Hercules Needs a Safeway

By Christine "Chris" Kelley

Safeway's Final Plan for Hercules will come before the Planning Commission on Monday, October 6, 2014. Below is an argument in favor of Safeway, written by Chris Kelley in June 2013.

For the long term, Hercules needs to bring in more revenue and one way to do so is by increasing the commercial base for sales tax and utility tax in the city. Despite the public's clamor for retail and the city's outreach efforts for more than ten years, no commercial developer has come forth with an actual plan to build in our city. Until now. Today, there is just one committed developer who has both the interest and the ability to build retail in Hercules and that is Safeway (aka Property Development Centers).

In early 2012, Safeway signed a purchase and sales agreement (PSA) with Hercules to acquire Sycamore Crossing, that undeveloped boat-shaped parcel bounded by Sycamore, San Pablo and Tsushima. Safeway thinks this is the best retail site in Hercules. Safeway does not want to build on Parcel C. Safeway does not want to build on the Market Hall site.

Safeway's initial plan was to construct a traditional style grocery store with a huge surface parking lot at the back of the Sycamore Crossing property. The Safeway grocery would be the anchor store, and there would be spaces for other stores and restaurants at the front of the site. Safeway talked of building a gas station, as well. However, a deed restriction on the rear part of the property could not be removed to allow a grocery store to be built there.

The city and the developer then discovered that a grocery could be built on the un-restricted front portion of the property. Rather than walk away from the deal, Safeway has said that it now proposes to build an urban-style Safeway grocery on the un-restricted three acre portion at the tip of Sycamore Crossing, at Sycamore and San Pablo. The grocery store would most probably have some roof-top parking, though it could be podium style, with parking underneath.

Because an urban-style grocery with parking above or below will cost more to construct, Safeway and the city now need to extend the time period to negotiate the terms and sale price of the land. The city council should vote now to extend this time period, or Hercules might blow the deal altogether. As negotiators, the city manager, who was hired for his real estate experience, along with the city attorney, can succeed in closing this deal with Property Development Centers, but they need a couple more months to make this happen.

Citizens in Hercules should know that whatever price Sycamore Crossing sells for, the money received for the sale of the land will not go to the city. The money will go to paying off former Hercules Redevelopment Agency debt. The way that the City of Hercules will benefit by this sale is by having a new, modern Safeway as an anchor store, plus other retail and maybe a gas station, built on this centrally located property, thereby increasing the tax revenues for the city. Even more important for our daily lives, this will give our city residents a good supermarket to shop at. And if Safeway's development gets built on Sycamore Crossing, that will also be a very important signal to other commercial developers that Hercules is actually a place where they can come and do business.

(A version of this article originally appeared on the Pinole-Hercules Patch on June 25, 2013.)