New project permits have been filed to replace the soon-to-close Safeway grocery store within the Valley Fair shopping mall with a surface parking lot. Demolition will be required for the strip mall-style structure at 3071 Stevens Creek Boulevard in Santa Clara. Westfield is the mall owner and manager.
The decision for Safeway to close its Valley Fair location was first reported by Amanda Bartlett for SFGate a week ago. Bartlett shared that a spokesperson for the grocer confirmed that the property will permanently close in early November. The grocer has been operating the same venue since the mid-1950s. Current employees at the Valley Fair store will be offered work at any other Safeways, including three spots in Santa Clara.
Valley Fair Safeway store, image by Google Satellite
A planning project application was filed with the City of Santa Clara on Friday evening, providing a paragraph of context about the application, including the “demolition of the existing 48,977 square foot Safeway building,” followed by paving and stripping of the site. The building is also occupied by a Spirit Halloween store, formerly a CVS Pharmacy. Once complete, the 3.4-acre parcel will become a 221-stall parking lot with no building across from the recently-opened Agrihood development.
Speaking with Bartlett, the Safeway representative mirrored the same reason for closing Safeway locations in San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood. The store was not meeting financial expectations.
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HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
You’re kidding me. What a waste of money. Rent is high in San Jose especially by valley fair/santana row.. and they already have multiple massive parking lots. They could easily get away with 0 car apartment tower and make wayyy much more money in profit than a parking garage….
Yet another example of paving paradise. The only thing that grows now in this once fertile valley is greed.
That happened many years ago when the orchards gave way to housing and suburbia in the 1950s-1970s. Not sure how that applies in this situation now or what point you trying to make , given this site has already been paved over and used as retail for the last 50 plus years. It will basically be the same use (parking/auto focused uses) unless you consider a very dated Safeway paradise as they aren’t going to revert this site back to open space/orchard given where it is.
Thank you they need to build a 50 story parking lot because the neighborhood around where we live is getting inundated with crime, homeless, and workers that don’t want to pay for parking. We can’t keep building homes and stores without any infrastructure.
Ron, ‘parking will deter crime’ is a bad take I never thought I’d hear it.
Are you a Looney Tunes Villain?
Free parking for employees?
One has to understand City of Santa Clara policies to make sense of this “filing.” A property owner cannot receive consideration of a request a demolition permit in Santa Clara without a concurrent submitted application for what will happen with the property after demolition. Only after the new development application is fully granted may demolition begin.
The reported sequence will allow for quick approval of the development application, with demolition of existing building and then extra parking quickly available during the holiday shopping season. The property owner then will have unlimited time to prepare a subsequent development request that only would require “demolition” of the then current striped parking.
I loved being able to walk across the street from my Santana Row home. It was My Safeway. This sucks
San Francisco 49ers moved in Santa Clara. S.C has no backbone. .for gods sake were not in San Francisco.This is were people got weird on me for Santa Clara anyways just like levis Stadium parking lots scattered around the town .😔
We will be San Francisco pretty soon Bugsy. We’ve been headed that way for a long time and there’s no one to protect us know when to stand up for what’s right just keeps getting worse.
Densification Good
I work at Nordstrom this idea is stupid yes the Safeway is tiny but do we really need more parking there
We need the light rail to come down Steven’s Creek, not parking
This would be a perfect place for In-N-Out Burger!