Long-Awaited Supermarket Plan Unveiled : Redevelopment: Groups campaigned aggressively for a store in South-Central. An Alpha Beta will be built by late next year, officials say.

The sun broke through the clouds momentarily Thursday as Food 4 Less and City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas announced plans to build a supermarket at Adams Boulevard and Vermont Avenue, a commitment cheered by community residents who now see the light at the end of a decade-long tunnel.

By late next year, a top-of-the-line Alpha Beta supermarket will be on the four-acre site, said George Golleher, president of Food 4 Less, which owns the property and is negotiating with the Community Redevelopment Agency for some adjacent parcels of land.

Once the home of a small market, the site has been vacant for more than nine years, since the store was demolished and Food 4 Less bought the property.

Members of the Southern California Organizing Committee, an activist group that draws from local churches, block clubs and community groups, campaigned aggressively for a new market, often criticizing both Food 4 Less and Ridley-Thomas for delays.

“It’s about time,” said Orinio Opinaldo, a member of the activist group. “People were dragging their feet and we had to put a fire under them to make it happen.”

In recent months, group members turned up the heat, staging slowdowns in checkout lines of markets owned by Food 4 Less, confronting Ridley-Thomas at community meetings and, last month, gathering to pray in front of his house.

However, Ridley-Thomas said that although he understands the group’s impatience, delays were unavoidable. “Remember, there were extensive negotiations, changes in the corporate ownership of the site, changes at the CRA and changes at the council level,” he said. Ridley-Thomas was elected in 1991.

“There were key elements that we pushed for and got, namely, a full-service market, joint minority participation and ownership and the preservation of adjacent historic homes,” Ridley-Thomas said.

The minority partner, Brotherhood Crusade President Danny Bakewell, whose development company will build the $9-million project, said plans call for a 40,000-square-foot market with a deli, bakery and pharmacy and an additional 14,000 square feet for adjoining retail shops, creating about 150 new jobs. Bakewell, who began negotiations in 1984 with The Boys markets, now owned by Alpha Beta’s parent company, Food 4 Less, will be a part owner of the development with Alpha Beta. Under CRA guidelines, the project required a minority business partner.

Assembling different parcels of land to make the site large enough required the participation of the Community Redevelopment Agency, which owns three historic homes on Menlo Avenue adjacent to the Food 4 Less property.

Once negotiations for the sale of those lots are concluded, the redevelopment agency will move and rehabilitate the houses, said Oscar Jauregui, project manager of the Hoover Redevelopment Project. The agency also plans to speed up a supplemental review of the project to determine how to mitigate potential negative effects on the surrounding community.

Ridley-Thomas said the final round of negotiations will begin today “at a pace that will be well-received by the community. We won’t tolerate any backsliding.”

Father William Delaney, pastor at St. Agnes Church across the street from the site and a member of the community activist group, credited Mayor Richard Riordan with using his influence to push the project forward, but the mayor was happy to spread the praise around.

“This is a great morning for all of us,” Riordan told the more than 200 people who gathered at the site for the announcement.

The mayor promised to work with Ridley-Thomas to push through the necessary permits and paperwork “in record time.”

Lillian Marenco, a member of the activist group who lives near the site, said she hopes a new supermarket will attract more investment in her community. “This will give confidence to businesses and bring a good image to our community,” she said. “That will help us rebuild South-Central.

“We worked so hard to make this happen,” she added. “A supermarket is not a luxury, it’s a great need.”

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Between 1965 and 1990, the number of supermarkets in South-Central Los Angeles dropped from 55 to 30; the area has 25% fewer supermarkets per capita than other areas of Los Angeles County.

A study of the neighborhoods around the site prepared for the Coalition of Neighborhood Developers, an organization of inner-city nonprofit civic, church and economic development agencies, found that the three existing supermarkets in the area do not adequately serve the community’s needs.

The predominantly Latino neighborhoods have a population of roughly 140,000, with 31% living below the poverty line. The median household income of $16,619 is less than half the county level.

Many families are forced to rely on small neighborhood markets or liquor and convenience stores for their shopping, which means they are likely to pay higher prices while finding a more limited selection of healthy foods.

The study found that 46% of the residents do not have access to a car, so they must walk or rely on buses when they go shopping; the trip home with armfuls of grocery bags can be a daunting and exhausting trek, Marenco said.

Another study conducted for the Community Redevelopment Agency in 1985 showed that the one-square-mile area around the Adams/Vermont site could support at least four supermarkets. Construction of a Smart & Final store at Vermont Avenue and 36th Street is under way.

For community residents, the only damper on an otherwise celebratory event was the lack of a firm groundbreaking date. But all parties agree: There will be a supermarket at the site.

“We’re prepared to do battle until that supermarket is standing,” said Opinaldo of the activist group.