Blanca Torres
Reporter- San Francisco Business Times

Email
 | Twitter
 | Google+

Foods Co. plans to start construction on an 80,000-square-foot new store in Foothill Square in Oakland.

The store at, 10790 MacArthur Blvd., will be the supermarket’s first store in Oakland. It plans to finish construction in the summer of 2013.

Foods Co., a division of Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR), the nation’s largest grocer, made plans several years ago to open three stores in areas of Oakland known as “food deserts” because of their lack of access to fresh food and groceries.

“We are very excited about the construction of the first Foods Co. supermarket in Oakland and the opportunity it gives us to expand our presence in the Bay Area,” said Bryan Kaltenbach, president of Foods Co.

The grocer plans to hold a ground-breaking ceremony Nov. 2.

The East Oakland store is part of a major overhaul of Foothill Square, a shopping center near Mills College off of Interstate 580 owned by developer Jay-Phares Corp.

Foods Co. and Ross Dress for Less (NASDAQ: ROST) will anchor the center after a $30 million renovation that will boost the size of the center to 201,900 square feet from 155,000 square feet.

Foods Co. has 145 stores, with five stores in the Bay Area — two stores in San Francisco and one each in Pittsburgh, Redwood City and Richmond.

The East Oakland store will employ about 100 workers.

Blanca Torres covers East Bay real estate for the San Francisco Business Times.

Follow Your Favorites with My News

My News is a way to create a customized news feed based on companies and industries that matter to you.

Article source: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/real-estate/2012/11/foods-co-to-build-new-foothill-square.html