Friedman’s hardware eyes return to Petaluma

<p>The Sonoma County hardware store that began on the banks of the Petaluma River is planning a return to town, but some council members are questioning whether the proposed new location will work.</p><!-- Nothing to do. The paragraph has already been output --><p>Friedman’s Home Improvement, founded by brothers Benny and Joe Friedman 63 years ago, is seeking city approval for an 80,000-square-foot store and lumber yard at the soon-to-be-closed Hopper Street sewer plant.</p><p>When the plant is relocated to the new Lakeville Highway facility this summer, Friedman’s and partner Basin Street Properties propose to buy the land and build the store as part of a 40-acre redevelopment project between Hopper Street and Highway 101.</p><p>“It’s been a dream of ours to return to Petaluma,” said Barry Friedman, the third-generation vice president of the hardware company. “We’ve wanted to return to our roots.”</p><p>Friedman’s left Petaluma in 1976, shortly after completing its store in Santa Rosa. It also has outlets in Sonoma and Ukiah.</p><p>Plans outlined in a February letter sent to city officials call for the Petaluma store to be the first phase of a mixed-use project that would combine the sewer plant site with Basin Street’s vacant “Riverfront” parcel. The Mary Isaak center, city animal shelter and a sewer pump station would remain on the property.</p><p>Council members praised Friedman’s as a desired business in Petaluma, but some questioned the plan to combine the store with a larger development, and pointed out that the site has traffic access problems.</p><p>The letter asks that building permits be granted for the store by February of next year, so construction can be completed in time for the 2010 holiday shopping season.</p><p>“We’re requesting that the city make it a priority,” Basin Street president Matt White said.</p><p>The companies are also asking to be exempted from the fiscal and economic impact assessment required for large stores, and for the city to waive parks fees in exchange for Basin Street giving its portion of McNear Peninsula to the city for a park.</p><p>“Friedman’s is a great retailer and I’d love to see them locating here,” Mayor Pamela Torliatt said. “I also think that it’s very easy to submit a proposal with a very tight timeframe and say, ‘exempt us.’”</p><p>The letter said the offer would expire by Monday of this week, and council members said they were unsure if anyone from the city had replied back. The company said it was open to extending the deadline and council members said they’d like the city to explore the offer.</p><p>“In these fiscal times, when people are wanting to do business with you, you should work together,” Councilmember Mike Harris said.</p><p>“I think it’s great that they want to come here,” Councilmember David Rabbitt said. “If the city is sincere in wanting an operation like Friedman’s to come here, then we need to reach out and be proactive to make it happen.”</p><p>Councilmember David Glass, however, said the deadline contained in the Feb. 25 letter had “no realistic chance” of being met.</p><p>“It’s either real or it’s intimidation or it’s some other motive,” he said. “That’s a funny way to begin a discussion. I would suggest they take a more realistic approach to it.”</p><p>A Petaluma store would generate an estimated $400,000 to $500,000 annual in sales tax for the city, Friedman’s said. It would employ 100 full-time and 30 part-time workers.</p><p>Basin Street, which previously proposed a hotel, housing and retail uses for its property, said Friedman’s approached the company about building a store as part of a new plan for the site.</p><p>The project, within the Central Petaluma Specific Plan area, would include an additional 35,000 square feet of commercial space, 52 apartments, 26 live-work units, 100 townhomes and 175 single-family homes.</p><p>“It’s a great opportunity,” White said of working with Friedman’s. “It fills a void in the city that doesn’t exist today.”</p><p>Earlier this year, Home improvement chain Home Depot announced it would close its Petaluma Yardbirds store on Lakeville Highway. That “gap in the marketplace” and the desire to return to Petaluma prompted Friedman’s interest, the company said.</p><p>Glass and other members said they have concerns about traffic flow at the site, which is surrounded by a railroad track, the Petaluma River, Highway 101 and a substandard Hopper Street.</p><p>“Traffic circulation at that parcel is a huge concern,” he said. “If it’s a real proposal, let the city vet the issues and see if the traffic flow is achievable.”</p><p>“Now that Home Depot has closed Yardbirds, I think Friedman’s could be a great addition to Petaluma,” Vice Mayor Teresa Barrett said. But she added, “I’m not sure that’s the best place for it. There’s one way in and one way out.”</p><p>Members were also concerned about the developer’s request to be exempt from the FEIA policy, designed to determine a project’s impact on the local economy.</p><p>“We have to take our city policies seriously,” Torliatt said. “They were adopted through a public process and approved by the City Council.”</p><p>“I’m not interested in anything that is subject to the FEIA not being subject to it,” Barrett said.</p><p>White said Friedman’s, as a locally owned tenant that sells products like lumber and building supplies not available in Petaluma, should not be required to complete a FEIA report.</p><p>“The impact on existing businesses is nominal and there’s no need for any expensive public infrastructure,” he said. “We’ve really met all the hurdles of the FEIA and we don’t see the need to complete one.”</p><p>“In Petaluma, you can’t buy a two-by-four,” Barry Friedman said.</p><p>(Contact Corey Young at corey.young@arguscourier.com)</p>