Walmart Coming? Supermarket Agent Says No Tenant Yet

Patch asked the real estate agent for the vacant Albertsons/Lucky store on the El Cerrito-Richmond border about rumors that Walmart might be moving into the building, and the agent replied that no deal with a tenant has been struck.

Henry Inglehardt of Colliers International, a commercial real estate firm, said by email Friday that he has "solicited the interest of many retailers" for the 32,821-square-foot structure at San Pablo and MacDonald avenues but that the owner is not able to negotiate a deal with a tenant until after a pending use permit has been granted and its conditions determined.

It was that an application for a use permit to reopen the long boarded-up building is pending before the Richmond Planning Commission and that fliers had been distributed opposing Walmart at the site. The land on which the building sits straddles the El Cerrito-Richmond border, but Richmond is handling the application because the building is in Richmond.

The application, filed by Amy Dy of TAIT and Associates, seeks to renovate the building into a supermarket that would concentrate primarily on groceries and include a pharmacy and a beer and wine section. It makes no mention of who might operate the supermarket.

The proposal to refurbish the building and re-establish a supermarket there has so far won support from planners in El Cerrito and Richmond, in large part because it's located in a high profile area that is suffering from economic distress. A closed Safeway sits across the street.

It's the intersection of two major traffic arteries at an entry point to both cities and is next to El Cerrito's Baxter Creek Gateway Park and the planned link between the Richmond Greenway and El Cerrito's Ohlone Greenway. 

"Renovating this building will be an overdue improvement for the community," said Inglehardt. He described the structure as "dilapidated, ... looted and in disrepair."

According to the City of Richmond staff report on the application presented to the city's Design Review Board, the property has been vacant about eight years and "has experienced vandalism and several Code Enforcement violations." (The report is attached to this article.)

On the timeline for determining a tenant, Inglehardt said a cost analysis would need to be completed if the application for a use permit wins approval. He said he believes that a tenant deal could be consummated in 45 to 60 days afterward.

"The retailer will be identified then," he said.

A Patch request on Thursday to Walmart for comment has not been answered.