An infusion of new businesses coming to the abandoned Walmart property site at Hatch and Mitchell prompted the Ceres Planning Commission on Monday to review proposed master sign program.
The signage is subject to the Mitchell Road Corridor Specific Plan which is a mechanism set in place in 1989 to standardize development along one of Ceres’ main thoroughfares.
The 14-acre site is to be rebranded as Mitchell Market by Vintage Properties, LP.
Monday offered the commission’s first look at how the facade of the former Walmart building might look with signage of new tenants Five Below, Ross Dress for Less and Vallarta Supermarkets.
According to the city’s Economic Development manager Julian Aguirre, the master sign program is intended to “ensure a cohesive and high quality visual environment while allowing for tenant branding and creativity.”
The Planning Commission recently approved a tentative map to subdivide the single parcel for new development. The commission also approved site plans for two new commercial tenants on two of the newly created parcels along Mitchell Road – that of Dutch Bros and Take Five Oil Change.
The city said the new tenants in the center trigger the need for a Master Sign Program to ensure all tenant signs promote visual consistency and a cohesive environment without clutter for the entire center. The program includes standards for wall, freestanding pylon, monument and window and door signage as well as spell out prohibited signage types and construction and illumination requirements.
The specific limitations noted in the Master Sign Program match current municipal code restrictions.
In February the commission approved a tentative parcel map to split the single Walmart property into seven parcels ranging in size from 16,288 square feet to 438,790 square feet and determine that the vacant 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.
The empty Walmart building is intended to be repurposed into a Vallarta Supermarket and Ross Dress for Less stores and Five Below with 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.
Vallarta Supermarkets signed a lease for 60,585 square feet of space, and plans to open possibly this year.
Ross is expected to take up 27,094 square foot retail space and Five Below 9,147 square feet.
The former Walmart tire shop may remain a tire shop, reported Brian Dole of Vintage Properties in February.
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.
