The rumors are true. Trader Joe's has confirmed that it will open up a Palo Alto location at Town & Country Village shopping center in early 2008.

Duveneck-St. Francis neighbor Steve Eittreim found this out in a letter from a Trader Joe's spokesperson -- identified only as Amy -- on Wednesday after inquiring about the possibility of the specialty grocery store replacing Albertson's at Edgewood Plaza.

"We currently have plans to open a location here in the Town & Country Village," Amy said. "This new location is scheduled to open in 2008."

Another TJ's spokesperson, Alison Mochizuki, confirmed to the Weekly that a 12,000-square-foot TJ's will be opening in the center, without specifying its precise location. The Weekly earlier reported that men holding architectural plans and looking at the vacant building adjacent to Long's drug store said it was for Trader Joe's, but there was no official confirmation.

While Eittreim said he and other neighbors would have preferred TJ's at their nearby shopping center, "Having them at Town & Country is much better than having to go all the way to Mountain View or Menlo Park," he added.

Though a Trader Joe's may not be in Edgewood's future, the rundown shopping center is finally ready for big changes itself.

Last week, Sand Hill Property Co. manager John Tze announced that the San Mateo company had bought up Albertson's long-term lease.

"Now we can move forward with the project," Tze said.

Albertson's lease was holding up redevelopment of the entire site, which includes small retail shops and the now vacant grocery store. Two other parcels on the site, a Shell Oil station and the Maharishi Vedic School, are not included in Sand Hill's plans.

With the Albertson's hurdle out of the way, Tze said Sand Hill will hold a community meeting on redevelopment plans for Edgewood Plaza on Wednesday, Jan. 17.

The meeting, which will include a brief presentation and a question-and-answer period, will take place at Palo Alto Municipal Golf Course's Bayshore Ballroom. Tze said he hoped "all interested parties" would attend, including neighbors, city officials and historic preservationists who are concerned about the fate of Joseph Eichler's one shopping center.

Tze has said Sand Hill's plan for the site is "to redevelop the center with a new grocery store and some replacement shops." It would also include housing.

Eittreim said he hoped the city would "fulfill Eichler's vision and keep the shopping center a resource for the community."

To Eittreim, that means, "Coffee shops, maybe a hardware store, things people could use to make it a focus of the neighborhood and bring neighbors together."

— Molly Tanenbaum