Stephen Wall, Staff Writer
Posted: 09/07/2009 07:06:46 AM PDT
GRAND TERRACE - Anxious to finally open a new and improved store here, Stater Bros. Markets is negotiating with a developer to buy part of the land where a new shopping center was proposed.
The city has worked for a decade on plans to build a state-of-the-art supermarket that would be nearly twice as large as the aging Stater Bros. in town.
Jack Brown, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Stater Bros., said his company made an offer to purchase about 12 acres from Jacobsen Family Holdings, which submitted plans to build a retail center on the south side of Barton Road east of Michigan Avenue.
Douglas Jacobsen, principal of Woodland Hills-based Jacobsen Family Holdings, could not be reached for comment.
Stater Bros. was slated to be the anchor tenant for the nearly 210,000-square-foot center, which would include several smaller retail shops. The supermarket was expected to be part of the first phase of the project.
Stater Bros. hoped to open its new store by Thanksgiving.
But prospects for the center appear to be fading largely due to the economic crisis.
"So much time has been lost that all that's left for that center right now is Stater Bros.," said Councilman Walt Stanckiewitz.
Brown said his company is committed to building a new supermarket in Grand Terrace, noting that Stater Bros. corporate headquarters was on the other side of the 215 Freeway in Colton for 28 years. The company is now based next to the San Bernardino International Airport.
"Frankly, if it hadn't been our hometown, I wouldn't have waited this long. I would have gone somewhere else," Brown said.
Brown said it is up to the city and its residents to decide what gets built on the rest of the property.
"All we're looking at is our part of the project," Brown said. "Whatever (Jacobsen) works out with the city for the other half is fine with us."
Brown said his company's investment in the new supermarket will exceed $10 million.
The 45,000-square-foot market will have a large bakery, deli, expanded meat, produce and floral departments, as well as an organic food section, he said.
Brown said the new market will have about 130 employees and generate nearly $800,000 per year in sales tax revenue, more than twice the amount produced by the existing store.
The current 26,000-square-foot market, which opened in 1974, has about 70 employees, Brown said.
He said the new market could open in late 2010 if construction starts by January. The existing store would close when the new one opens.
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Frankly reading between the lines this may be the last action prior to Stater Brothers and Jack Brown Backing out of the "Deal". Doug Jacobsen and the City of Grand Terrace may not accept the "Offer" made by Jack Brown and thus leave him off the hook to build an "Improved" "Larger Store" in Grand Terrace.
The added detail of the amount of sales tax that will come to the city just means that the Colton Sales at the Washington Store will be diminished an equal amount. Over all there will not be an increase in regional consumption or taxes. Don't be fooled by grandiose statements or faulty statistics.
With the housing development not going in just the other side of GT in HighGrove there will not be the added customer base that Stater's was counting on to justify the added floor space and investment in GT.
This blog has always promoted a little by little development program. Letting the LAND OWNERS make as many decisions relating to use and design as much as possible. The Schwab RDA and Council's approach of Big Shopping Center built all at once and leased at high rents to small business does not make a strong economy on a local or national level. This strip of acquired land is tainted with the threatened use of Eminent Domain for Private Development.
Look at the Empty K-Mart and the Empty stores in the Beverly Crafts and former Thrifty's on Washington as examples of what not to do... as an RDA... and Developer Collaboration.
Doug Jacobsen may have paid more for the property than it is now worth. However, the forced sale of property under the threat of Eminent Domain to a Single Preferred Developer or the City RDA just was wrong on many levels. There is a lesson to be learned here, if they have eyes to see, ears to hear and a mind to process the information and experience.
This has also resulted in the City RDA buying property and holding it for all this time at a cost to the city in interest payments and loss of property tax revenue.
None of the proposals presented provided sustainability to the community of Grand Terrace. The question is has anyone learned anything in the past 5 years?
