors argue parking is so scarce in the area that any high-traffic store would be a detriment, not a value, to the area. "We are dealing here with a very serious finite parking situation, so more business here with such terribly limited parking means everybody is going to have to give up a little bit," said Campbell. "It is just not the kind of neighborhood which can handle more traffic."

If Tully's does try to move into the area, it is unknown if it would face the same number of residents against it as Starbucks did. "Whether Tully's will have the same kind of reaction I don't know," said Michael Gabriel, Glenview Neighborhood Association president. "I am not familiar with Tully's."

Since 1997, when Starbucks wanted to move in, the Glenview district has seen the same changes in its residents as the rest of the city. With more dot.com workers settling in the area, the Starbucks opponents are unsure if the same sentiments would surround Tully's.

"There were a lot people in the neighborhood who were really concerned about chains. But a lot of those feelings have moved on," said Campbell. "I don't think we will see the same vehemence as we did against Starbucks."