By Phil Trubey
November 5, 2022
At the November Board meeting, Association staff gave an update on three commercial properties in the Village.
New Francisco – 6015 Paseo Delicias
This recently acquired 5,000 sq ft ex-real estate office will be converted into a gourmet food/coffee/wine retail space along with restaurant service. It has passed Art Jury preliminary approval and is in the County permitting process which should take about one more year.
Pharmacy – 6056 El Tordo
This project has been in permitting heck for at least three years, but has finally cleared all County permits and now only needs to clear a Fire Department review (oh God…). Supposedly will break ground for really truly this time beginning of 2023. I can’t wait since that abandoned lot has been a Village eye sore for a long time now.
The Gateway – 6089 La Flecha
Or maybe I should say “The Ex-Gateway” project. This was going to be a two story mixed use building with subterranean parking which would have included 5,000 sq ft for some kind of market/grocery. While the project’s developers dangled a grocery in front of the Association to gain approval, the reality of the situation is that it was almost certainly going to end up as all office space with maybe a bit of retail. Certainly the majority of the project was intended to be class A office space.
The developers, Landrock Development, haven’t been able to pencil out the project (even though they started this way back in 2013), and are now looking to sell their ground lease which they acquired from the gas station owner’s estate.
A Real Grocery Store Anyone?
You know, for all the teeth gnashing and general wailing over the years about the closing of Stumps, our longtime grocery next door to this property, the community has been missing in action when it comes to doing something about it.
Well, here’s your chance again. A consortium of local residents and/or a well heeled one could acquire the rights to this property and build a proper grocery store. Even if the Gateway project succeeded in attracting a grocery tenant, it was only going to have 5,000 sq ft for the grocery, with no loading dock for deliveries. Compare that to what Stumps used to have, which was 10,000 sq ft plus a loading dock. This property is big enough (the land is something like 30,000 sq ft) to build a real grocery store.
Heck, who knows, maybe you could attract a fancy schmancy Amazon grocery store as a test bed for one of their many grocery retail projects.
This property is probably the last piece of property in the village large enough to site a real grocery store. Would it make financial sense? Probably not. Would it revitalize the village if it were built? Absolutely. Anyone up to help contribute to a lasting legacy?
