[Companion Story: May 10, 2011: Breaking Buzz: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Plans to Open First San Francisco Store at 32nd and Clement June 22.]
Tesco's Fresh & Easy in Northern California - 2011
Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market plans to open its "long awaited" "flagship" Northern California store in the 5800 Third Street condominium complex at 3rd Street and Carroll Avenue in San Francisco's Bayview District on August 24, Fresh & Easy Buzz has learned.
We refer to the 3rd Street and Carroll Avenue store, which is located in a neighborhood underserved by grocery stores offering fresh food and groceries at affordable prices (food desert) as "long-awaited" and as Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's "flagship" store in Northern California because it was at the then undeveloped site of the 5800 Third Street mixed-use residential-commercial development that Fresh & Easy's CEO, Tim Mason, and other executives, along with various local elected officials and neighborhood activists, announced in early 2008 the then start-up grocery chain would soon begin opening stores in Northern California.
Tesco-owned Fresh & Easy originally planned to open its first stores in Northern California in early-to-mid 2009. But it missed that deadline and postponed its Northern California launch twice, finally opening its first two stores - in San Jose and Danville - on March 2011. [See - March 2, 2011: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Opens First Two Stores in Northern California Today.]
The grocery chain has opened 11 stores in Northern California so far this year. [See - April 27, 2011: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market at 175 (Stores): Three New Stores Open in Northern California Today.
Tesco's Fresh & Easy has not announced the planned opening date of the 3rd Street and Carroll Avenue store, nor has it announced the dates for any other stores it might in Northern California this year.
A construction crew is currently working five and six day weeks to ready the inside of the store in the 5800 Third Street complex for its August 24 opening. The exterior of the Fresh & Easy store, the physical address of which is 5900 Third Street, has been completed for over six months.
As you can see in the photographs above and below - taken this week - the work crew has started installing sheet rock and the Fresh & Easy interior design package, which is identical in all of the grocer's stores.
When that's completed, the crew will begin installing grocery shelving, refrigeration and freezer cases, checkout stands and other fixtures inside the space. The store will be have about 11,000 square-feet of selling space.
The interior infrastructure work - heating and air conditioning (fully plumbed), electrical wiring, lighting - are completed and reset in the concrete floor.
Based on the crew's progress as of today and our knowledge of how long it takes such a crew to go from the current state of the store interior's progress to completion, the interior should be completed well before the planned August 24 opening.
The 3rd Street and Carroll Avenue store is also "long-awaited" because Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market most recently planned to open it in the March-May 2011 period, as one of its first batch of grocery markets in Northern California.
For example, when Fresh & Easy first announced it would start opening some of its Northern California stores in "early 2011" - 37 of which have been sitting vacant since January and February 2008 - it included the 5800 Third Street unit as one of eight it said in an August 2010 press release it planned to open in "ear;y 2011." [See - August 19, 2010: Tesco Will Open its First Eight Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores in Northern California in 'Early 2011.']
Later, the grocery chain amended it plans, instead announcing it would open 11 stores in Northern California in "early 2011," and dropping the 3rd Street and Carroll Avenue Fresh & Easy unit from the list.
Additionally, as recent as March 2011, Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market was still planning a late spring or early summer opening for the store in the Bayview District residential and commercial development, the first phase of which was completed in 2010. There are a number of residents living in condos in the complex.
We reported last year Fresh & Easy would announce by the end of July 2010 it planned to start opening stores in Northern California in early 2011. It made that announcement less than three weeks later, on August 19, 2010. [See - August 21, 2010: April 2010 Prediction Correct: February 2011 Target to Open First Eight Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores in Northern California.]
In addition to the Fresh & Easy store, which is the ground floor retail anchor of 5800 Third Street, two restaurants - Brown Sugar Kitchen and Limon - are set to open this summer in the development. There are also a couple other retail spaces set to come on line later.
The management of the 5800 Third Street complex recently put the three banners pictured above (the top banner is for Fresh & Easy) up in the development. You can see the sign for the 5900 Third Street Fresh & Easy store directly below the "Limon" banner.
There's no mention on the banners of when the Fresh & Easy market or the two restaurants will open. Fresh & Easy Buzz is the first publication to report the August 24, 2111 date.
We can't guarantee the doors to the Fresh & Easy store at 5900 Third Street in the 5800 Third Street complex at 3rd Street and Carroll Avenue in San Francisco's Bayview District will open to shoppers on August 24. After all, the store was supposed to open nearly two years ago. And, as we said earlier and reported at the time, as recent as March Tesco's Fresh & Easy was looking at a late spring or early summer opening (May-June) for its long-awaited Northern California "flagship" store.
What we are reporting is that as of today, Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market plans to open the store at 3rd Street and Carroll Avenue in San Francisco's Bayview District on August 24, 2011. Fresh Easy's senior management has also informed key employees of the August 24 opening date for what will by then be, if all goes according to its current plans, the second Fresh & Easy grocery market in San Francisco. (See the companion story at top and the linked story below.)
Related Stories
May 10, 2011: Breaking Buzz: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Plans to Open First San Francisco Store at 32nd and Clement June 22
April 6, 2011: Work Begins Inside 5800 Third Street Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Store in San Francisco's Bayview
March 15, 2011: San Francisco, Antioch and Fairfield Stores Next Up in Northern California For Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market
March 14, 2011: Opening of Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Store at 5800 Third Street in San Francisco Held Up Pending Approval of Liquor License
March 1, 2011: Two Years On: Tesco Opens First Two Northern California Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores Tomorrow
February 1, 2011: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Still Plans April-May 2011 Openings For First Two San Francisco Stores
January 14, 2011: Tesco 'Banking' on California in 2011 For Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market USA
January 12, 2011: First Northern California Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Stores Opening March 2; Nine More to Follow March-April
November 12, 2010: Postponed But Not Abandoned: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Gearing Up For Northern California Launch
November 8, 2010 - Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's '5800 Third Street' Northern California 'Flagship' Store in San Francisco is Taking Shape
November 5, 2010: Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Queuing Up Three Additional Stores in Northern California For Early-to-Mid 2011 Openings
August 22, 2010: Challenges & Opportunities: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Will Supply its Northern CA Stores From its Riverside County DC in Southern CA
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 18, 2010: When it Comes to Northern California - its Competitors are Rome Burning and Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is Nero Playing the Fiddle
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
Additionally, click on these links - Fresh and Easy Northern California, Fresh and Easy San Francisco Bay Area, Northern California Market Region, Tesco's Fresh and Easy in Norcal 2011 - for related stories from late 2007 to the present. Click on this link - Northern California Special Report - to read our April-December 2010 'Northern California Special Report' series.
[Editor's Note - photo credits: All photographs in this story are property of and copyright Fresh & Easy Buzz. Writers, editors and bloggers have permission to use the photos as long as you meet two conditions of use. Those conditions are: (1) Credit Fresh & Easy Buzz (photo credit) in your story or post and (2) you provide a link to this story along with the photo credit.
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