Alhambra : Plan for Smith’s Revived

A plan has been revived to convert part of the city’s old Sears store site at Fremont and Commonwealth avenues to a Smith’s Food & Drug Center.

Council members, sitting as the Alhambra Redevelopment Agency board, have approved an agreement with Smith’s Food & Drug Center Inc. for the Salt Lake City firm to build a supermarket up to 66,600 square feet next to the unoccupied Sears.

In the fall, Smith’s called off plans to demolish the Sears store and build on its site. Sears closed April 3.

The council also agreed to purchase the Sears building and some land next to it from Haagen Alhambra Retail. This land would be combined with a city-owned parking lot on one side of Sears as the site for Smith’s.

Michael Martin, deputy director of the agency, said the deal would cost the agency about $325,000 and leave it as owner of the empty Sears store. The city would pay an estimated $5.25 million for the Sears property and sell a portion to Smith’s, a food and drug chain, for approximately $4.9 million, he said.