Northern California Market Region Special ReportTesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market continues to acquire new store sites in Northern California in advance of its launch into the market region in early 2011.
The latest future Northern California Fresh & Easy store is in the town of Clearlake, which is located about 100 miles northeast of San Francisco in Lake County.
Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market has purchased a vacant parcel of land for a future store at 53 and Dam Road in Clearlake. The lot is immediately adjacent to and east of a Carl's Jr. fast-food restaurant, which is at 15895 Dam Road Extension. The Carl's Jr. opened in 2008. The area where the future Fresh & Easy store is located is pictured on the map here.
Neighboring grocery retailers to the future Fresh & Easy market include a Walmart discount format store and a Ray's Food Place supermarket, which is owned by Brookings, Oregon-based family-owned grocery chain C&K Market, Inc. There's also a McDonald's and Jack In The Box nearby.
The Walmart store offers a selection of packaged and perishable food and grocery products but not fresh foods such as produce or meats. Walmart Stores, Inc. is remodeling many of its Northern California discount format stores into hybrid supercenters, which offer a full supermarket selection. The Clearlake Walmart unit isn't currently set for such a remodel. However a company spokesperson in Northern California tells us that status could change in the not to distant future.
Clearlake has a full-time residential population of about 15,000 but fills up with many more people on the weekends and summer months because its a second home and tourist town. The nearest big city is Santa Rosa (about 150, 000 people), which is 35 miles away in the North Bay Area. The town is about 68 miles from Sacramento in the other direction.
Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market hasn't publicly announced it's plans to build and open the store in Clear Lake. However, Fresh & Easy Buzz has verified through public records and with commercial real estate sources and local government officials that the retailer has bought the lot.
Additionally, Fresh & Easy has been issued an off sale beer and wine license (#473180) from the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) for the Clearlake location, which the California ABC has verified for Fresh & Easy Buzz.
Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is in many cases, particularly in areas in California where commercial real estate prices have dropped significantly over the last couple years, purchasing parcel's like the one in Clearlake rather than having a developer purchase the land, build the store building, and then lease the building from a landlord.
For example, earlier this year we reported on two new Fresh & Easy store sites in California - in Sutter Creek and in Los Banos. Both of these future store locations are vacant lots on which Tesco's Fresh & Easy plans to build stores from-the-ground-up. And Tesco's Fresh & Easy bought both of the commercial lots. [See - August 25, 2010: Going Rural: New Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Store Planned for Sutter Creek in Northern California and May 29, 2010: Going Rural: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market to Build First Store in Los Banos, California.]
Owning locations is common for Tesco in the United Kingdom, where it's based. In fact, Tesco regularly leases back its owned properties in the UK, which have built-up equity over time, using the money for new store development and remodels.
The retailer owns a small percentage of its existing 168 Fresh & Easy store locations, along with a few future sites, in Southern California, Nevada and Arizona. However, we haven't seen it purchasing as aggressively or as frequently in the past (in those markets) as it is in Northern California. Doing so makes sense because Northern California is historically excellent in terms of a place to make commercial real estate investments. Tesco is essentially betting on that fact in buying the properties. It's a good bet. In the long run the value will increase nicely, based on all the historical evidence to date, along with a couple other variables.
Like Sutter Creek and Los Banos, Clearlake is a small city. Its full-time residential population as mentioned earlier is about 15,000. However because it is a second home and resort town, its weekend and summer population grows considerable.
Clear Lake, which the town takes its name from, is the largest lake in California. It has a substantial lakeside community surrounding it. There's also a large house boat community at Clearlake. In addition there a a number of resorts in and around the town, including the Konocti Vista Casino Resort Marina & Rv Park, the Ferndale Resort and Marina and others.
This second-home (mostly residents of the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento region) and resort town status results in many more shoppers for the town's grocery stores than the 15,000 population suggests, although much of those visitors are seasonal, primarily spring and summer.
Tesco plans to open its first batch of Fresh & Easy stores in Northern California in early 2011, likely starting in February, as we've previously reported. [Read this story - September 22, 2010: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Plans to Open Two Additional Stores in Northern California in Early 2011 - along with seeing the links to additional stories on it.]
The retailer continues to search for new store sites in the Northern California region, which stretches from the Northern Central Valley and Sacramento area, into the San Francisco bay Area, south to the coast, and north to the Oregon border. Stay tuned.
Recent Related Stories - Fresh & Easy Northern California
September 22, 2010: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Planning A New, Third Store in San Jose, California
September 22, 2010: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Plans to Open Two Additional Stores in Northern California in Early 2011.
September 14, 2010: Eight Plus One: Napa Unit Added to Eight Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores Opening in Northern CA in Early 2011
August 25, 2010: Going Rural: New Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Store Planned for Sutter Creek in Northern California and May 29, 2010: Going Rural: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market to Build First Store in Los Banos, California
August 21, 2010: April 2010 Prediction Correct: February 2011 Target to Open First Eight Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores in Northern California
August 19, 2010: Tesco Will Open its First Eight Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores in Northern California in 'Early 2011.'
