Good call by Councilman Nibert
He passes on re-election bid so two Pleasanton council seats will be available in November.
One of the prime retail sites in the Bay Area took an unexpected turn this month.
The 27-acre parcel bounded by Interstate 580, Hacienda Drive and Martinelli Drive has been approved for a traditional IKEA store like the destination big box stores in
Emeryville and East Palo Alto. The Dublin City Council approved the plan in 2018 finding a way to make it work despite the traffic load from the freeway with retail uses surrounding the site and complimentary retail uses planned in addition to the IKEA store. It was planned for 317,000 square feet.
The Swedish retailer backed off the plan last year and has redone is strategy with a small storefront opening in Pleasanton to help consumers design and pick what they want. The purchase can be picked up at the store later or shipped directly to the customer. It’s borrowing a piece of the model that Costco uses so well with online items that never see the warehouse store. Instead, a member orders them online and they’re shipped directly.
The major change in Dublin demonstrates two trends:
- How much retailing is changing in favor of online for many purchases and how much in the future is an open question.
- The value health care companies place on the Tri-Valley residents with a high percentage insured.
The purchaser is Sacramento-based, non-profit health care company, Sutter Health. Sutter already has medical offices and urgent care in Dublin located one interchange further east.
It joins Stanford Health Tri-Valley, John Muir-Tenet (owner of San Ramon Regional) and Kaiser Permanente offering major services in the Tri-Valley. Stanford took over ValleyCare and has invested significantly in the market, including purchasing new buildings and adding another hospital tower. John Muir operates a medical office facility with diagnostic equipment literally down the street from two Stanford facilities.
Add in Kaiser, with medical offices in Pleasanton, Livermore and San Ramon plus urgent care, cancer care and medical offices in Dublin plus several medical groups that have affiliations with the systems. There’s plenty of choice here if you can pay for it.
The unfortunate wrinkle for Dublin is Sutter is not-for-profit, thus no property taxes and tiny sales tax. Compare that with IKEA that Dublin Deputy City Manager Hazel Weatherford wrote in an email was estimated at $1.2 million in sales tax revenue when the project was approved in 2018. That number obviously would have gone up over eight years. She wrote that the city hasn’t received an application from Sutter, which presumably may want to change some of the other planned uses on the site if it moves ahead to build a hospital. She did note that the city has other businesses that top that $1.2 million in revenue.
The firm already operates Sutter Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley, a stage II trauma center. It handles the trauma cases in the Livermore Valley and southern Alameda County, while Contra Costa cases go to John Muir in Walnut Creek. Sutter also has major facilities in San Francisco, on the Peninsula and Alta Bates/Summit in Oakland.
The Pleasanton City Council will have fresh faces come December after one-term incumbent Jeff Nibert announced he will not seek re-election. Councilwoman Julie Testa is termed out after her second term. Congrats for Nibert for making the tough decision to prioritize his family in his season of life. Good call.
No challenger has emerged for Mayor Jack Balch who is finishing his first term so the scramble for political insiders is to find strong candidates for those two seats. They could swing control of the council. Former school trustee Jamie Yee is mounting a campaign for Testa’s seat announcing her run in April. She came up short in a three-person race that Testa won in 2022.
The filing period closes in early August, but it will be extended for a few days because Nibert will not file for re-election. The district elections that the city adopted makes it even more challenging—find a quality candidate and that person must live within certain neighborhoods.
The Southern California law firm has forced these district elections in communities statewide based upon a state voting law designed to ensure minority group representation. That may make sense in large cities, but in communities the size of the Tri-Valley it hasn’t made any sense and still doesn’t.
