Foothill Retail Corridor

Worley Parsons Office at Huntington & Myrtle

Well, after all the dismal job loss reports I have posted over the last year, I am happy to report an actual job expansion here in our very own backyard. WorleyParsons, a Fortune 500 engineering and construction management company, will expand about 100 jobs within the city.

Currently, WorleyParsons has an office at the northwest corner of Myrtle and Huntington Drive and will lease about 24,600 square feet of space at 111 W. Lemon in the heart of Old Town. This will certainly give a shot in the arm to all the retail spaces along Myrtle Avenue with all those employees just a block away.

New Location for 100 Employees at 111 W Lemon

Now, if we can just get In-N-Out to do their deal with Home Depot so all those employees will have another lunch choice!

Chipotle is now open in the La Verne Courtyard at the southwest corner of Foothill Boulevard and White Avenue/Fruit Street, directly across the street from the ongoing construction of the new Staples and Marshalls. The center is anchored by Office Depot and Orchard Supply Hardware as well as some shop space. Chipotle is right next door to Blockbuster. I was there during lunch and there was a vigorous lunch crowd.

Construction is well underway on the new Staples and Marshalls in the La Verne Towne Center at the southeast corner of Foothill Boulevard and White Avenue/Fruit Street. Vons vacated the site in December 2010 after having closed their other La Verne location at Foothill and Wheeler and moving into a new location across the street at the site of the old K-Mart. Marshalls is also relocating from the northeast corner of Foothill and White Avenue/Fruit Street. Staples is a new addition to La Verne, with the next closest stores in north Pomona at Foothill and Towne, and Glendora at Gladstone and Valley Center.

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.

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.

A smaller version of Petco called Unleashed has opened in Monrovia at 614 Huntington Drive in the Huntington Oaks Shopping Center.

The store, approximately 1,500 square feet, is much smaller than the typical 10,000 to 15,000 square foot store and will focus more on pet essentials such as food. One of the obvious missing items in the smaller format is the selection of live pets, however, they still have pet adoptions.

The Huntington Oaks Shopping Center is anchored by Kohl’s, Best Buy & Beyond, Marshalls, and Trader Joes.

The San Dimas Blockbuster at 1001 W. Arrow Highway will be closing as of March 14, 2011 as part of the company’s Chapter 11 Bankruptcy petition filed in September 2010.

There were a total of 3,306 stores in the chain, with Blockbuster operating 2,924 stores, and the rest operated by franchisees. Blockbuster closed 145 stores prior to filing Chapter 11.

Grand Opening February 23, 2011

The Fresh & Easy in San Dimas is now open despite rain delays, and despite Fresh & Easy’s tendency to build stores without opening them. The ribbon cutting ceremony, scheduled for 10:00 am, was done by the time I got there at 10:05. With no urgent need to buy anything, I decided against doing an interior inspection. From the looks of things, it looks like the community is going to embrace this store.

The property was developed by New Cities from Monterey, California, with local La Verne construction company WF Construction acting as the general contractor.

Framing Complete

Grading Begins

I stopped by the Pasadena Border’s yesterday and joined the throngs looking for deals ranging from 10% to 30% off. I scanned the real estate section and didn’t see anything I wanted. I then went to the business section and found a book I have been wanting; $19.95 minus 20%, plus California’s usurious 9.75% sales tax would come to $17.52 according to my calculations.

I then went to pay for my item, only to be met with a line that looked to be about a half hour long. While standing there, not moving, I pulled out my slick new smart phone and went to Amazon and found that I could order the same book for $13.57 plus $3.99 shipping, for a total of $17.56, only 5 cents more than Border’s sale price. Hmm, maybe that is why Border’s is closing?

Here is a list of the Los Angeles County Borders stores that are going to be closing by the end of April 2011.

List of Los Angeles County Borders Closings