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Home Depot seeks south Oxnard site
Plan is to raze Kmart store
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More from OxnardHome Depot hopes to open a store in south Oxnard, doubling its presence in the county's largest city by replacing a Kmart on Channel Islands Boulevard.
The Atlanta-based home improvement giant is proposing to build a 141,000-square-foot big-box store on the northeast corner of Channel Islands and Ventura Road.
Home Depot currently operates a store in Oxnard's Esplanade Shopping Center near Highway 101. A second store would serve the city's southern neighborhoods, where advocates have clamored for a large home improvement retailer for years.
Plans call for razing Kmart and opening the store by the end of 2008, Kathryn Gallagher, a Home Depot spokeswoman, said Thursday.
Kim Freely, a spokeswoman for Kmart's parent company, Sears Holdings Corp., said there has been no announcement about store closures.
Home Depot still faces an extensive approval process, including environmental reviews, possible traffic studies and public hearings.
News of the company's application, which was submitted March 8, caught several south Oxnard leaders by surprise. Many residents in that part of town shop at Home Depot in Camarillo because the drive is quicker than traveling to the Esplanade.
However, there are questions about the proposed location.
"I would want to know how they're going to handle the traffic flow," Nancy Pedersen, chairwoman of the Cal-Gisler Neighborhood Council, said Thursday.
Traffic grinds to a halt at that intersection when workers leave nearby Naval Base Ventura County, she said.
A better site would be the shuttered Skyview Drive-In movie theater on Oxnard Boulevard, just south of the city's Five Points intersection, said Shirley Godwin, chairwoman of the Saviers Road Design Team.
Traffic at Five Points where Oxnard Boulevard, Saviers Road and Wooley Road meet is already "too intense" for a Home Depot, Susan Martin, the city's planning manager, said Thursday.
A preliminary traffic study by a Home Depot consultant found the new store would generate 528 car trips during the evening rush hour, 71 more than Kmart does now. That report and more traffic studies would be considered in a preliminary environmental review, Martin said.
Godwin was also surprised because city leaders for years have said that big-box retailers were not interested in south Oxnard.
Gallagher couldn't confirm if that was Home Depot's stand. In choosing sites, the company considers population, how many residents own homes, the potential for new development and location, she said.
Officials also gauge business at its other stores, such as the one at the Esplanade.
"That's a busy store for us," Gallagher said.
City officials last year approved plans for a Lowe's Home Depot's biggest competitor at the Carriage Square Shopping Center on Oxnard Boulevard, a few miles south of the Esplanade. Gallagher said that didn't influence Home Depot's decision to open a second store.
"We take a snapshot of the market as a whole and see if the business is there," Gallagher said. "And the business is there. So residents of south Oxnard won't have to travel across town. It will be a great location and a great store."
Steve Davitt, general manager of Do It Best Hardware, said Thursday he was "not really happy" about Home Depot's possible arrival.
Do It Best opened on Channel Islands Boulevard in Port Hueneme near Victoria Avenue in 2003.
"I would prefer not to have Home Depot a mile and a half away from my location," said Davitt, a former operations manager for Home Depot in Phoenix. "But competition makes you better."
Home Depot also has stores in Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks, where it is proposing to build a second store.
Posted by AnaCapa on May 11, 2007 at 7:39 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I think they should leave K-Mart in that spot. The shopping center could use some remodeling, but K-Mart does well there. I could understand closing K-mart if it wasn't performing, but it does well. What is this? Big retailers can come in and kick out and exhisting business whenever they want? Doesn't seem right.
Posted by RelaxPeople on May 11, 2007 at 9:08 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Tuff to downgrade So. Oxnard and also tuff to downgrade K Mart (the worst store on earth).
Posted by BeaHappi on May 11, 2007 at 10 a.m. (Suggest removal)
K-Mart does have some pretty good deals, but why in the heck do all of their stores look so crappy? The one in South Oxnard is just a pit and that shopping center is in dire need of a facelift.
I think that K-Mart probably serves the community more there than a Home Depot would but at least the Home Depot would be aesthetically more pleasing.
Posted by msrtaiga on May 11, 2007 at 10:37 a.m. (Suggest removal)
What about the Do It Center, the smaller local hardware store already on Channel Islands? I think it's messed up if Home Depot moves in and puts them out of business.
Not to mention that there already is a home depot in Oxnard.
Posted by archtmf on May 11, 2007 at 10:42 a.m. (Suggest removal)
To the Do-it Best operators: I go to Do-it-Best and Ace and smaller hardware stores like that all the time, because you stock items that I can not find in Home Depot or Lowes. Your selection of fasteners, and stuff like that, just can't be found in the bigger warehouse stores. Yes your prices are a bit higher, and yes, I do shop at Home Depot. But keep stocking stuff that they don't, and keep offering convenient, quick advice from people that know what they're talking about, and you will still have customers. Trying to find someone to help you in Home Depot is like trying to find an outdoor ice rink in Honolulu... just not easy to do.
Posted by archieherrera on May 11, 2007 at 1:23 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Folks, first of all, I did not know a Do-it-Center is close, thanks for the info. I know the Kmart is looking run down with bad staff, maybe a movie theater, boys and girl club, something that the people of city could use, even a Sr center or health care center like in camarillo. I think Homedepo is already established in the county. One of you said remodel, good idea. Something that the kids can use is a good start to keep them off the streets. Just my view.
A.
Posted by twoods on May 11, 2007 at 7:50 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I think a Home Depot would be great in the "Dirty South". It's better than another taqueria, furniture store or a massage parlor.
Posted by lrgvanman on May 11, 2007 at 11:27 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I think we would do fine with only one Home Depot in Oxnard. K Mart does indeed need a face lift but at least when one wants to shop at a K Mart there would be no need to leave town to do it. If the need really is there, why not the rundown site that used to be the Lucky's at Hemlock and Victoria? Kill two birds with one stone!
Posted by imdunnfor on May 12, 2007 at 9:35 a.m. (Suggest removal)
K-Mart needs to go. I imagine if Home Depot is eyeing the site, their lease must be expiring. They're not going to fix it up. Anyone who shops there in the summer when it's as hot inside as out (but now you're waiting in line, watching the clerks hair blowing around because she has a fan on her). The people working there are so slow. I have to chalk that up to bad management - all the way to the top. I have to believe anything new is good for the forgotten South Oxnard (Are they ever going to tear down the old Hughes market?).
Sorry, but 5 Points is just too far away and too close to the existing Home Depot(not that they don't need to do something there).
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