Albertsons Santa Monica Closing 2/6/2013

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CalItalian
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Albertsons Santa Monica Closing 2/6/2013

Post by CalItalian »

Will become Bristol Farms.

3105 Wilshire Blvd. in Santa Monica. Previously was a Lucky location. Had been remodeled a couple of times. Decently busy but not super busy location. When Supervalu purchased Albertsons, they lost their in-store Sav-on pharmacy. CVS (Sav-on) at 12015 Wishire to the west and CVS (Sav-on) on 26th & Santa Monica got the prescriptions. There is a closer CVS now in 1/2 a former Longs Drugs down the street - 3202 Wilshire (the other 1/2 became a BevMo and got the liquor license of the Longs Drugs).

I only caught this because I was reading their ad online and saw that this location plus Long Beach 2nd Street (which I was well aware of) were excluded from the ad. Stopped by today and the place is already mostly wiped out. No dairy, meat, bakery already. They are open 8 to 8 through 2/6.

Eventually this property and the Big 5 next door will be demolised for another development which has been in the talks for at least the last 6 years.

http://www.smdp.com/changes-are-acomin/115823 (scroll down to Wilshire Blvd Redux)
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Re: Albertsons Santa Monica Closing 2/6/2013

Post by klkla »

Interesting development.

The article seems to contradict itself, though.

At the start is says:

"If you live on the Eastside, there are three recent developments you should be aware of. The Albertsons at 3105 Wilshire Blvd. will be closing on Feb. 6, 2013. Bristol Farms market will move into the space."

Then at the end it says:

"Let’s not forget that the Albertsons/Big 5 property at 3105 Wilshire Blvd. will also eventually be redeveloped. It’s almost a given that property owner Macerich will construct a mini-version of their Santa Monica Place, complete with market rate and affordable housing, although no specific plans or development timeline have been announced."

The 2nd Street location in Long Beach is going to become a Gelson's later this year. Evidently the property owner never even attempted to negotiate a new lease with Albertson's and they were caught by surprise when Gelson's announced they were taking over the store.
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Re: Albertsons Santa Monica Closing 2/6/2013

Post by CalItalian »

klkla wrote:Interesting development.

The article seems to contradict itself, though.

At the start is says:

"If you live on the Eastside, there are three recent developments you should be aware of. The Albertsons at 3105 Wilshire Blvd. will be closing on Feb. 6, 2013. Bristol Farms market will move into the space."

Then at the end it says:

"Let’s not forget that the Albertsons/Big 5 property at 3105 Wilshire Blvd. will also eventually be redeveloped. It’s almost a given that property owner Macerich will construct a mini-version of their Santa Monica Place, complete with market rate and affordable housing, although no specific plans or development timeline have been announced."

The 2nd Street location in Long Beach is going to become a Gelson's later this year. Evidently the property owner never even attempted to negotiate a new lease with Albertson's and they were caught by surprise when Gelson's announced they were taking over the store.
It's not really a contradiction. It just takes a really long time to get a development going in Santa Monica. I can point to articles as much as 7 years ago where another owner of this property considered a development.

This property backs up to some pretty pricey homes which are uphill somewhat of Wilshire Blvd. Those homeowners fight like hell these days over redevelopment. Probably still a number of years down the line until this large block long property, which at one time contained some private homes in what is now the parking lot, will be redeveloped.
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Re: Albertsons Santa Monica Closing 2/6/2013

Post by klkla »

It still seems odd to me that Bristol Farms would go through the expense of remodeling the store only to have to close it in a few years so the center can be redeveloped. There is no way a project of that magnitude could be done without closing the store during construction.
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Re: Albertsons Santa Monica Closing 2/6/2013

Post by CalItalian »

I contacted Santa Monica Patch via Facebook and they did a story/photos on the Santa Monica Albertsons closing...and opening of Bristol Farms in the vacated building. http://santamonica.patch.com/articles/b ... nta-monica
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Re: Albertsons Santa Monica Closing 2/6/2013

Post by storewanderer »

I smell trouble for Bristol Farms as The Fresh Market expands in California. TFM runs circles around Bristol. I don't particularly care for either format, but TFM is much better than Bristol: better selection, better quality, better (but still very bad) prices, more efficient checkout, maybe worse service though...

I'm not too impressed with Bristol Farms.
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Re: Albertsons Santa Monica Closing 2/6/2013

Post by klkla »

I wouldn't be too sure about that one. For upscale stores like these it's all about location, location, location. So far Fresh Market has picked up some questionable locations that may not work. It's also unlikely they will be be able to get very many, if any, stores in the same exact neighborhoods served by Bristol Farms and therefore are not likely to have any direct effect on them.
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