Richerts celebrate 50 years on Sunol Boulevard:
Family-owned building supply store has grown from 120 square feet
to more than 60,000 square feet on 5 acres.
The consolidation of ownership at Stoneridge shopping center provides the city of Pleasanton with a fresh opportunity to engage.
Danville-based 300 Venture Group with local partners purchased the former Nordstrom site that is next to the JCPenney site they purchased a couple of years ago. They declined to renew the JCPenney lease so the store closed at the end of February.
They join other property owners Macy’s and the Simon Property Co. that operates the non-major stores in the shopping center. Simon, one of the respected national shopping center operators, also owns the San Francisco Bay Factory Outlets in Livermore. The city approves a redevelopment plan for the closed Sears store site and parking structure in 2019, but Simon has not pulled the trigger to start it.
The city, as part of its housing cycles, designated land around the shopping center for residential, but those projects across the city have been distinctly slow to get started. The multiple-family units under construction on Owens Drive in the parking lot of what one was AT&T’s western regional headquarters, were approved several years ago.
Pleasanton is under state pressure to build more moderate and low-income housing and zoned lots of parcels for it. Some are under construction such as the former Harvest Valley Church site on Hopyard and the former motel site on Santa Rita.
What needs to happen at the mall is a unified vision among the property owners for something they feel will be economically viable moving forward. With three of the major anchors closed and the future of retail shopping murky (to put it mildly) how to pivot is a tough question. Indicative of the office market, Pleasanton-headquartered Workday walked away from an option on the land where 10x Genomics has built its new facility.
The city can use the revenue that would come from one of the best located properties in the state (intersection of interstates in an upscale community) and it needs to work with the owners to help them achieve profitable land uses to do so.
The Valley Humane Society has partnered with the Richert family to celebrate the golden anniversary of the store on Stanley Boulevard diagonally across from the Raley’s shopping center. The society will be bringing both dogs and cats available for adoption to Richert Lumber ACE Hardware as it celebrates 50 years in business on the same parcel. Two cats patrol the main hardware building.
Tom Richert founded the business in a tiny 120-square-foot shack on leased land across from the Pleasanton sewer treatment plant (now the site of the Pleasanton Senior Center and grounds). I can attest to that having purchased redwood for a retaining wall in my backyard from Tom in that building. To say it’s expanded would be a genuine understatement and done so while the hardware category welcome big box giants Home Depot and Lowe’s.
The family promises barbecue prepared in its outdoor kitchen displays so stop by for some food and fun.
