Monday, January 14, 2002 - 2:47:01 AM MST
Council to view shopping center plans
Ralphs would anchor Centerville project
By Conan Knoll
STAFF WRITER
FREMONT -- The City Council will get a chance Tuesday to examine plans
showing what an upscale market anchored by a Ralphs market in downtown
Centerville might look like.
The council -- acting as the Redevelopment Agency -- will look at
early plans detailing a redevelopment proposal for a 6-acre
Centerville site that includes the Center Square Shopping Center.
The plans for the new center -- dubbed the Centerville Station
Shopping Center -- show six new buildings, the largest of which is a
52,000-square-foot Ralphs supermarket. Three of the six buildings face
Fremont Boulevard.
The plans show 342 parking spots in front of the Ralphs and a total of
376 parking spots in the area. The 6-acre site lies between Fremont
Boulevard and Post Street, and Thornton Avenue and Bonde Way and is
adjacent to the Pioneer Cemetery.
The developer is proposing a brick exterior for most of the buildings.
The dome of the Ralphs would be capped by 12-foot-high brushed-metal
letters spelling out "Centerville."
"It's interesting. It's something different that we haven't got and it
sure identifies the neighborhood," Mayor Gus Morrison said.
The city wants to upgrade the entire Centerville Redevelopment area
that is not enhancing the neighborhood or returning the type of tax
revenue it could, Morrison said.
"We're doing away with the old and bringing in the new," he said.
The Redevelopment Agency project is part of the city's efforts to
spruce up the commercial districts of Centerville, Irvington and
Niles.
The Redevelopment Agency is negotiating a development agreement --
including the amount of money the agency will contribute to the
project -- with Regency Realty Corp. and Foot Hill Partners to
transform the site into a vital shopping center.
The Redevelopment Agency also is in negotiations to move the popular
Scenario Game and Hobby Shoppe -- which would be knocked down to make
way for the new center -- into a new 9,000-square-foot building on the
rebuilt site, Redevelopment Agency Director Craig Whittom said.
In June, more than 100 of the hobby shop's customers packed into the
council chambers protesting the agency's move to buy the building.
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Conan Knoll covers the city of Fremont for The Argus. He can be
reached at (510) 353-7026 or cknoll@angnewpapers.com.
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