July 29, 2010: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Putting Together List of Managers Interested in Transferring to Northern California
July 21, 2010: Vacant Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Store in Pacifica, California Has the City's Mayor in a Pickle
June 26, 2010: Tesco Planning to Announce in July When First Northern California Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores to Open
May 28, 2010: First Phase of Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market-Anchored Condo Development in San Francisco's Bayview Set For Completion in June
April 19, 2010: Tesco Debating Whether to Launch Fresh & Easy Into Northern California This Fiscal Year... or Wait
Linkage: 2010 'Northern California Market Region Special Report' series
September 26, 2010: While Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Postponed, Target Opened 42 'P-Fresh' Fresh Food and Grocery Markets in Northern California
September 22, 2010: Sunflower Makes Three: Sunflower Farmers Market's First Northern California Store Will Be in Roseville
September 22, 2010: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Planning A New, Third Store in San Jose, California
September 22, 2010: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Plans to Open Two Additional Stores in Northern California in Early 2011
September 21, 2010: A Look Inside Whole Foods Market's Newest Store, A Mall Location in Santa Rosa, California
September 20, 2010: About Today's Walmart Stores, Inc. Smaller Stores Media Frenzy: We Scooped it On July 6, 2010
September 19, 2010: Whole Foods Market Gives Itself A 30th Birthday Present: 299th Store Opens This Week in Santa Rosa, California
September 18, 2010: Keep On Truckin' - Whole Foods Market Celebrates 30 Years This Weekend
September 14, 2010: Eight Plus One: Napa Unit Added to Eight Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores Opening in Northern CA in Early 2011
September 5, 2010: BevMo Chain Ends Full Time Employment For Store Workers; They Say No Way and Join With UFCW Union to Demand 'A Better BevMo'
September 3, 2010: How the California Grocers Association and its Members Can Snatch Victory From the Jaws of the Defeat of California's Plastic Bag Ban
August 25, 2010: Going Rural: New Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Store Planned for Sutter Creek in Northern California
August 23, 2010: Hybrid 'Good Eats' Market-Cafe From Raley's CEO Michael Teel & Company Opens Today in Sacramento CA
August 22, 2010: The Insider: Challenges & Opportunities: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Will Supply its Northern CA Stores From its Riverside County DC in Southern CA
August 21, 2010: April 2010 Prediction Correct: February 2011 Target to Open First Eight Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores in Northern California
August 19, 2010: Tesco Will Open its First Eight Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores in Northern California in 'Early 2011.'
August 17, 2010: Henry's Farmers Market 'Beats' Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market to Northern California Despite Multi-Year Head Start; Elk Grove Store Opens Tomorrow
July 29, 2010: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Putting Together List of Managers Interested in Transferring to Northern California
July 25, 2010: Safeway to Start Construction on New Pleasanton, California Flagship Store Soon; Thanksgiving 2011 Target Opening
July 22, 2010: 'The Insider' - After Four Years in the High Weeds in Northern & Central California, Kroger Co. is Emerging to Grow its Foods Co Chain
July 21, 2010: Vacant Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Store in Pacifica, California Has the City's Mayor in a Pickle
July 18, 2010: 'The Insider' - When it Comes to Northern California - its Competitors are Rome Burning and Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is Nero Playing the Fiddle
July 14, 2010: Tony Bennett Has Nothing on Whole Foods Market When it Comes to Loving San Francisco...That City By the Bay
July 6, 2010: Walmart Looking for Store Sites in Northern California For 20,000 Sq-Ft Neighborhood Market by Walmart Prototype Store
June 28, 2010: Smart & Final to Open its New Format SmartCo Foods Stores in California and Arizona
June 26, 2010: Tesco Planning to Announce in July When First Northern California Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores to Open
June 14, 2010: Newly-Named Whole Foods Market CO-CEO Walter Robb Comes Full Circle With the Opening of the New Store in Mill Valley CA
June 5, 2010: Sprouts Farmers Market Opens First Northern California Store in Sunnyvale; Strikes Up Partnership With Local Non-Profit Farm
May 29, 2010: Going Rural: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market to Build First Store in Los Banos, California
May 28, 2010: First Phase of Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market-Anchored Condo Development in San Francisco's Bayview Set For Completion in June
April 19, 2010: Tesco Debating Whether to Launch Fresh & Easy Into Northern California This Fiscal Year... or Wait
May 9, 2010: A Whopping 15 of Whole Foods Market's 41 New Stores in Development are in California - And Nine of The 15 Are In Northern CA
May 8, 2010: Sprouts, and Likely Henry's to Beat Fresh & Easy to Northern California Despite it's Big Head Start
May 6, 2010: Going Smaller & Getting 'Hybrid': Walmart's Smaller Supercenter in Vacant Retail Buildings Strategy Began in 2008
April 19, 2010: Tesco Debating Whether to Launch Fresh & Easy Into Northern California This Fiscal Year... or Wait
[Also: click here , here and here for a selection of past stories on Fresh & Easy and Northern Calfornia.]
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