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A major domino in the dormant redevelopment of downtown Dublin has fallen.
Clothing retailer Burlington is closing its store in Dublin Place toward the end of this month after the company sold the building to American Realty Advisors, which owns the overall shopping center and wants to reinvent the prominent Amador Plaza Road property – although project plans in line with the city’s Downtown Dublin Preferred Vision abruptly paused last fall.
ARA and Burlington officials did not respond to requests for comment sent Friday, but city representatives confirmed they were informed of the transaction and the impending closure.
Store staff said the final day is scheduled for Aug. 29, but did not offer further comment. Even as rumors swirled on local social media for several days, nothing inside or outside the store indicated to customers Aug. 7 that the doors would shutter for good three weeks later.
“Yes, the new property owner, American Realty Advisors, informed the City that they had closed escrow on purchasing the Burlington property, and shortly after, they received a notice from Burlington that they would be closing their Dublin location in mid-to-late August,” city spokesperson Shari Jackman told the Pleasanton Weekly. “Burlington owns the Burlington store as well as Bassett, but no other parcels there.”
“As for the Downtown Dublin vision,” Jackman added, “the City continues to collaborate with the property owner, but a plan has yet to be approved.”
Through its development consultant Hines, ARA – which purchased the shopping center in 2015 for $51 million – proposed its concept to create Dublin Commons at the 28-acre site, a mixed-use project with new and existing retail, research and development space for life sciences, 1,510 multifamily residential units and a new town square and park.
The Dublin City Council was set to consider potential development and community benefit program, vesting tentative tract map and public infrastructure agreements with ARA at its Oct. 1 meeting last year, but the matter was pulled from the agenda and shelved at the applicant’s request.
One hangup had been certain longtime tenants like Target and PetSmart declining to let go of their Dublin Place leases and associated terms such as parking lot allocations. Other units have remained empty in Dublin Place, such as the former Lucille’s Smokehouse BBQ restaurant in the northeast corner and the old Hobby Lobby between Target and Burlington, presumably in anticipation of future redevelopment at the site.
Another key holdout had been Burlington – the discount clothing retailer formerly known as Burlington Coat Factory that held onto ownership of its buildings in Dublin despite ARA scooping up the property around it.
Now Burlington has sold and is closing at 6900 Amador Plaza Road before Labor Day weekend, a move that will create a trio of consecutive vacant large units at the southern entrance end of the shopping center – albeit Spirit Halloween was a temporary tenant in the former Hobby Lobby building at 7050 Amador Plaza Road last year.
Toys “R” Us had occupied the unit adjoining Burlington at 6850 Amador Plaza Road for years before its corporate troubles.
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