LAKEPORT — Safeway”s recent purchase of the Willow Tree Shopping Center in Lakeport has brought on speculation about how the store”s plans for expansion will affect several businesses in the center.
The Willow Tree Shopping Center is home to such chains as Safeway, Subway and Hallmark, as well as many other businesses more specific to Lake County, such as Willow Tree Dental Center, Tacos El Rey, the All About Me clothing boutique and Catfish Books.
Tacos El Rey owner Josefina Chavez said she”s going to have to close her business and find another job as of Jan. 30, 2008. Chavez said her rent has increased to an unmanageable amount since Safeway closed escrow in August.
“I don”t have no (sic) income right now; I”m barely surviving,” Chavez said. “The profit from my business barely meets the rent.” Chavez said she”s been at the location for 14 years, and a three year lease she had with previous owners just expired.
Catfish Books owner Lynn Fegan said when her five-year lease ended, she decided to pay month-to-month and “see what was going to happen here.” The terms of a new lease she is establishing with Safeway are reasonable, Fegan said, and include an approximate 10 percent increase in her rent. Fegan said Catfish Books has also been in business at in the Willow Tree Shopping Center for 14 years.
“There has not been one breath that has not been a positive experience, and I was looking for trouble when they (Safeway) took over,” Fegan said. “There”s going to be a reasonable amount (of increase) with the execution of a new lease, and I”ll still be here in five years.”
Lakeport Community Development Director Richard Knoll, who also oversees business licensing within the city limits, said the only business he knows of that has closed since Safeway bought the shopping center is Curves, a women”s fitness franchise. Knoll said he doesn”t know the circumstances under which the outlet in the Willow Tree shopping center closed, and noted that a business does not necessarily notify the city licensing department when it closes.
A project map prepared by RSC Engineering in Roseville shows a 6,640 square foot area for a proposed expansion to the store. The area is currently occupied by four businesses.
Sherry Reckler, public affairs manager for Safeway”s Northern California division, said the company is currently in negotiations with four stores in the center regarding relocation. “Nobody”s being kicked out,” Reckler said.
“We”re asking market rent,” Reckler said, adding that leases are being negotiated with tenants whose leases have expired. “For example, with one tenant we had a 14 percent increase, which is extremely minimal.”
Knoll said plans for Safeway”s expansion are tentatively slated to go before the Lakeport Planning Commission Jan. 9, 2008. He said Safeway asked for an extension from the previously-scheduled Dec. 12, 2007 date to discuss the city”s proposed conditions of approval.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com.
