35,000-sq.-ft luxury center to open near Stanford campus
A $100 million retail development set to debut in Silicon Valley this fall will be called Middle Plaza, but its prices will be “upper.”
Stephen and Jared Silver, proprietors of Stephen Silver Fine Jewelry, teamed with Silicon Valley real estate mogul John Arrillaga prior to his death in January to build the 35,000-sq.-ft luxury marketplace.
It will house brands including Hermés, Laurent Ferrier, Bovet, and Swiss watchmakers H.M Moser and Roger Dubuis.
Located in Menlo Park, not far from the campus of Stanford University, Middle Plaza is the first luxury development of its size and scope in a region that is one of the most affluent in the nation, according to the jeweler’s CEO Stephen Silver.
“In 2018, John, Jared, and I agreed that the Middle Plaza development should answer the local community’s need for a new gathering space and destination that remains locally grounded yet rivals the world’s great shopping cities,” Silver said.
The team hired noted Bay Area interior architect Jon de la Cruz to design a center that presented entirely different experiences on each of its three levels. Stephen Silver Fine Jewelry will be on the ground floor with six to seven other luxury tenants, one being a new Bvlgari concept.
The second floor will contain a 4,000-sq.-ft.-plus indoor-outdoor showroom where Hermés will reside with Urwerk, Greubel Forsey, Ressence, and Arnold & Son, among others. Stephen Silver’s high jewelry salon and its new corporate headquarters will occupy the entire third floor of the townhouse-style building.
Gourmet dining will also be in place at Middle Plaza. Ayesha Thapar—proprietor of the Michelin Star, Cal-Indian fusion restaurant Ettan in Palo Alto—will debut a new concept there called Ettan.
“Working with the Silvers to create this environment brings a new aesthetic to shopping in Menlo Park,” said de la Cruz. “As a San Francisco native, we worked to make sure the identity of the Bay Area complements this new upscale retail space, making it both luxurious and local."
John Arillaga, who grew up in a lower middle-class section of Inglewood, rose to be one of the largest landowners in Silicon Valley. He played on Stanford’s basketball team and graduated from the university with a degree in geography in 1960.