Agreement reached for supermarket Agreement reached for supermarket (December 24, 2003)

It's up to developer to deliver on promise

Don Kazak

Brad Blake won the battle to build a supermarket in East Palo Alto. Now he has to make good on his promise.

The City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to enter into an exclusive negotiating agreement with Blake Hunt Ventures to build a 55,000-square-foot supermarket on the long-vacant lot at University Avenue and Bay Road, known as Four Corners.

Blake Hunt Ventures received an informal nod from the city July 31, picked over three other developers. But now the agreement is official -- the city can't negotiate with anyone else for Four Corners for at least a year, and Blake Hunt has to pay the city $25,000 for that right.

"Everyone was gung-ho to move it forward," Mayor Donna Rutherford said. "We all want to see the market be built."

The absence of a supermarket has long frustrated city officials, who have experienced success in getting University Circle office towers built, getting Home Depot and IKEA built in the Ravenswood 101 Retail Center, and who even wooed a four-star hotel, Four Seasons, which is under construction just west of the freeway.

"The development community has finally seen this as we have, as an opportunity," said former mayor Sharifa Wilson, who served on a citizens task force that worked on the issue. "We're pleased we've created an environment that supermarkets can be receptive to."

Blake Hunt Ventures' plan for Four Corners includes the supermarket, a 20,000-square-foot building with stores and a restaurant, and 120 housing units. The company must submit its site plans for the project to the city by March 1, along with a construction schedule.

"For me, there was always a light at the end of the tunnel," Wilson said. "And now we're finally seeing it."

Don Kazak can be e-mailed at dkazak@paweekly.com

E-mail a friend a link to this story.