The “Water Cooler” is a feature on Claycord.com where we ask you a question or provide a topic, and you talk about it.
The “Water Cooler” will be up Monday-Friday in the noon hour.
QUESTION: In your opinion, what are some outdoor shopping centers in Claycord that need a good makeover, and what is currently wrong with them?
Talk about it.
32 comments
The one on treat and Clayton. So many vacancies in that strip mall
Yes that center & the one on Clayton & Bailey. Both are dumps
Yeah its been dead for years. I remember the good old days when it was plush with Radio Shack, Payless, Fantastic Sam’s, Pierre’s Liquor, Lucky’s was where staples is. It makes me wonder how or why those shops arent leased. The insurance they have or the owners have must have a provision to cover the losses.
USA JIM,
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The last that I heard was that the owner was in his nineties, doesn’t care about the property, and has refused to put any money into it. I believe he was/is an out of state absentee owner, too. He was going to let his heirs deal with the property when he was gone. It’s been several years since I’ve heard anything about the owner, but there was some discussion in the last year about the smaller storefronts being torn out and replaced with larger storefronts that’re closer to the size of Staples and Rite Aide.
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When the City of Concord used eminent domain to widen Treat Boulevard a few years ago, Councilmember Laura Hoffmeister demanded that the owner use the money he received from the city to remodel the shopping center. There were several other issues with the city trying to acquire that land, including the city wanting to acquire just the surface of the property, so that the property owner would still have to pay property taxes on everything the surface of the property acquired by the city, and previously unknown tanks that where found on the property acquired by the city.
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It’s really sad what has happened to small and medium size brick and mortar retail stores. I think the government should look at eliminating income tax for small and medium size retail brick and mortar stores, and instead just look at them as job, employee income tax, and sales tax generators.
100% agreed sir. Great info.
And Hilson’s, loved that store.
Treat and Clayton Rd. is the worst. El Monte and Park N Shop too.
The only renovation I want to see is armed police with shoot on site any trouble makers, looters, shoplifters and criminals.
Period.
Protect it and the stores and people will return.
Yes, Treat and Clayton. I’m guessing the owns don’t want to spend any money to fix it up. If they lose CVS or Staples they well probably tar it down
This property has degraded the area. To stop this mess, there should be a HEFTY fine if a new tenant for that empty space hasn’t moved in after 6-9 months. Theses owners couldn’t care less for the neighborhood and the negative affects their irresponsibility causes.
Look at the demographics of the 2000 apartments right behind the CVS shopping center with 12000 people in them.
They dont shop at these stores,they intentionally only shop at stores run by their people.A big reason a normal businesses will fail in Concord or any town California.There is no loyalty or support for American businesses in those areas.
Please level the sunvalley mall.
Let’s start by placing license plate readers and every entrance & exit.
I’d be more than happy to pay for Concord and Pleasant hill police departments to staff an office or a satellite location inside the mall.
Maybe restrict access to all vehicles unless they take a ticket and need that same ticket to exit.
Have cameras along the vehicles traveling path as well as cameras at all of the doors.
I have not felt safe for a long time at the mall.
While I enjoyed going as a teenager I do not like the idea of my teenager going and hanging out.
It’s just not safe
Sun Valley is a good idea and the Clayton / Treat one as well … Sears used to be a go – to store but now it’s just not safe – I’ve personally seen grab and runs … well some just walked out because nobody cares anymore
Ygnacio Plaza. It’s downright ugly with the big Sports Basement. They need a grocery store instead. like the old Luckys.
They charge an arm and a leg for rent and never upkeep it. Pete’s has nasty weak coffee. They need a starbucks or a place that at least serves something that resembles a good cup of Java.
Many years ago when chatting with the owner of Diablo Books which was in the Ygnacio Plaza she mentioned that the loss of the grocery story killed walk in traffic for everyone in the mall. Most people go to their local grocery store at least once a week. That resulted in regular walk-in traffic for other stores in the mall.
The grocery store was replaced by a sporting good store. It does not have regular customers the way a grocery store did plus people going to the mall to get something from a sporting goods store usually go to just that store and then leave the mall.
Here’s a 2007 interview with the owner of Diablo Books about this topic plus the article has quite a bit about the owner of the Ygnacio Plaza and their business practices. https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2007/04/05/owner-of-diablo-books-battles-to-save-her-store/
That shopping center needs work. I thought after those ex-convicts beat that poor guy over the head with a gun and cracked his skull, security might improve, or at least have a visual presence. That shopping center needs work.
