Southeast Gets Offer of a Nonprofit Store : Sol Price Would Build Supermart, School in the Depressed Area to Train Retailers

After unsuccessful attempts by public agencies and private developers to attract a grocery store to Southeast San Diego, innovative merchandiser Sol Price has offered to establish a nonprofit supermarket and a retail training school in the depressed area’s Gateway Center complex.

City Councilman William Jones revealed the concept Monday. The proposal would join public land with private resources to set up a 50,000-square-foot retail facility called Gateway Marketplace. The complex would provide multiple goods and services, including groceries, automotive supplies, appliances and a pharmacy at the complex on Martin Luther King Way just east of Interstate 15.

Jones will present the proposal to the board of the Southeast Economic Development Corp., the city’s nonprofit redevelopment arm charged with revitalizing the Southeast area, on Thursday and to the City Council next Tuesday.

If approved, Jones said, Price would move quickly on the project, and the retail project could be completed in 18 months.

“My job is to cut the red tape,” Jones said. “Sol wants to do it now. He wants to have the building constructed, equipped and staffed within a year to a year-and-a-half.”

Neither Price nor a Price Co. spokesman could be reached for comment.

The concept provides for two nonprofit corporations, one for the retail establishment and another for the educational training program, the San Diego College of Retailing.

Under the plan, the college set up by Price would lease the entire property from the city for a nominal fee in turn would lease space to the Gateway Marketplace.

Private contributions would fund the $2-million charitable trust controlled by Price, Jones said.

The nonprofit corporations would be independent of Price’s successful Price Co., a publicly owned corporation that includes warehouse and discount stores.

Jones said that the retail outlet would not be a Price Club but that the design may resemble a mix of the warehouse concept and Gemco and Target stores.

The college would train students to work in the retail industry, through classroom education and on-the-job training. Southeast San Diego residents would be given enrollment priority at the school, which is projected to take 30 students the first term.

“Price has been wanting to do this for a long, long time. He looks at the big unemployment rate there and he thinks young people can successfully work in stores,” Jones said.

Other private efforts to attract a major grocery store to Southeast San Diego site have been unsuccessful. Gateway Partners Inc., a joint venture by Thompson and Associates and Great American Development Co., tried for a year to find a grocery store that would lease the site. Their exclusive contract with the SEDC expired in May after a six-month extension.

“They made a great effort, but it’s a tough site,” Jennifer Adams, SEDC corporate information officer said.

Southeast San Diego is an economically depressed area with a high unemployment rate and high incidence of crime.

Adams said Gateway Partners had an exclusive negotiating agreement, but the entire concept was contingent on finding a major supermarket to move onto the site.

“It requires a special kind of a store,” Adams said. “It has to be a regional concept to work, and you have to be a risk taker because of the surroundings. There is a cemetery directly across the street.

“It has good freeway access, so that is a positive aspect for a regional store. But it is a problem getting there from major thoroughfares from the north and the south--there is just no access except for Interstate 15.”

Adams said Gateway Partners Inc. had initially expressed an interest in a second extension but sent a letter to SEDC saying they were not going to pursue the contract further.

Jones said the Price concept was planned to attract residents from a large part of San Diego’s inner city.

“Rather than a neighborhood store, it has the possibility of attracting people from a broad community,” Jones said, adding that he will soon announce the board of directors for each of the nonprofit organizations.

The plan for the first phase of Price’s concept would involve about six acres. Expansion ideas in the Price plan include restaurants, clothing stores, financial services and a gas station.