Foothill Retail Corridor

Super King Markets (will open their fourth location in Claremont at 436 Auto Center Drive, just west of Indian Hill next to Claremont Toyota. The Claremont location will be added to their locations in Anaheim, Los Angeles, and Altadena. Super King opened 10 years ago in Anaheim, and their mission is ”to serve the food needs of the people of metropolitan Southern California.”

For more information about the grand opening, go to http://www.skclaremont.com/, and for information about jobs, go to http://www.superkingmarkets.com/careers.

Super King Claremont Under Construction

Norms (I don’t know why they don’t use an apostrophe, but they don’t) opened Aug 23 in Claremont at the very busy intersection of Interstate 10 and Indian Hill. The restaurant has excellent freeway visibility with an approximately 50 foot “googie saw tooth” sign (in the middle of the picture above). For more about Norms “googie” architecture, check out their website at http://normsrestaurants.com/googie.html.

I stopped by there on a Saturday morning and there was quite a crowd inside and waiting for a table outside. I heard one patron say the wait was 30 minutes.

Norms Restaurant was started in 1949 by Norm Roybark near Hollywood & Vine in Hollywood. Today there are 18 locations all in Southern California. As their slogan says, “We never close.” The chain is still owned by the Roybark family.

Norms Under Construction

The “Coming Soon” sign has been replaced by a “Now Open” banner on the Marshalls at 2340 E Foothill Boulevard in La Verne, at the southeast corner of White Avenue. Marshalls was formerly located across the street behind the new Panera Bread. Marshalls has been a part of La Verne since 1998.

The Marshalls and eventually new Staples (on the right in the picture) are in the location formerly occupied by Vons, which moved down the street to the redeveloped site of the former K-Mart just east of Wheeler and Foothill. When Vons left, the vacancy in the shop space in the center seemed to increase, even though a recently redeveloped Target is located in the same parking lot to the east.

No word yet on the opening date of the Staples.

The OfficeMax store at 826 West Arrow Highway in San Dimas closed this past Saturday, September 24th, 2011. I asked a couple of different employees why the store was closing, and I got two different answers. One said the lease was up, and the other said the rent was getting too high. Both answers could be true.

The big box office supply market is currently dominated by three chains: OfficeMax, Staples, and Office Depot. It is easy for customers to see them all as commodities, similar to the way they view grocery stores. A customer probably isn’t going to drive past one of these competitors and go out of their way to go to another one. So, location helps to drive market share. This appears to be a cost cutting move on the part of OfficeMax, whose shares have steadily declined this past year from a high of $18.74 on December 6, 2010 to a closing price of $5.33 yesterday. It doesn’t help that Staples is opening a new location just a couple miles east in La Verne at Foothill and Emerald/White. Staples dominates the market with a market cap of nearly $9.9 billion, while OfficeMax is about $452 million and Office Depot is about $609 million.

It could also be that the owner (Kimco) already has a new tenant to put into the spot at a higher rate. We’ll see.

A notice of default was recently filed for the venerable Star News building located at 525 E. Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena.

The 63,590 square foot building is 100% occupied with Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts, Technique Restaurant, 24 Hour Fitness, and a medical office use. The property is currently being marketed for sale at $19,500,000.

Santana’s Mexican Food will be adding their 13th location at the site of the former Arby’s at 700 E. Alosta Avenue, just west of Citrus Crossing Shopping Center. Evidently there is a huge demand for Mexican fast food in the area given the large number of eateries in the immediate vicinity. Being a huge fan of the cuisine, it is my goal to try them all!

This month’s entry focuses on the closures and layoffs of just Los Angeles County, rather than including nearby areas such as Chino or neighboring Orange County cities, simply because the list is growing too large.

What I find interesting in this list is the number of medical jobs being eliminated (City of Hope 185 employees and Antelope Valley Hospital 45 employees). Supposedly medical jobs are one of the growth industries. Not surprising, aerospace is taking another hit, with Ball (120), JPL (33) and Northrup (75) eliminating a total of 228 positions. With budget cutbacks and aerospace moving out of California, I think this trend will continue.

The Azusa City Council recently gave Applebee’s a $200,000 loan in order to entice them to open on the currently vacant pad at Citrus Crossing. The store will be approximately 5,700 square feet and is slated to open in the Spring of 2011.

With Azusa Pacific University located across the street and the lack of restaurants around, Applebee’s will likely be a big hit for the community.

Although this list of closures and layoffs may not include cities in the Foothill Retail Corridor, nonetheless, they are an indication of the economic climate in the region.

Village Roadshow Gold Class Cinemas has announced the layoff of 53 employees effective November 30, 2010. The upscale theatre boasts very comfortable reclining seats, food service at your seat, and blankets and pillows upon request.

The theatre is located in the One Colorado Boulevard retail complex, with an address of 42 Miller Alley.