After trying for more than two decades to bring a Trader Joe’s to Hermosa Beach, Roger Bacon signed a lease this week with the market chain, popular with foodies.
In the mid 1990s, Bacon tried unsuccessfully to bring a Trader Joe’s to the former BMW location at Pacific Coast Highway and 30th Street in Hermosa. Skechers is now planning to build a 130,000 square foot office building and design center on the long vacant property.
The new Trader Joe’s will replace the Ralphs Market in Bacon’s Pacific Coast Highway shopping center. Bacon opened the center with an Alpha Beta Market in 1976. The Ralphs that replaced the Alpha Beta in 1989, closed last month. A sale of the Ralph’s fixtures is scheduled for 10 a.m. Tuesday.
“This will be the fourth time I’ve remodeled the market,” Bacon said. “Our big, arched, storefront windows will be unblocked to allow in natural light and the floor will be an ocean blue.” He hopes to have the store open before next summer.
Bacon said the Hermosa Trader Joe’s will be 25,000 square feet, making it the largest in the South Bay. Trader Joe’s has seven other South Bay stores — two in Manhattan Beach, two in Torrance, two in Rancho Palos Verdes and one in the Redondo Beach Riviera Village.
A new pharmacy will occupy about 10,000 square feet of the former Ralphs Market, Bacon said.
Trader Joe’s South Bay expansion follows the recent closures of three Haggens Foods (formerly Albertsons) in Redondo Beach, a Value Plus in Redondo and Fresh and Easy markets in Hermosa and El Segundo, in addition to the Hermosa Ralphs.
A Jons International Marketplace is now hiring for the store it is opening at the former Value Plus location on 190th Street in Redondo. Gelson’s Markets has announced plans to open a store at 8th Street and Sepulveda Boulevard in Manhattan Beach. ER
