‘Big’ national chains coming to Ceres vacant supermarket, more restaurants opening
After sitting vacant throughout the pandemic, the former Rancho San Miguel supermarket space in Ceres will have two well-known national tenants.
The Latino grocery chain closed its store in the city’s Hatch Road shopping district in the summer of 2019, and it has been vacant ever since. But now the building will be split between two national retailers. The development is one of a handful of new retail projects underway in various stages in the Central Valley city.
Discount chains Big Lots and Grocery Outlet will open inside the 63,000-square-foot space. The building will be split between the two retailers, with Big Lots developing approximately 38,000-square feet and Grocery Outlet taking the other 24,000-square-feet.
This will be the first stores for both Big Lots, known for its closeout deals on everything from groceries to home decor, and Grocery Outlet, a California-based supermarket overstock seller, in Ceres. Modesto has two locations for both stores already and Turlock has one each.
Ceres Community Development Director Christopher Hoem said permits have been issued and construction has begun to transform the former grocery space into the two new stores. When Rancho San Miguel closed in 2019, representatives from the chain said the store’s size — which was twice as large as a standard one of their stores — was the main reason for its closure.
City of Ceres officials knew it would be tough to get another business to take over the whole space, so this sharing agreement should be a win for the shopping district. Hoem estimates work should be completed on the store in the first half of 2023.
Across town to the south, at the corner of Mitchell and Service roads, the Ceres Gateway Center had its first new business open inside the new retail development. Starbucks coffee opened its standalone building in the retail center late last month.
The development has been built from the ground up across the street from the city’s new Walmart Supercenter, which opened last November. Hoem said the next new eateries to finish work in the center should be Chipotle, Ono Hawaiian BBQ and In-N-Out Burger, which are all new construction standalone buildings. Expect them to begin opening in December.
The Ceres Planning Commission also recently approved plans for a new Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, Woodspring Suites hotel and Union 76 gas station/convenience store to join the other new options in the Gateway center. The latter will have additional tenant space for another drive-thru restaurant.
On the east side of the city, a large new restaurant and bar also was recently approved by the Ceres Planning Commission. The new eatery is going into a vacant lot on East Whitmore Avenue near an irrigation canal. Plans call for a 11,900-square-foot building that would be home to Family Fun Pizza and Bar.
The city has not yet received a building permit application for the project, but once approved construction is expected to take several months, Hoem said. The new restaurant could tentatively be ready to open by fall of 2023.
These new developments across Ceres join the work underway to transform the former Kmart building on Hatch Road at the start of the city’s busy shopping corridor. The 84,000-square-foot building, which has been empty since 2018, is being renovated to become a new Public Storage self-storage facility.
The 9-acre development project also will construct a Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers restaurant, Dutch Bros Coffee kiosk and Quik Stop convenience store/gas station at the front of the property along Hatch Road. Preliminary construction has started on the Public Storage.
“These projects represent a strong economic outlook and hopefully just the tip of the iceberg for the City of Ceres as we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic and push forward to a bright future,” Hoem said.
