Kohl’s reopening buoys rebuilding effort

Matt and Audrey Beelher were driving home to Larkfield with their two kids Sunday afternoon when they spotted something they hadn’t seen in five months - cars in the parking lot of Kohl’s.

The family, regular shoppers, at the popular Santa Rosa department store on Airway Drive before the Tubbs fire, decided to turn around and check it out, eager for the return to normalcy the store’s reopening suggested.

“It feels like things are getting back on track now that Kohl’s is open again,” said Audry Beelher, her 1-year-old daughter Thea clutching her close as they left the store.

Her husband, juggling a shopping bag full of clothes and 3-year-old Wyatt on his shoulders, agreed, hoping more retailers sidelined in the blaze would soon follow suit.

“We’re halfway there,” Matt Beelher said. “We’ve got Kohl’s back. Now we just need to get Trader Joe’s.”

Hundreds of shoppers flocked to the retailer on its first day open since the Oct. 8 fires and after an extensive renovation. The soft reopening will be followed by a grand reopening Saturday.

The reopening was hailed by shoppers as a welcome return of a well-regarded retailer and large employer, a needed expansion in the shopping options in northwest Santa Rosa and one more sign the fire recovery is gaining momentum.

“We’ve been waiting for this,” said Mel Lewman, 81, as she shopped for clothes with her friend Rita Runyan.

“I’m really thankful it’s back.”

In all, 29 businesses around Santa Rosa were damaged or destroyed by the October wildfires that roared through Sonoma County, killing 22 and razing 6,579 structures.

The two residents of The Orchard, a 55-and-up manufactured home park on the western edge of the Tubbs burns zone, didn’t lose their homes, but 80 of their neighbors in the complex weren’t so lucky.

Lewman was so pleased to have the store back that she had visited it twice by Sunday afternoon, once in the morning with her daughter, skipping church to do so, and again with Runyan.

“It’s new and clear and it doesn’t smell like smoke,” Runyan said approvingly.

The reopening is particularly important, she noted, because the nearby Kmart was destroyed and won’t be returning.

Upgrades to the Kohl’s store include new flooring, shopping carts, lighting and a home for the customer service department on the first floor. Local Kohl’s employees were not allowed to discuss the reopening with the media and a corporate spokesperson could not be reach for comment.

While pleased with Kohl’s return, Runyan, whose complex is about a mile from the store, said she’s hoping some of the restaurants in the area are next.

She noted that Mountain Mike’s is planning to build and a new El Pollo Loco is under construction nearby, but added there’s a long way to go before their old stomping grounds will have the same feel.

“Now we want the Arby’s and the McDonald’s and the Taco Bell and the Applebee’s back,” Runyan said. “We miss our restaurants.”

Those might take a while.

The neighboring Taco Bell survived but remains closed, a status communicated by blue tape across the windows and no signs of imminent reopening. The landscaping along the drive-thru remains charred with police tape strung between nearby trees.

The other three restaurants just east of the store are now just cleared lots. It wasn’t immediately clear what rebuilding plans any of them have. The adjacent Chevron station has reopened and the Starbucks across Hopper Avenue bears a large banner declaring itself open.

For winemaker Carol Shelton, the reopening of the Kohl’s is more than just a convenience. The store has the clothing sizes that she and her husband, who is 6 feet 5 inches tall, need to rebuild wardrobes incinerated in the fire.

The owner of her eponymous boutique zinfandel brand spends lots of time on the road, and she was at the store “to rebuild the sales wardrobe,” picking up a smart jacket and floral colorful blouses.

When they evacuated their Larkfield home, Shelton and her husband did so as a precaution, and didn’t take much beyond their backpacks, her iPad and his beloved Martin guitar.

They never imagined they’d never see their other possessions or their home again.

“We all thought we’d be coming back,” Shelton said.

You can reach Staff Writer Kevin McCallum at 707-521-5207 or kevin.mccallum@pressdemocrat.com.