Kohl's gets city's OK for Pleasanton store Kohl's gets city's OK for Pleasanton store (January 30, 2004)

Fast-growing retailer plans Oct. 4 opening
by Jeb Bing

City planners gave the final approval last week to a new Pleasanton store for Kohl's, one of the country's fastest growing retailers that plans to open as many as 25 new stores in Northern California.

Demolition work was scheduled to start today on the building in the Rosewood Pavilion, also known as the Metro 580 Center, that once housed Staple's Office Supply and Linens 'N Things. Work on building the new 88,248-square-foot Kohl's store will start once that's finished to meet the Oct. 4 opening date. The Kohl's store also will have an 8,000-square foot mezzanine.

A new driveway will be added adjacent to the Border's book store on Rosewood Drive that will extend alongside the front of Border's and another retailer store to be added directly next to the Kohl's building, replacing the driveway behind Border's and across from the CarrAmerica Center. The city's Principal Planner Jerry Iserson said the changes would improve traffic flow within the center as well as pedestrian safety.

New Plan Excel Realty Trust, which owns all but the Wal-Mart portion of the Metro 580 Center, is also demolishing a third of the building that houses Border's to make room for the larger Kohl's structure. The work will leave in place room next to Border's for a second retailer, which New Excel has yet to announce.

Kohl's, with more than 500 department stores across the country, had sales last year of nearly $7 billion. It employs more than 75,000 employees, with each store, like the one being built in Pleasanton, employing about 155.

The retailer is widely known in the Midwest, where its corporate headquarters are near Milwaukee. In recent years, it has taken market share from Mervyns, and a recent business report suggested that Kohl's could be a buyer of some of Mervyns stores should its corporate owner, Target Inc., decide to sell some of that division. Target, with record high sales last year, has seen disappointing results with the Marshall Field and Mervyns stores that it acquired.

Although the Planning Commission spent more than an hour reviewing the design and color plans for Kohl's Pleasanton store, members voted unanimously to approve the petition with an agreement that Kohl's corporate logo facing I-580 would be reduced from its standard 5-foot height to no more than 3 feet.

Planners were also pleased to hear that Kohl's will build its store in accordance with the city's new Green Building ordinance, with structural work targeted to obtain a minimum 27 points, more than the city requires to achieve its coveted LEED "Certified" rating under the ordinance. Iserson said this will be Kohl's first store built to comply with the LEED rating system.

Iserson said that Wal-Mart, which is located at the end of the Metro 580 Center, also has plans to expand on its Owens Drive site. That application will be reviewed by the Planning Commission next month.

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