Oliver's Looks to Stay Put, Is that a Good Thing?

Oliver's current lease for its store located on East Cotati Avenue expires in August 2014. Their existing options are to renew their lease at the current location or look to build a new store on the land they own near the Highway 116 and Old Redwood Highway Intersection.

While a bigger store might be more appealing to Oliver's, would it be better for the community?

"I prefer that they stay here," said Jean R., who lives nearby the current location.

"It is nice to be able to walk to the store on sunny days and if they leave what happens to this shopping center?"

The site for a potential new store is .7 miles from the current location, but that location would not allow the same level of foot traffic as there are less residential clusters in the immediate vicinity. The new site could also cause heavier congestion even with the newly completed interchanges.

Also the shopping center on East Cotati Avenue has quite a few vacancies already with North Light Books and Cafe moving to Wolf Den Plaza and the closure of Porter Street Barbeque and the Sweet Spot. The previous suites used by Video Drone and the Animal Hospital of Cotati also still remain vacant. While a new burger shop is slated to move into the former Porter Street location, finding a tenant or tenants to replace Oliver's would be difficult.

In nearby Rohnert Park, Pacific Market left the Mountain Shadows Plaza in February of 2011 and has yet to be replaced with any other type of tenant. The Mountain Shadows Plaza has a similar demographic to the current location Oliver's occupies.

Also a potential move by Oliver's could create added competition to stores in Rohnert Park that are in close proximity. Grocery Outlet, Safeway, and Raley's are all within 1.7 miles of the proposed location.

So what do you think? Regardless of what business planners might hypothesize which location would you rather see Oliver's at?

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