Demolition began on the middle section of the Bel-Air shopping center on Treat Blvd. at Clayton Rd. in Concord.
The shopping center, which is about 4 decades overdue for a makeover, is being demolished between the US Post Office and CVS. Staples, the Post Office and CVS will remain open for the time being. The plan is to build a section in the middle nice enough to attract a grocery store.
About time.
No matter what they do there, it will never change
CONCORD WILL NEVER CHANGE,
.
You should look at downtown Concord and all of the apartment buildings being built. Concord is changing!!! Although, I’ve found few people who are happy about the direction that the City of Concord is headed, especially downtown.
There’s already a grocery store across the street.
Staples was a Lucky’s back in the day. Besides most of the grocery stores are gone.
Longs Drugs (pre-CVS) was a grocery store.
how about a TARGET
Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s would be wonderful!
@Christine ~
Yes, … one of those two stores or Sprouts would be a nice addition from Safeway or others.
My vote for sprouts!! I don’t like depending on Safeway for produce or meat.
We need a Target, Michaels,or Joanne’s, out here not a grocery store!!!
The center is too small for a Target. If they were interested in being out here they could do up the old K-mart.
Target was interested in the old K-Mart space, but there is a lease restriction on that location barring any other retailer that sells groceries from opening in the shopping center.
Tell Luckys to get over themselves and let Target go into the old Kmart location. Targets “”grocery” section is not a treat to their business. Target would increase foot traffic to the center and benefit all the big and small businesses, including Luckys!
MR,
After you explain that to Lucky’s, please let us know how they respond.
I would like to see a Radio Shack go in there, …oh wait..
What other grocery store do we need? Safeway and foodmaxx are both right there….
A target would be nice
What about Staples?
What ever happened to the Sprouts plan?
SHERRY MCALEEN,
.
It was canceled.
MARK,
.
What about Staples? Staples, Rite Aid, and the USPS are remaining in place, the middle section is being replaced.
This is where that Dutch Bros should of been placed instead of a busy road with no space for a line…
I would love for City of Concord to ask many other shopping center owners to invest in some remodeling and beautification. Too many are decades overdue. Thanks to this owner for the much needed refresh!
ACD,
.
The owner likely died, he lived out of state and had previously stated he was in his 90’s and wasn’t going to put any money into the property. He was going to let his heirs deal with it when he was gone.
ACD,
.
Other shopping center owners have been asked to make improvements, they haven’t done so.
My HOA group met with Laura Nakamura last night. She said the City ASKS owners to do certain things to improve the City but cannot mandate
A Target or Trader Joe’s would be great!
I wish the property owners would cleanup the TJ Max shopping center at Bailey and Clayton Rd.! It’s a hot mess!
Too little too late. No one wants to shop there anymore.
Maybe just maybe itll bring in some foot traffic. But i doubt it.
As living close by, it is never too late to improve this shopping center. It was like a ghost town the last 10 years or so. It needs updating desperately! I would love a Sprouts because I get tired of relying on Safeway so much. I used to live close to a Sprouts and it was a great alternative to all the Safeways we have to choose from.
a Grocery Store??? You have Safeway across the street and FoodMaxx a block or 2 down.
Total Wines😁
FoodMaxx is a discounted grocery store with meat that looks way past its prime. We need a grocery store that can sell slightly different foods than what Safeway or FoodMaxx offers.
Saw this yesterday. it’s about time. This is where Dutch Bros could have been with plenty of room.
4 decades overdue?
You could have purchased the property from its owner and paid for the remodel…
MANBEARPIG,
.
Several years ago when the City of Concord used eminent domain to acquire part of the parking lot to expand Treat Boulevard, Councilmember Laura Hoffmeister demanded the owner use the money the City of Concord was paying him for the land to remodel the property.
Mr Knight
Would you do ANYTHING Hoffmeister demanded?
WELL FOLKS,
.
Absolutely not!!! I didn’t like her demands, so inappropriate.
There’s a Safeway across the street …
But there needs to be variety. I honestly get tired of going there! Just want a different selection without having the fight Ygnacio or Treat traffic
Just wow!
There was a time when I actually used the photo hut in the middle of the parking lot, as well as Lucky’s, the Chinese restaurant, the liquor store, Radio Shack, post office, drug store, and hobby shop.
I vote for either a Aldi or Lidl. These are very two very popular small mostly grocery store chains, found in Europe (similar to Trader Joe’s). They would be very competitive for Safeway. Lots of “in house” branded goods; quality is good too!
TPATRICKFORD,
.
Aldi owns Trader Joe’s.
Nope! It’s a different part of the same family. Aldi vs Aldi Nord. Aldi Nord owns Trader Joe’s. They are both in Phoenix, and they compete against each other. What is Weird, is walk into an ALDI, and you would swear you are in a Trader Joe’s.
FED UP,
.
It looks like the US Department of Agriculture was wrong when their representatives were appearing on business news channels stating Aldi Nord/Trader Joe’s and Aldi Sud were set to merge a year or so ago and what the affects would be on consumers.
.
The reason Aldi Nord/Trader Joe’s and Aldi Sud look alike is because the two companies have been acting in cooperating with each other for many years in order to reduce costs.
FED UP is correct. Trader Joe’s is *not* owned by the same company as the Aldi US stores.
I went into an Aldi in Virginia just to see what the hype was about. It was sort of like first come first serve as there was barely anything on the shelves. It sort of reminded me of a Trader Joe’s but not as welcoming. It reminded me more of a Grocery Outlet. I went to a Lidl in England and it was very similar to Aldi. But Lidl had some very good pastries! And they sold things like luggage or some small electronics, too.
