A General Growth-owned mall in Bakersfield – Valley Plaza Mall – will be getting an Apple Store this fall but don’t look for one soon in Visalia. That is the assessment of Visalia Mall general manager Richard Feder who says an Apple site team also came through town recently to look at the Visalia Mall owned by General Growth as well, but said Visalia was not yet ready for a store. We’re too close to the larger metro areas (Fresno-Bakersfield) that will now both have Apple Stores.Too bad for Visalia and the mall as one of these popular outlets can boost mall traffic by 12%.
Feder says business is way up at the Visalia Mall from the past few years.”We’re back to pre-recession sales numbers.”The mall now sports a Forever 21 store and a new Yogurtland store is opening.The big news this week is that G by Guess will open in a 4500sf space across from Lens Crafter with clothing for young men and women. Although there is concern on Wall Street over the future of JC Penny, Feder says new marketing is in place with the remodeling of the Visalia store into distinct sections and featuring more brands.Sequoia Mall may be on the sales block again with local realtors saying a New York investment group toured the mall in the past week.
The City of Visalia’s new 911 Center moved two steps closer to a reality at the Sept. 4 City Council meeting with unanimous approval of the location and the architect. The Council approved one of four proposed sites on land southeast of Goshen Avenue, just east of Burke Street.The locaion was picked in part to be away form the creek and railroad line for safety sake. The planned Civic center is expected tobe on Oak,a half block away.In addition to approving the site location, the Council also authorized contract negotiations with the team of Darden Architects and LPA for architectural/engineering design consulting services.
Council also approved to co-locate the public safety dispatch services with the County. In doing so, Council made it clear that it does not intend to delay the progress of its own 911 Communications Center project. It also identified three items the County needs to address to achieve co-location: Agree to a negotiated cost analysis for additional architectural work to accommodate the increased size of the facility required for a co-location by Nov. 1; accept the Council-approved site selection for the project; and agree to a long-term lease agreement, for perhaps as much as 20 years, with the City for the County’s portion if they request to lease rather than co-own .
Council also approved to co-locate the public safety dispatch services with the County. In doing so, Council made it clear that it does not intend to delay the progress of its own 911 Communications Center project. It also identified three items the County needs to address to achieve co-location: Agree to a negotiated cost analysis for additional architectural work to accommodate the increased size of the facility required for a co-location by Nov. 1; accept the Council-approved site selection for the project; and agree to a long-term lease agreement, for perhaps as much as 20 years, with the City for the County’s portion if they request to lease rather than co-own .
Nearby at Tipton and Oak st, building plans for the new ImaginU Childrens Museum are big drawn up this month. Withe government money involved the project will require payment of prevailing wages. They expect to open in early 2014.
Is Downtown all full up? Story in the TD this week suggested little space is available in the Downtown to add new tenants. But PBID participant Basil Perch says there is plenty of opportunity in the second stories of Main Street buildings and all it takes is for property owners to have the —- (think nerve) to do some remodeling “like we did in the old Togni building” in which Perch is a partner.The building has an office use(school) and apartment on its 2nd floor. Realtor Marty Zeeb says maybe it is time to build something on the old Razzari lot on Main that is still for sale.
Cigar chewing Basil Perch, the town’s former mayor, who now sits as the president of the Downtown property owners assn, penned a letter to the city recently objecting to plans for a shopping center on 99 at Caldwell even though he says he used to advocate for an outlet mall out there before it went to Tulare.” Now that we have decided to put retail on South Mooney – it does not make sense to compete” with the existing shopping district,he says.As to claims the county will move to allow a shopping center on 99 if the city does not -Perch has a few choice words for that idea- suffice to say he does not think that will happen. In another example of strange bedfellows, this puts former rivals on land-use – Perch and council member Greg Collins – on the same side of this one. City council will take up the issue in October.