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Long-awaited Albertson’s project sold
By Christy Scott
The Alpine Sun
ALPINE — The long awaited, and deeply scrutinized Albertson’s project for Alpine, has hit another speed bump, as the grocery store chain is being bought out. Supervalu Inc., CVS Corp. and a group of investment firms agreed to buy the Albertson's chain for about $9.8 billion and plans to split the company into three parts, according
to Albertson's
Investor Information.
Supervalu, owner of the Save-A-Lot and Shop 'n Save discount chains, will become the second largest U.S. grocer with the addition of more than 1,100 stores. CVS will acquire all of Albertson's drug stores, gaining 350 in Southern California. The Cerberus group will get 655 stores, mostly in Florida and the U.S. West.
According to Larry Tucker, who has served as a partner in the development venture since it’s inception in 1998, it’s not yet known which store will be coming to Alpine in Albertson’s place. However, he says that this change in ownership should not have any effect on the Alpine project, which has already been approved by the county.
“This is a zoned and general planned property that only needed site plan approval,” Tucker said. “Who the users are is not part of that approval process...if an owner complies with the law on the books, he can do what he wants with his own property.”
This has raised some concerns among residents, who want to make sure that Alpine is getting what it agreed to.
“I think it would be inappropriate to build one thing, when the town of Alpine was promised something else,” said Terri Hansen at the Jan. 26 APG meeting. Hansen serves as the President of Sun River Homeowners Association, located between Alpine Boulevard, South Grade Road and Highlands View, right adjacent to the project site.
“The residents of Alpine agreed to an Albertson’s, as well as the APG. I don’t believe, if the facts were made public, that the citizens of Alpine would want a discount grocery chain coming to town. I know our little community does not.”
According to Tucker, the county and the permit process of the project is almost finished, and now planners will go into the specifics of the store design. Plans for the development have not changed substantially since it was originally proposed in 1998.
Albertson's closed escrow on the property in September 2004 and Tucker shortly announced that groundbreaking for the project would commence in spring of 2006
(The Alpine Sun, Nov. 10, 2005).
The plans call for the store itself to have 52,000 square feet, reduced from 58,000 originally requested. There would also be 9,000 square feet for other, smaller shops to be built immediately, and another 5,000 square feet for later development. Finally, 5,000 square feet would be reserved, intended for either a fast food store with a drive-in lane or a bank, also with a lane. This would be located on the corner of South Grade and Highland View.
According to Tucker, the change in ownership will not affect the project. This means that unless the new design of the project changes drastically from the original plans, the new owners would not need to go through the county process again.
The completed project may or may not be a grocery store. Tucker said no one is sure yet:
“Albertson's or its successor will do what it thinks is the best for the site,” Tucker said. “But no one can tell the property owner what to do with its property or who can occupy the site, as long as the owner complies with the zoning code.”
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Christy Scott
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