Having easy access to groceries is a key selling point to getting more residents and residential developments Downtown. By the end of 2012, The San Pedro Square Market will also become a viable grocer since it will have a butcher shop, cheese shop, and potentially a bakery in addition to Veggie Box (which is stellar by the way) and two farmer's markets a week. Then in 2014 the long wait for Whole Foods will finally come to an end.
With four anchor grocers Downtown (five if you include Trader Joe's in the San Jose Market Center), we'll be in great shape for residential expansion.
Source: SJBJ
Next to City Hall. How sad. Never ceases to amaze me how low this city sets the bar.
ReplyDeleteIt's nice to have a variety of options!
ReplyDeleteI don't necessarily agree with Michaels tone, but I must ask: why didn't the city propose a mixed-use development on that site, ie residential/commercial mid-rise WITH ground floor retail (grocer). Something akin to The 88? It just seems rather odd in the current state: a suburban style grocery shop right next to the city hall of the nations 10th largest city. Can I be a San Jose city planner Josh!?
ReplyDeleteThe city can not choose who leases what space, they can only advise on future developments, and entice land owners to do good.
ReplyDeleteUntil land owners take a personal interest in appropriately lifting the quality of our downtown neighborhoods.. they will just lease to anyone willing to pay their price... be it Ross or Grocery Outlet... if they were choosing they would have Zanotto's back in downtown, but Zanotto's could not survive.
i think this is great that you making the basics more accessible.
ReplyDeleteGrocery Outlet is rather disappointing after the rumours that Fresh and Easy was going to go in the spot.
ReplyDeleteIt never ceases to amaze me how some people immediately find the negative in ANYTHING! This is what I wrote to my near downtown neighborhood groups the minute I saw this: This is good! Grocery Outlet is fun but not worth driving out to Meridian and Foxworthy. I do volunteer work at the King Library so nearby. The store will make a nice change from The Market and it's on the 23 bus line in case my wheels are at home and my feet tired. It should be attractive to students and downtown core residents, too.
ReplyDeleteThe 10-year lease sounds good, too. Does anyone know if Suvianda had one? They seemed to just pull up stakes and split.
Frank
San Carlos & Bird
Very disappointing news. Just what downtown San Jose needs. A low quality bargain grocery store. Maybe we'll even get our own dollar store soon! Downtown will continue to go downhill if the city doesn't change attitude towards business. The red tape and costs any small business has to go through is atrocious. One of the many reasons downtown and the city continue to struggle.
ReplyDeleteI get why the negativity annoys people, but it's justified, imo. It sucks we have to get excited about a b-grade grocery store moving into a strip mall in the middle of downtown. What would be exciting is hearing that the block was being raised for 300' mixed use tower with a ground floor grocery store and other retail and commercial space. For now, we can only dream...
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with the other posts here. This is very disappointing. This really should be a mixed used development, bring in residents with a market on the ground floor. IT just seems that San Jose is stuck, and can't seem to really get anything moving. The best thing to happen in downtown was San Pedro Market, but we need more housing and retail to make this a viable downtown and bringing in a low grade supermarket is not going to do it.
ReplyDeleteWhile I would have also rather have a higher-end development, I'm happy to see one additional grocer downtown.
ReplyDeleteMi Pueblo was never in that spot, it was Su Vianda.
ReplyDeleteThanks! Fixed.
Delete