Friedman?s Home Improvement announced an agreement Tuesday to return to Petaluma and become the second big-box store in a proposed retail center that has sparked intense controversy.
Friedman?s, which was founded in Petaluma six decades ago but left town in the 1970s, said it signed a letter of intent with shopping center developer Regency Centers to lease 10 acres of the 34-acre former Kenilworth Junior High School site.
The mixed-use development, named East Washington Place, would be anchored by a Target store.
Friedman?s intends to build an 80,000-square-foot retail store with a drive-through lumber yard and 20,000-square-foot garden center. It hopes to open the store on Aug. 1, 2011.
The store would be the company?s third in Sonoma County and fourth overall, with centers in Santa Rosa, Sonoma and Ukiah.
The company, the largest locally owned home improvement retailer in the North Bay, traces its roots to Petaluma, where brothers Benny and Joe Friedman started a small downtown junk store in 1946.
?We are returning to our roots,? said Bill Friedman, CEO and president of Friedman?s Home Improvement. ?This has been a longtime dream of all three generations. In fact, I grew up helping my father and Uncle Joe in the Petaluma store. It?s very heartwarming to return to where we started our family business.?
The announcement came just hours before Petaluma?s planning commission was set to discuss a final environmental impact report on the Regency development. The commission, which was also reviewing several other projects, had not made a recommendation on the Kenilworth project by press time late Tuesday.
Mayor Pam Torliatt, who engineered the deal, said Tuesday evening the Friedman?s addition may require some additional environmental review of the Regency project, but she didn?t think it would be a major roadblock.
?We?ve been trying to accommodate Friedman?s in the city of Petaluma and we wanted to locate them in the best retail location to help them succeed,? she said. ?This is the No. 1 retail site for the city of Petaluma to develop.?
A study on the city?s retail health concluded that Petaluma was losing millions of consumer dollars annually because of a lack of specific shopping opportunities in town, specifically in the areas of general merchandise home improvement and home electronics.
?Hopefully we will be able to work with Regency to locate a computer and electronics store on the site,? Torliatt said.
The addition of Friedman?s ? a local company, yet still a big-box chain ? could add fuel to the debate over the project, which has drawn considerable controversy since its initial proposals surfaced in 2004.
Opponents of large-scale retail developments argue that such a center isn?t appropriate for a historic town like Petaluma and that it will bring unacceptable levels of traffic, pollution, visual blight, low-wage jobs and will hurt local businesses.
Others argue that the city, which has already cut about $3.5 million from its $34 million annual budget and laid off dozens of workers, needs the sales-tax dollars. They say the city also needs a store such as Target for everyday items and budget clothes.
The city is trying to decide how to cut $2.2 million from the current year?s budget to meet reduced revenues. City leaders are considering laying off more workers and negotiating employee pay cuts to balance the budget by mid-2010.
The Regency development proposal includes 362,000 square feet of retail space and 16,000 square feet of offices on a 34-acre site.
The largest parcel would incorporate a proposed 139,000-square-foot Target. Friedman?s would total about 100,000 square feet on the opposite end of the site.
The site, currently vacant except for ball fields, is along East Washington Street between the Sonoma-Marin County Fairgrounds and Highway 101.
A developer-funded economic impact report, the first of its kind required by the city, estimates the project would create more than 720 permanent jobs and provide the city with about $1.5 million in annual revenue from sales taxes and property taxes.
Friedman?s said Tuesday its store would create 120 jobs and $400,000 in sales taxes. The company had looked at least two other sites in Petaluma before agreeing with Regency developers.
It was unknown Tuesday night what the news means for another large-scale development proposed in Petaluma, one that could include a Lowe?s Home Improvement store on North McDowell Avenue on one of the sites Friedman?s had considered.
Despite the apparent agreement of Torliatt, Councilman David Glass and other, more pro-business council members, one council member said the addition of Friedman?s doesn?t necessarily mean the project is a slam-dunk.
?While having Friedman?s there is a plus,? Councilman Mike Healy said, ?I think we?ll all want to take a look at the traffic issues.?
He also said he would likely oppose the Kenilworth project if it limited the ability of another home improvement store, like Lowe?s, to locate in Petaluma.
?That would probably be a deal breaker for me,? Healy said.
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