PACOIMA : Food 4 Less to Move Into Shopping Center

Viva Market in Pacoima Plaza is, well, muerto.

But shoppers need not mourn the dead market: Food 4 Less will soon replace the closed Viva store at the same location.

Pacoima Plaza, one of only a handful of strip malls in the community, is getting a $1-million make-over care of the Piken Co., a Studio City-based developer that created the mall 10 years ago using federal Urban Development Action grant funds.

A major part of the upgrade includes conversion of the former Viva Market to a Food 4 Less supermarket, where shoppers will be asked to bag their own groceries. Other planned improvements at the 132,000-square-foot center at Glenoaks and Van Nuys boulevards include repaving and striping the parking lot, painting storefronts and additional landscaping.

Work on the project began recently, said Herbert Piken, president of the Piken Co. “When it’s done, we plan to have it looking like a new shopping center.”

Other tenants of Pacoima Plaza include Thrifty Drug, Burger King, Little Caesar and Trak Auto.

Conversion of the existing Viva Market to Food 4 Less is part of a regional expansion of the Food 4 Less chain, Piken said.