Negotiations afoot for a Target at Shops at River Walk
| Wednesday, Apr 02 2008 07:10 PM
Last Updated Friday, Mar 27 2009 12:58 PM
How to Go
The commission meets at 5:30 p.m. Thursday night at 1501 Truxtun Ave.
You can watch the meeting live on KGOV, the local government television station that also broadcasts meetings over the Internet.
The agenda is available at www.bakersfieldcity.us under the Development Services Department link.
Images
A steel worker welds on a two-story office building that will house the offices of Castle & Cooke. It is directly behind BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse and P.F. Chang's China Bistro, and is in front of the lake in front of the Bright House Amphitheater on Stockdale Highway.
Negotiations are under way to bring a Target to the Shops at River Walk on Stockdale Highway.
The Minnesota-based retailer would help anchor the center, said Darlene Mohlke, Castle & Cooke’s vice president for sales and marketing. Clustering retailers together plays a big part in wooing future tenants.
“They’re not going to go to a site where they don’t have a draw. They feed off each other,” Mohlke said, adding interested retailers are watching to see “if we get this anchor tenant.”
But adding a Target to what’s been consistently billed as a high-end shopping center is a change.
Way back in August 2001, citizens told the City Council they wanted upscale and unique retail tenants, those not already doing business in Bakersfield, to come to Castle & Cooke’s shopping center, according to a city Planning Department report. Citizens did not want a big-box retailer, and the council decided to cap gross leasable space at 100,000 square feet for any individual retail tenant at the shopping center.
Thursday night, the Bakersfield Planning Commission will consider Castle & Cooke’s request to increase the Target building’s footprint to 140,000 square feet. This involves tweaking the original conditions of approval.
Castle & Cooke is not increasing the overall size of the Shops at River Walk, Mohlke said.
Richard Chapman, president of the Kern Economic Development Corp., said the additional 40,000 square feet could yield between $4 million to $5 million for the local economy, plus about $1 million in sales taxes.
Allowing a big-box retailer at the Shops at River Walk is a shift from the 2001 council decision.
“Upscale” means different things to different people, Mohlke said. Design, theme and the retailer mix are all part of creating an upscale experience.
Castle & Cooke submitted a petition with 27 signatures and letters in favor of the square footage change.
The petition is from unnamed employee of P.F. Chang’s China Bistro; its author wrote: “... I know that the neighborhood and commercial developments that Castle & Cooke have brought to our community have been exceptional. They take the time to listen to the needs of the community and work that in with the vision they have as a company to build what best suits people locally. I have absolutely no problem with a Target store in the Shops at River Walk.”
Some 62 letters in favor of a Target were submitted. Some are form letters, others aren’t. The letters praise Target’s convenience and state the retailer “will help bring other badly needed shops to the center.”
But the possibility of another Target coming to town is a bit of a letdown for Ward Wollesen. He thought Castle & Cooke was “going to do higher-end stores in that shopping center,” he said.
Mohlke said the River Walk Target should be a very nice store.
Castle & Cooke is also asking for a traffic signal on Stockdale to enter the shopping area.
Primary access to the shops will be via two signalized intersections on Stockdale and a traffic light at Stockdale and Buena Vista Road.
The proposed light would be 1,200 feet west of Old River Road, but city staff believe it’s not needed.
Adding a fourth intersection to this area is “not conducive to the intent of Stockdale Highway as an arterial roadway,” according to the staff report. Arterials are main roads meant to move traffic quickly; nearby Gosford Road is one.
Castle & Cooke is moving its corporate headquarters to the River Walk area, Mohlke said. The move may happen in early 2009.
Other matters before the commission
• A zone change request from the Central California Conference of the Seventh-day Adventists. The church owns nearly 21 acres south of Bernard Street between New Market Way and Oswell Street. About a 10-acre chunk to the east features an abandoned school site. The church wants to place multi-family dwellings on that land. Nearby resident Anthony Drath raised concerns that asbestos could be present in the former school building. The building will be thoroughly inspected for asbestos before any demolition occurs, according to the staff report. If asbestos is found, it will be removed and safely contained.
• A map from Niles Street Luxury Townhouses LLC with 16 residential lots on nearly 5 acres at the north side of Niles Street, about a half-mile west of Morning Drive. The development could have 64 apartments, according to a city report.
• A parcel map submitted by the Steve Boneso Family Trust to put multi-family homes and commercial development on land between Paladino Drive and the future Morning Drive, east and west of the future Riviani Drive.
• A map submitted by Gregory D. Bynum and Associates for 14 buildable parcels for commercial office and industrial development at the southwest corner of Ashe Road and the Southern Pacific Railroad Asphalto Branch, about a quarter-mile south of District Boulevard.
• A zone change and general plan amendment for land that’s now designated for intensive agriculture at the southwest corner of Gosford and McCutchen roads. Brent Dezember, president of Structure Cast, a company that makes precast concrete products, is requesting a land use change from intensive agriculture to service industrial, and a corresponding zone change from farming to general manufacturing. The company would like its nearly 20-acre site to be annexed into Bakersfield.
• Various zone change requests within McAllister Ranch to consolidate drilling island zones.
