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After two years of planning, the Concord City Council on Monday night approved a 14,500-square-foot store with a drive-through pharmacy. The building will be at the long-vacant southwest corner of Oak Grove Road and Monument Boulevard -- one of the busiest intersections in town, known as the "Four Corners." Most recently, that 1.6-acre parcel was the site of a Shell gas station, a liquor store and a Chinese restaurant, but all closed and eventually had to be razed.
"I think this store will be a catalyst for the area in terms of redevelopment," said Mayor Bill Shinn.
The new Rite Aid store, in its prominent location, will replace a significantly smaller Rite Aid across Monument Boulevard in the Food Maxx shopping center. The store will close when the new one opens.
The city would normally require 73 parking spaces for a store the new Rite Aid's size. But there will be 61 at this store because many people living in the Monument Corridor area walk or ride bikes.
"There are a lot of people in the Monument Corridor area who live close to that corner and the store will probably see tremendous pedestrian use," Councilman Guy Bjerke said.
Officials voted in September 2006 to include 123 acres along Monument Boulevard between Victory Lane and Walters
Way in the city's redevelopment zone, meaning more tax dollars for projects there, helping the city to work with entrepreneurs to fix dilapidated storefronts. Eminent domain in Concord can be employed for the acquisition of abandoned commercial buildings, but city officials vow not to acquire land occupied by homes.
The city also is offering financial incentives such as low-interest loans and investment discounts, and has already begun fixing bad streets and installing better lighting and landscaping. Property values are expected to go up, increasing property taxes and thus the redevelopment pot.
It will take years, even decades, for redevelopment to transform this corridor. But this Rite Aid, city leaders say, is one of the first steps.
Because of the abundance of pedestrians, there will be 10-foot sidewalks along both streets, as well as a 10-foot-wide landscaped area between sidewalks and the parking lot and a 3-foot decorative metal fence. The drive-through is planned to operate from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily, and the store's hours are planned to be 9 a.m. to 11 p.m.
The Monument area is home to more than 20,000 residents, 63 percent of whom live below the poverty line, according to the city.
Reach Tanya Rose at 925-943-8345 or trose@bayareanewsgroup.com.
To see more of the Contra Costa Times, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.contracostatimes.com/. Copyright (c) 2008, Contra Costa Times, Walnut Creek, Calif. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
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