At 16,576 square feet, prospective grocers might find the former Tops Market store to be too small. Photo by Jon Lewis.
No one knows what business will occupy the former Tops Market on Eureka Way, but one group of neighbors knows what they don’t want to see moving in: a dollar store.
“That sounds like a horrible plan for this neighborhood. The homeless are going to camp all around here because they can get Salisbury steak for a dollar … it will hurt the other stores in that shopping center,” says a member of the Placer Hills section of Nextdoor.com, an online community bulletin board.
Dozens of Nextdoor commenters, and A News Café readers, have expressed a desire for a health food store or boutique grocer like Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s to replace Tops, which closed in late January after the business was purchased by Holiday Market.
Chris Haedrich, the realtor with Haedrich & Co. who is marketing the Tops building, agrees with the Sunset Plaza shopping center’s neighbors. “I would love the latest and greatest most organic store that there is,” Haedrich said. “That would be everybody’s wish.”
There’s just one catch: At 16,576 square feet, the Tops building isn’t large enough to interest most prospective grocers. “It’s on the small side for most grocery stores to be efficient and create profits to succeed,” said Haedrich, whose commercial real estate practice specializes in shopping centers.
Ours is a convenience-oriented society, Haedrich said, and consumers tend to frequent stores that offer one-stop shopping for produce, meat, baked goods, dairy and all the rest. “We tend to stop where we can get everything we need.”
Typically, such a store is 30,000 square feet or larger. “At 16,576 square feet, it’s hard to convince somebody to go in there. It’s hard to get the big volume they need. Maybe that’s why there have been different operators there in the past,” Haedrich said. “We love nostalgic, historical locations (like Gene’s Hamburgers) but when it comes to stopping there to eat, we vote with our dollars.”
Sunset Market was built in 1989 and became the anchor for the Sunset Plaza shopping center. The Ryan family purchased the store in 2009 and changed the name to Tops, the same name as their 39,000-square-foot flagship market in Weaverville, which Holiday also purchased earlier this year.
Haedrich is not backing down from the challenge of finding a new user for the Redding store.
“I’m going after every potential tenant. I’ve contacted almost every market I can think of that operates on the West Coast, and even some on the East Coast. Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, Nugget markets, Nugget, Mollie Stones … and grocers out of Portland, Reno and Medford.”
Haedrich is confident a good match is out there and said Holiday Market, which now holds the lease for the building, and the property manager for the shopping center both want a tenant that will benefit the neighborhood and the Sunset Plaza shopping center businesses.
In response to an email seeking an update on plans for the former Tops store, Holiday Market CEO Richie Morgan wrote, “We are working diligently to find a tenant for the space but do not have anything we can comment on yet.”
The return of downtown streets
Work has begun in earnest on an ambitious plan to reintroduce vehicle traffic on Market, Butte and Yuba streets through portions of the former downtown mall.
An open house was held Monday in the City Hall Community Room to discuss the proposed changes. Here’s what’s in store for motorists:
Market Street will be extended south from Tehama to Yuba; Yuba will open to two-way traffic between Pine and California streets; and Butte will have room for two-way traffic from Pine to Market, and then be reduced to one-way traffic west to California Street.
Bicyclists can look forward to a fully protected two-way cycle track along California Street from Division to Yuba streets; and a connection at the California/Division intersection to the Diestelhorst-to-Downtown project that will link cyclists and pedestrians with the Sacramento River Trail.
Look for more on this project in future columns.
Mayor’s Mountain Bike Challenge
The second annual Mayor’s Mountain Bike Challenge is underway and the return of sunny weather is sure to help. The Challenge offers riders of all abilities a chance to complete a series of rides (five each at the beginning and advanced levels and six at the intermediate level) that are listed on downloadable passports.
Riders who complete all rides in at least one category will receive a Mayor’s Mountain Bike Challenge hat. The first 20 riders who knock out all of the rides on their passports will receive a free pizza at Maxwell’s Eatery Downtown.
Riders who complete all the rides in their respective category and return their passports by noon on June 1 will be entered into the Challenge Raffle and will have a chance to win gift certificates redeemable at a bike shop of their choice. The prizes are worth $500 for the beginners, $750 for the intermediate and $1,000 for the advanced.
For more, visit mayorsmtbchallenge.org.