A few years ago there was talk of a Sprouts going into the shopping center across Treat, maybe this is the optional placement. I used to shop at Lucky when it was in the current Staples site, then they moved to the current FoodMax site. Lucky has come back to town, but I no longer shop there.
Better decades late than never
Sounds like Clayton folks like franchises, plastic America fast food and chain stores. What about small local businesses?
Berkeley Bowl “west” would be a perfect addition. There’s nothing like it in this area. Fresh produce, great bakery, seafood, and meat sections. Concord absolutely needs more small business/fewer chains.
Bring back Thrifty! 🤣🤣🤣
Im for a discount cigarette store …a tattoo parlor and a mexican restaurant…maybe even a used car lot.
Bring back the Bel Air Lounge 🍸︎
or was it spelled “Bel Aire”?
Tim Hortons
Oakland Ballers team store
Gavin Newsom hall of fame
I used to work at Mail Boxes Etc in high school (late 90s) right there where they ripped it out. Kind of sad.
It will be another $.99 store or dollar store that will go out of business and become a Halloween Superstore.
lol 😂
Would have been a good location for an indoor shooting range.
WINCO would be good store to put in there, but I don’t think there is enough sq footage available without taking out the post office and Staples. If Winco went in that would be the end of Food Max and good competitor to Safeway.
Gun store needed.
I used to buy guns from Gunsamerica.com or Gunbroker.com and have them sent to a local FFL guy to process the paperwork & complete the sale. Saved some money and found what I was looking for, but I quit buying them 10 years ago. Collecting is cool but too many is just too many! (and I’ve never sold a single one).
As Safeway is across the street and Food Maxx is just down the way, I sure wish we could get a Target. Since K-Mart closed, there’s no place to get a variety of things in one spot. If you needed new sheets, a broom, and you had a run in your last pair of stockings, you could always run to K-mart.
Plus Lucky 1 1/2 miles down the road we need more community based options like the ones they did away with years ago…
The owner must’ve died, several years ago he was in his 90s and had refused to update the shopping center, saying he would let his heirs make that decision when he was gone.
Guess they made their money & decision…
Sprouts or Trader Joe’s would be lovely! Safeway is too $$$, and Foodmaxx is….umm… a bit dodgy, quality-wise.
Foodmax prices are about the same as Safeway now.
Give us a decent meat market!!!
Once upon a time, there was a Lucky’s where Staples is now, and a Lucky’s at Ygnacio Valley at Clayton Road, and two more Lucky’s in between them.
I’ll say it..Olive Garden with those yummy endless bread sticks would fit in just find.
Olive Garden quality has gone so far downhill lately and the breadsticks are not great anymore, we dont want it around here anymore, bring in more mom and pop restaurants.
How about a real delicatessen? Or an international food court?
I grew up right behind this plaza. This hurts a little bit.
Bel-Air Shopping Center has been a dump since the 60s/70s. The only store that wasn’t run down was PayLess. Lucky’s was empty because there was Alpha Beta and Ralphs a couple blocks away. Better late than never for a makeover.
I was there at the Grand Opening of the Center in 1962. My Father knew Pierre who owned Pierre’s Liquors, and we even visited his nearby house. Beedee’s variety store sold to me BB’s for my BB gun till 1964,( I was 10 at the time). They changed their policy after JFK was shot. There was what I remember as being a drugstore that sold a good selection of Superman, Batman, Spiderman ect. comic books, BeeDee’s also sold a smaller selection of comics. At the age of 21 I visited the bar there and remember that they had a pleasant young lady who served as a Hostess and played pool with the mostly old men .
Homeless shelter ad food bank would be awesome with some services for all the homeless who live in newhall park. It would be a win win for everybody to help get them off the streets and into care.
Oh yeah, I’m sure the folks that live in nearby Canterbury Village and Turtle Creek would be thrilled with that!!
I live right there and I definitely would NOT be happy about that! We have too many issues already around here with the homeless breaking in to our complexes and causing damage!
I would love to see a Sprouts or Trader Joe’s in that space! Safeway is very expensive, Food Maxx’s selection and quality can be iffy, and the Lucky’s further up on Clayton is overrun with kids from the local high school; also is way sort on carts. I LOVE Sprouts, and am very fond of TJ’s.
Trader Joe’s would be nice, since we go to TJs in WC, if we need to go at WC Target or TJs by Ygnacio Valley HS then go to Sprout WC or Concord TJs if we need to go at Veranda. We have Sprouts about to open this late Fall by San Marco at Pittsburg & we can just walk it so can’t wait for that.🥰 Yes, Safeway gonna cost u but we only go there on certain items.
We could stand to have a Concord Lunardi’s….. or would that be too nice?
Too nice? Not if they open a charm school next to it.
Lunardi’s goods are expensive! Compare to Safeway, Lucky’s, Food Maxx which is just around the block!
You’re right….
Concord isn’t ready for that kind of quality.
Mark my words. I predict grocery outlet and dollar store.
A crafts store like Michael’s or JoAnn’s would be great. Nothing like that for miles there. Would be serving not just Concord but Clayton and all cities beyond going northwards up Bailey Rd or Kirker Pass.
I would love a craft or hobby store or a real art store that sells brand name oil paints and supplies. I miss Beverly’s. They were more crafty but I loved their selection. A true loss to this area.
It’s about time. Winco would be a welcome addition.
Any type of upgrade is needed just not another fast food or coffee drive through.
Something that attracts something other than shoplifters and low life’s. Time to clean up the neighborhood and make it safe to shop again.