Walgreens proposed for former Hughes site
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Paul Clinton
SOUTH SAN FERNANDO -- In a project city officials said will help
revitalize eastern Burbank, a Beverly Hills developer has submitted a
proposal to build a Walgreens drug store on the site of a former Hughes
supermarket.
Crown Realty and Development Vice President Jim O’Neil said his
company wants to build the 15,000-square-foot store on the southeastern
corner of Alameda Avenue and San Fernando Boulevard near the Golden State
(5) Freeway.
Now boarded up and enclosed in a chain-link fence, the Hughes Family
Market closed its doors March 16, one day before a Ralphs supermarket
opened across the street.
City officials said the Walgreens project was a good fit for the site.
“One more drug store probably isn’t our first choice,” Community
Development Director Bob Tague said. “ To have a retail facility that
cleans up that site is nice.”
Crown plans to demolish the market if the company gets Burbank’s
approval to build.
Crown officials acknowledged they were interested in building a
Walgreens on the site, but said the drug store was only one of several
options they were considering for the 1.4 acre property.
“We’re studying the possibility of a drug store, but it’s not a done
deal,” O’Neil said.
Crown, through its subsidiaries, also owns other property in the area,
including the 75,000-square-foot Ralphs Grocery Center and 20.5-acre
former Menasco manufacturing site.
The city has designated South San Fernando as a redevelopment zone,
giving it additional powers to condemn properties and provide incentives
for developers to build.
A former family drug store and now-defunct restaurant are adjacent to
the Hughes property. Crown’s attempts to buy those properties have been
unsuccessful so far, O’Neil said.
In 1998, Ralphs Grocery Co. purchased the Hughes chain.
In October 1998, Hughes and Ralphs parent Fred Meyer Inc. was
purchased by Cincinnati-based grocer Kroger Co. in a mammoth $8-billion
merger deal that made it the nation’s largest supermarket chain.