On a positive note, some partners and I are resurrecting the old Cadillac Ranch venue behind Gratitude Coffee Bar and our first national touring performer is Fleetwood Mask in April!
We’ve been part of Park n Shop for close to 20yrs owning/operating various businesses there, and I’m proud to say that there is forward momentum everywhere I look!
Where is that exactly? Fleetwood Mask is fantastic!
1655 Willow Pass Rd. Entry is through the Gratitude Coffee Bar or side doors just to the right. I agree, Fleetwood Mask is amazing! My wife and I used to own the metroPCS store by Starbucks, and we’ve seen Park n Shop change for the better these last several years. This new space will attract corporate professionals, mixers and community style events during the day, and we’ll bring a little tasteful evening entertainment on weekends. Hope to see you at a show!
Oh, EVENTS..dont worry,should only be around $300,000 kand Med-ical is going to be getting it all back from you.You cant win this,
They are all wearing fleetwood masks.This reminds me of Fleetwood Mac.Anyone heard of them?
I spent many, many nights (and dollars) at The Cadillac Ranch in the mid 90’s. Great Times!
I need the Name of that company please for my lawsuit from when i got ran over on your property on Dec 17 and got 8 broken bones..ive got a some papers to serve you,so make money and get ready to lose it..kay?Contact CPD and get ready for whats coming.Was caused by the people you let set up tables outside ON YOUR PROPERTY that causes distraction to drivers and pedestrians as the table solicitor yells to them walking to their cars and people get killed.Really,really bad plan.One step further forward the car would have driven on my head
The Terminal Shopping Center needs to be completely razed. CVS and Big 5 are the only possibly viable stores there (with the exception of Los Tacos de Pancho) and they are riddled with vagrants and theft. Alpine Pastry moved onward and upward and Luigi’s Deli is on its last legs. The nearby building is completely vacant, where once was a pet store and a country bar. The rest of the smaller businesses look a bit suspect and cannot possibly be making an honest profit there.
Grew up near there and, at one time, it was a neat little shopping area. Sad what’s become of it.
TPC,
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I believe they were Pets Plus and The Ranch.
TPC & DD,
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When former Concord City Councilmember Tim McGallian was still sitting on the council he wanted Terminal Center torn down and replaced by an 8-stoty mixed-use building, where the first floor would be retail, restaurants, and service businesses, floors 2-4 would have been office space, and floors 5-8 would’ve been apartments. I’m so glad that in 2022, Councilmember Tim McGallian, became the first Concord City Councilmember to be defeated since the 1993 defeat of Lloyd Mashore, Byron Campbell, and Nancy Gore.
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Former Concord City Councilmember Ron Leone wanted Concord’s army base to close so that the city could annex the deep water port on the base so that Concord could become a cruise ship destination. Residents used to joke about how tour busses would pick-up the cruise ship tourists and drop them off at Todos Santos Plaza, Park-n-Shop, Sun Valley, and many of our other little shopping centers and strip malls.
https://www.tme.events/
Kmart on Clayton Rd has been closed for years. They need to get a permanent tenant in there not just the zHalloween Store once a year. Who in the City is in charge of getting businesses for these vacant properties? We should be inundating them with emails. I don’t think the council members ever come out this way to see all of the empty storefronts from Treat east.
ITSME,
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It has been my experience that Concord City Councilmembers are well aware of the commercial vacancies in the city, although I believe when we went to council districts it caused some councilmembers to only or primarily focus on their districts, while a couple still focus on the entire city. We have some councilmembers who actually try to recruit businesses to come to the city themselves, while others don’t take any proactive steps themselves to fill commercial vacancies.
I rarely hit any of these shopping centers, and of those I do, I only focus on the specific store I want to patronize. Many of these centers listed above (Terminal, Yg Plaza, etc.) I actually never go to, that seemingly hardly anybody goes to, I’d be fine if they were leveled and turned into public parks/open areas. I understand that doesn’t generate the addictive tax revenue so needed by our “representatives,” but there is nothing inviting/attractive about a large area of treeless/tree deficient blacktop.
One day it’ll be nothing but weed stores, Walgreens and warehouses for Amazon. And funeral homes. Can’t very well do that online. Or can you? 🧐
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