Modesto's Coffee Plaza making a comeback with discount store, familiar name in pizza

After weathering major vacancies and economic downturns, Modesto's long-standing Coffee Plaza is on the upswing thanks to some high-profile new businesses.

This week the national retailer dd's Discounts, which specializes in low-cost apparel and home goods, opened in the center's 12,500-square foot anchor spot at the corner of Coffee Road and Floyd Avenue. Two new restaurants, including a Straw Hat Pizza, are slated to open later this year. Last October, Family Dollar opened in the center's second anchor spot.

"We're back in business here, that's how it feels," said Angel Polhemus, the center's property manager and broker. "A center can't operate without two strong anchors."

Recently the more than 50-year-old center has seen a small flurry of businesses plan to open in the once bustling complex. A laundromat opened earlier this spring. Polhemus said Straw Hat Pizza and Jamal's Afghan Restaurant & Market are prepping to open as well.

The pizza shop will be in the space that formerly housed a Round Table Pizza until the 1990s and another Straw Hat briefly until the early 2010s. It will be the first Straw Hat Pizza location in Modesto since then. The Afghan market will go into the space that was once filled by the Korean Kitchen, which closed around the same time as Straw Hat.

For longtime tenants like Coffee Plaza Barber Shop, the new stores are a welcome sight.

"I've seen a big improvement in it the last year or so. I think it will continue. I am looking forward to business getting better," said Gary Conn, who has owned Coffee Plaza Barber Shop in the center for some 24 years.

Coffee Plaza was first developed in 1965 as a mixed residential and commercial project. In 1971, Save Mart built a $1 million center on the site with it as its anchor. Over the years the Save Mart became a New Deal which became a R-N Market in 2000. R-N Market remained open until 2008, when it shuttered, and the anchor spot had been vacant since then.

The empty storefronts led to an uptick in crime and vagrancy. In 2012 Polhemus went to the city council to complain about the aggressive panhandling, vandalism, drug dealing and loitering in the center. The city and police department sent extra patrols to the area in response.

Polhemus, who has managed the center since the early 2000s, said it is now more than 90 percent full, with four small storefront vacancies left to fill. This is the second dd's Discounts location in Modesto. The other store is on Tully Road and Bowen Avenue. It now joins longtime tenants like the Waffle Shop, Grand Buffet and others.

This story was originally published June 28, 2018 at 4:17 PM.