By allowing ads to appear on this site, you support the local businesses who, in turn, support great journalism.
Ceres Gateway Center sprouts new hotel, more businesses
• Flurry of construction happening at center
Woodspring framed
Construction crews frame around the block elevator shaft at what will become the Woodspring Inn & Suites at the Ceres Gateway Center. The hotel will be four stories high and the tallest building in Ceres once its completed. - photo by Jeff Benziger

Commercial construction has been popping all over Ceres lately with building activity at its zenith in the Ceres Gateway Center at Ceres’ southern entrance.

It’s been decades since a new motel was constructed in Ceres – the last being the Microtel Inn – but the appearance of a four-story elevator shaft signals the impending arrival of a Woodspring Inn & Suites hotel next to the block building which will be home to Tractor Supply.

Already open for business at the center at the southwest corner of Mitchell and Service roads are an In-N-Out Burger, Starbucks, Chipotle, Ono Hawaiian BBQ and Quick Quack Car Wash. The sound of saws and hammers in the center also come from the construction sites of a second Popeye’s Chicken, Tractor Supply and a Union 76 station.

The largest of all projects in the shopping center will be a four-story Woodspring Inn & Suites hotel that will run parallel to Highway 99 as Ceres’ tallest building. The hotel almost didn’t happen. Early in 2022, the Ceres City Council appeared to be unwilling to amend Ceres zoning regulations that set a height limit of 35 feet for buildings in the Regional Commercial, or RC zone. Since Woodspring was only looking to build a four-story hotel, the council was convinced their failure to budge, allowing a building of up to 50 feet high, would cause the project to be abandoned. When then Councilman Mike Kline abandoned his objections, the council was able to amend the zoning code to allow the four-story structure.

The foundation for the 50,800 square foot hotel has been poured and the first floor is being framed. When it’s all complete, Woodspring will be offering normal and extended stays in 122 rooms. The hotel will not have a pool or hot tub.

While Woodspring has nearly 300 hotels across the nation, it is not a well-known brand in California where there are just seven – two in Bakersfield, and in Indio, Colton, Corona, Los Angeles and Moreno Valley. The chain was founded as Value Place in 2003 but rebranded to Woodspring in April 2015.

The company website notes that: “Instead of booking on a nightly basis like a traditional hotel, our guests tend to book with us for a week, month, or longer. Since we have less turnover, we pass the savings on to you with weekly and monthly rates that cost less per night the longer you stay!”

Typically extended stay hotels offer kitchens, laundry vending services and gyms.

Woodspring will be the third hotel in Ceres. Mictrotel Inn & Suites and Howard Johnson Inn are located on the freeway frontage road.

A short distance from the Woodspring construction site, architectural enhancements are being applied to the masonry block walls of the new 21,702-square-foot Tractor Supply, garden center, outdoor display and forage shed. A total of 89 parking spaces are proposed along with landscaping.

Tractor Supply sells clothing and apparel, pet supplies, work boots and shoes, and farm and ranch supplies such as Ag fencing and gates, sprayers, tanks and pumps, tractor parts, livestock handling equipment, and ATV and UTV attachments. It does not, however, sell tractors.

The center is not exclusively the only place where building is occurring – or expected to occur.

Just north of the Ceres Gateway Center, on the north side of Orchard Park Center on Mitchell Road, construction is occurring at a slow pace on a 14,010 square-foot L-shaped office building that will include a restaurant. Harry and Karen Bhatti of Ceres won approval for the project in 2015.

No activity has yet started on another Mitchell Road project which was approved in June 2022. Surgit Singh received unanimous approval to develop a commercial shopping center of five buildings on 3.3 acres at the northeast corner of Mitchell Road and Roeding Road.

The L-shaped project will front Mitchell Road north of an existing small retail center and partially wrap around behind it. Immediately on the corner is an older strip mall that contains eight businesses including Liquor King, a floral shop, Indian store and hair stylist.

Singh is also proposing five commercial buildings totaling 32,287 square feet, which include:

• An 8,567-square-foot building (of which 5,567 square feet restaurant use with the remaining 3,000 square feet designed for retail/office uses);

• Two separate retail/office buildings at 8,520 square feet and 9,600 square feet;

• Two fast-food restaurant pads with each building designed at 2,800 square feet in size and each having a drive-thru.

On Hatch Road construction is taking place to convert the 84,000-square-foot Kmart building into a Public Storage self-storage facility while the former parking lot will be filled with new businesses, including Dutch Bros. Coffee which was the first to be completed. Raising Cane’s is completed and opened last week. Other businesses expected are a 5,828-square-foot Quik Stop building and gas island to be constructed closer to the corner of Hatch and Herndon. The Quik Stop will be sized for an additional retail use.

Public Storage also plans to build four additional buildings near the Kmart building, sized at 2,481, 2,481, 5,041 and 22,121 square feet, for a total storage area of 116,624 square feet.

Two other parcels have not been claimed by any specific businesses but are earmarked for a 2,500-square-foot restaurant with drive-thru; as well as a 1,500-square-foot oil change shop.

Farther to the east on Hatch, the former Raley’s store space, which later was filled with a Rancho San Miguel store, is being split and converted to a Big Lots and Grocery Outlet Bargain Market. The building’s 63,000 square feet will be shared by the two stores.

Grocery Outlet, which opens soon, will be celebrated at a 10 a.m. Chamber of Commerce ribbon cutting on Thursday, Sept. 14.

Grocery Outlet was founded in 1946 and sells canned food and fresh meat and produce at discount. Today the chain has over 300 locations, including Modesto, Turlock and Oakdale.

Big Lots has over 1,400 stores in 47 states.

Big Lots, Inc., the nation’s largest closeout retailer, sells everything from consumables, seasonal products and furniture to housewares, toys and gifts. The company operates over 1,300 closeout stores in 45 states. The stores operate under the names Big Lots, Big Lots Furniture, Pic ‘n’ Save and Mac Frugal’s Bargains.

In 2021 the city approved a Vesting Tentative Parcel Map (VTPM) so that businessman Sam Khacho may subdivide 11.9 acres into six separate commercially zoned parcels and a storm drainage basin parcel at the southeast corner of Mitchell and Rhode Road.

The site is located between Mitchell Road and the TID Ceres Main Canal, north and south of Rohde Road, and is approximately 400 feet south of the Mitchell Road/Service Road intersection.

Although the applicant does not yet have specific commercial users, a conceptual site plan has been developed for marketing the sites, and the site plan indicates a mix of uses that can complement each other for a well-planned commercial center.

In March the Ceres City Council approved a controversial mixed-use application to build a 145-unit, high-density apartment complex and a commercial strip mall on a 9.7-acre project site opposite the Ceres Post Office on Mitchell Road.

The same application for Dhillon Villas was nixed by the previous City Council in 2019 out of concerns that additional residents on Mitchell Road would worsen traffic, and a desire to retain the entire site for commercial use.

Tractor Supply under construct
Work is occurring quickly on the new Tractor Supply store in Ceres. - photo by JEFF BENZIGER /Courier photo