Monday, November 1, 2010

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Planning to Build its First Store in Northern California City of Brentwood


Northern California Market Region Special Report

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market recently applied to the California Alcohol and Beverage Control Department (ABC) for an off sale general liquor license for a new store at Balfour Road & Fairview Avenue in Brentwood California, which is in the East San Francisco Bay Area region in Northern California. The development most-likely means the retailer plans to begin construction on the store in 2011. Fresh & Easy hasn't publicly announced or confirmed it plans to build a store in Brentwood. [See Northern California Fresh & Easy Store List.]

Fresh & Easy's application for the license (# 472346) is currently pending, meaning the ABC has yet to approve and issue it to the grocery chain, according to an official with the state agency.

The future Fresh & Easy store, which will be the grocer's first unit in Brentwood, is at the northeast corner of Balfour Road & Fairview Avenue, on a 63,000 square-foot parcel Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market purchased for $1.65 million in December 2009, according to
information we obtained from public records. The parcel is across the street from the Balfour Village shopping center, which is anchored by a Safeway supermarket.

Tesco's Fresh & Easy plans to use about 14,000-15,000 square-feet of the 63,000 square-feet it owns at the location for its store. The remaining space will likely be developed and eventually leased out for retail use.

As we noted most recently in this story - October 26, 2010: Going Semi-Rural: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Buys Property For New Store in Northern California Town of Clear Lake - Tesco has been buying many of the parcels on which it plans to build future Fresh & Easy stores in Northern California.

The nine-county San Francisco Bay Area historically has among the highest commercial real estate appreciation percentage rates in the U.S. Prices have dipped somewhat in the region during the recession and Tesco is taking advantage of that from an investment perspective, buying rather than leasing many of its future store properties, and looking for significant appreciation down the road.

Brentwood, which is in Contra Costa County, has been one of the fastest-growing communities in the Northern California over the last decade. It's population has doubled since 2000, from about 25,000 residents to its current population of about 50,000.

The population growth has slowed over the last three-four years during the recession. Until about early 2008 Brentwood had one of the biggest new housing booms in the Bay Area, which was tied to the doubling of its population. For example, in 2000 the medium cost of a house in Brentwood was $249,000. At the end of 2007 that median price had more than doubled, to $538, 225.

But the housing bust over the last three years has hit Brentwood hard in terms of deflating that median price. The city has and continues to experience a high rate of housing foreclosures, which have put numerous residential units on the market. According to data from the City of Brentwood, the median cost of a house in Brentwood as of August, 2010 is $279,500, nearly back down to the year 2000 median of $249,000.

Fresh & Easy plans to open two stores in Contra Costa County, one in Concord and the other in Walnut Creek, in early 2011. [See - August 21, 2010: April 2010 Prediction Correct: February 2011 Target to Open First Eight Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores in Northern California and August 19, 2010: Tesco Will Open its First Eight Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores in Northern California in 'Early 2011.']

For a current list of planned Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market locations in Northern California go here Northern California Fresh & Easy Store List.

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Linkage: Fresh & Easy Buzz 2010 'Northern California Market Region Special Report' series






































[Also: click here , here and here for a selection of past stories on Fresh & Easy and Northern Calfornia.]
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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Any idea on opening date for the Brentwood store in Northern California?

January 2, 2012 at 10:32 PM
Fresh & Easy Buzz said...

Anon January 2, 2012 10:32 PM:

Fresh & Easy plans to open the store in Brentwood early this year. See: http://freshneasybuzz.blogspot.com/2011/11/fresh-easy-neighborhood-market-to-open.html

We anticipate no later than March 2012.

Have you seen the construction progressing?

January 3, 2012 at 6:01 PM
Anonymous said...

Thanks and yes, the exterior seems to be complete and inside some shelves have product (dry goods) so I am hoping it will be sooner than March!

January 3, 2012 at 10:21 PM
Fresh & Easy Buzz said...

The Brentwood Fresh & Easy store is set to open next week, on Jan. 11

-Editor

January 5, 2012 at 10:56 PM

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