A southeastern San Diego nonprofit and developer says two major retailers — Walmart and Target — both want to open stores on the same vacant parcel in the Chollas View neighborhood.
On March 15, the Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation will host a meeting to get residents’ input on how the property on Market Street near 47th Street should be used.
Chip Buttner, who directs development for the Jacobs Center, said the nonprofit is hosting the community meeting because discussions with both stores have “progressed enough to take us to this point.”
“It’s really to find out what the community wants there,” Buttner said, and to discuss the pros and cons of each store. The nonprofit hasn’t reached agreements with either store, he said.
The arrival of a Target or Walmart would be significant for the city’s Diamond neighborhoods, 10 low-income neighborhoods near the intersection of Euclid Avenue and Market Street that have long struggled to attract major retailers. A Food 4 Less that opened in 2001 became the community’s first major grocery store in three decades.
The new store would open up across the street on property owned by the Jacobs Center, which has undertaken a massive redevelopment project to build 1,000 homes and try to jumpstart the community’s economic revitalization. It’s bought roughly 56 acres of property across the neighborhoods, much of it vacant land once occupied by industrial businesses. The community was once a hub of aerospace and other industrial manufacturing and was hard hit when those businesses started packing up in the 1970s.
It’s been trying to recover ever since.
The March 15 meeting to discuss both stores will begin at 6 p.m. at the Jacobs Center Headquarters, 404 Euclid Ave.
Please contact Adrian Florido directly at adrian.florido@voiceofsandiego.org or at 619.325.0528 and follow him on Twitter: twitter.com/adrianflorido.