By Nick Diamantides
Staff Writer
The pace of commercial development has slowed during the last two years in Signal Hill, primarily because of the economic recession. Nevertheless, retail corporations and one banking institution are still investing in new developments in the city.
One of those corporations is British retail giant Tesco, which is slowly moving forward with its plan to open a Fresh & Easy market in Signal Hill. “The Fresh & Easy market has been approved at the (Tesco) regional level,” said Elise McCaleb, Signal Hill’s economic development manager. “Now it is going for approval at the corporate level.”
She added that Tesco is finalizing the lease with Signal Hill Petroleum, which owns the site of the planned market. McCaleb explained that after corporate approval is granted and the lease is signed, Tesco will submit building plans to Signal Hill and apply for construction permits. She noted that, because planning for the market was still in the preliminary stages, there was no timeline for the project. “Tesco is still in an expansion mode, but because of the economy, the company is evaluating its new store plans one by one very closely,” she added. McCaleb acknowledged that it was remotely possible that Tesco could decide not to open a store in Signal Hill, but so far the company seems to be continuing with the existing plan. The site of the proposed market is on Cherry Avenue across the street from the Home Depot store.
Not too far from that location, another sign of a near-future improved retail outlook has emerged. The national retail chain Ross Dress For Less has taken the first step toward opening a new store in the now-vacant Circuit City building, located near the corner of Spring Street and California Avenue. “They have signed a letter of intent with Signal Hill Petroleum,” McCaleb said. “Signal Hill Petroleum should be getting a proposed lease from Ross within the next month, and then the two companies will probably negotiate to come up with the actual terms of the lease.”
She added that Signal Hill Petroleum is also having negotiations with Dollar Tree Inc. about the possibility of one of their stores opening adjacent to the Circuit City building. She explained that plans for a PETCO store on one side of Circuit City are moving along, but Party City had abandoned its plan to open a store on the other side. “They pulled out because they decided it was too close to another party-supply store,” she said.
While Signal Hill officials remain cautiously optimistic about the Fresh & Easy market, Ross store and Dollar Tree store coming to town, there is one development they don’t doubt for a minute: the new U.S. Bank building now under construction near the northwest corner of Cherry Avenue and Willow Street.
“U.S. Bank has an existing facility at 2633 Cherry Avenue,” said Scott Charney, Signal Hill’s planning manager. “They said they wanted to maintain a presence in Signal Hill but needed a new facility, so they got plans approved by the planning commission for a 3,590-square-foot replacement branch on an 18,000-square-foot parcel that was created to the north of the existing bank building.”
The bank now under construction is at 2615 Cherry Avenue, where crews are currently framing it.
Greg Darling, vice president of Bremco (the construction company building the bank), said the project will be completed in mid-October. It will be a single-story building with a parking lot.
Meanwhile, city officials recently decided to do something else they hope will improve the city’s economic outlook. Because sales-tax revenues are the primary source of Signal Hill’s General Fund, the city is always looking for ways to expand its retail base. McCaleb noted that— via the Signal Hill Redevelopment Agency (RDA)— the city began the process of creating a retail marketing strategy designed to attract new stores and restaurants to town.
The strategy is being developed by the Buxton company, a Texas-based consulting firm that was awarded a $70,000 contract with the RDA. “This will help us figure out the trade area for Signal Hill,” McCaleb said. “Buxton will do a drive-time analysis to figure out how far people will drive to come to a store or restaurant in Signal Hill.”
She added that the consulting firm will also undertake retail leakage analysis to determine how much retail is leaving the city for other locations.
She noted that Buxton will also look at consumer shopping habits. “Every time you swipe your credit card or value card, that information is collected,” she said. “Buxton buys the information and will use it to figure out the shopping habits of consumers in Signal Hill and the surrounding areas.”
Using that analysis, the company, according to McCaleb, will give the city “match reports” that will show which retailers would have a high likelihood of success by locating in Signal Hill.
McCaleb said she believed that, once completed, the Buxton report will be a valuable tool in the city’s efforts to expand its retail base. “It will help us be more strategic in our business attraction efforts,” she explained. “We will be able to say, ‘These are our consumers and they buy the kind of products your company offers so your business will be a success here’.” She acknowledged however that she could not predict the economy’s effect on corporate decisions.
