The Ceres Planning Commission has approved plans to split up and repurpose the former Walmart site at Hatch and Mitchell and allow a Dutch Bros and Take Five Oil Change to be built within the center.
At its Tuesday, Feb. 17 meeting, the commission approved a tentative parcel map to split the single Walmart site into seven parcels ranging in size from 16,288 square feet to 438,790 square feet and determine that the vacant 14-acre shopping center jives with the standards of the Mitchell Road Corridor Specific Plan.
The McDonald’s and Professional Auto Stereo & Security at the corner are not part of the project and is its own parcel.
Vintage Properties, LP is the applicant for the site which has been dormant since Walmart left in 2021 to switch out to the Supercenter to the south.
Vallarta Supermarket and Ross Dress for Less stores are planning to occupy most of the empty Walmart building. Vallarta Supermarkets signed a lease for 60,585 square feet of space, and plans to open possibly by the summer.
Developers are planning to split up the three acres of Walmart building for retail use. The building will be diced up as follows:
· 60,478 square foot supermarket, to be occupied by Vallarta Supermarkets;
· 27,094 square foot retail store, to be occupied by Ross Dress for Less;
· 23,258 square foot retail store (tenant unknown);
· 9,147 square foot retail store, likely a Five Below;
· 5,129 square foot auto parts store (tenant unknown).
The former Walmart tire shop will likely remain a tire shop, said Brian Dole of Vintage Properties. He also answered Commissioner Bob Gobble’s question if the new Ross will replace the existing one on Hatch Road by saying it will be an additional Ross.
“They kept referring to it as a double-down, said that they like the Ceres community so much that they wanted two,” said Dole.
The city staff report noted that when the Walmart was first built in the early 1990s, the concept was “based on the outdated model of ‘Big Box plus Ocean of Parking.’” It noted that “with a shift toward online shopping, many big-box retailers have had to downsize, close, or convert their store into multiple tenant options just to sustain viability of the center. Oversized big box stores are becoming economically obsolete. Through the subdivision of this center, pad development will match current retailer needs of smaller format stores that are between 2,600-6,000 square feet and will help keep vacancies low. By making more pads on this site, the shopping center is still allowing a larger retailer to come, but the site becomes more marketable and more business friendly as new retailers are attracted to smaller spaces.”
Founded in 1985, Vallarta Supermarkets Inc. is a Santa Clarita based chain that caters to a Latino customer base by selling items normally not found in more Anglo-oriented American supermarkets.
The 25,000-square-foot space next to the designated Vallarta footprint is intended to be a Ross store. That leaves two more retail spaces of 10,000 square feet; and 23,900 square feet that will be accessible at the southeast corner of the former Walmart.
Ceres resident Nason Sanchez heralded the successes of Vallerta Supermarket as a growing Latino owned business and stated the need for the empty store to be filled. But he asked the commission to consider another grocery store’s impact on existing markets in Ceres.
“If it does get approved, more than likely I will be stopping by showing my support for this privately own business,” said Sanchez. “But my concern is for the … other bigger supermarkets of Save Mart, Cost Less, Food-4-Less, or primarily for that small mom and pop taqueria that I’m sure every one of us has went to at one time.”
In addition the developer is planning to add two new fast-food pads in the parking lot; as well as a new retail building of 7,400 square feet on the east side of the parking lot.
Commissioner R.J. Jammu asked about the existing parking lot can handle the new businesses and was told by Simvoulakis that “it’s an older model of a shopping center to provide a sea of parking, so that shopping center is over-parked.”
Dutch Bros OK’d
Dutch Bros won approval to build a 1,025-square-foot coffee kiosk building right next to the Mitchell Road entrance south of the Professional Auto Stereo and Security store building.
The kiosk will include two drive-thru lanes with stacking for up to 19 vehicles as well as a bypass exit lane.
“You’ll see that it fronts Mitchell,” said Planning Consultant Lea Simvoulakis, “so what’s really nice about this is that big, long, empty expanse that you see as you like enter into the city will now have an active frontage.”
Some demolition of the former Walmart garden center will take place for the project.
The drive-thru will not include speaker boxes so all customer orders are taken in person, either at the window or with a runner who carries a handheld device to transmit orders to the kitchen. This process minimizes noise impacts and reduces the amount of vehicle idling. This is important given the residential neighbors directly across Mitchell Road as well as the residences behind the shopping center.
Commissioner Dorie Perez asked about how landscaping will be handled, noting how it’s been neglected, and was told the property management company will oversee it.
City Engineer Mike Beltran was asked about traffic circulation around Dutch Bros and said the company generally does a good job of keeping cars from backing up into roadways.
“From an engineering perspective we are comfortable with how the driveway is designed and really with the queuing of the Dutch Bros area,” Beltran told Commission Chairman Gary Condit.
“I know how these Dutch Bros can get, trust me,” said Condit. “My wife has me take her all the time so those lines are no joke. Just from the looks of it, it’s a very tight fit but again, I trust Mr. Beltran and his expertise.”
Gobble agreed that the space near the Dutch Bros seems tight and wondered how it would affect access to neighboring parcels. Beltran pointed out that there is the other access point south of the Dutch Bros site.
Beltrans said any traffic issues will have to be ironed out between users and the owner but the city would address any traffic backups onto Mitchell Road.
Condit wondered if a third Dutch Bros in Ceres was too many, commenting, “I feel like, you know, Ceres has a reputation of repeat Starbucks, repeat gas stations, repeat businesses, already a second Ross coming on the same corridor on Hatch. So that’s kind of where my head is at, but again, this entire property has sat vacant for quite a while now. Development is development and filling this property is definitely a good thing.”
Simvoulakis said Dutch Bros is “very interested” in Ceres and knows it’s a viable market for a third store.
“While we would like to see variety, we also appreciate that they’re taking an interest in our community and providing a need that’s clearly there or they wouldn’t be looking at our community,” said Simvoulakis.
Condit agreed and said the new Dutch Bros would be beneficial to those living on the east side of Ceres as well as Hughson residents.
Take Five Oil Change gets thumbs-up
A Conditional Use Permit (CUP) was granted by the commission to build a new 1,400-square-foot Take Five Oil Change building right next to the south side of the Professional Auto Stereo and Security store building.
There will be three queuing lanes of at least 60 feet in length to accommodate a total of nine vehicles and then a bay which will hold one vehicle for a total of 4 parked vehicles.
“They expect about 45 vehicles a day per site, um, and this is based on data gathered from their other stores,” said Simvoulakis.
She commented that the business has proposed renderings of an attractive building with frosted glass inserts in the roll-up doors to the service bay.
