Sonora Starbucks Coffee Construction On Target
Sonora residents won´t have to wait very much longer for an iced latte or steamy cappuccino.
Starbucks Coffee´s new Tuolumne County location will soon be ready for move-in.
With the advent of sunny spring weather, construction work has been progressing. “We´re right on schedule,” said Jim Todd, vice president for construction with the project developer California Gold of Sonora.
The local developer, who recently completed the new Signature Stadium 10 movie theaters and Applebee´s Neighborhood Grill and Bar, is building a new 16,000 square-foot combination retail and office building along Old Wards Ferry Road near Wal-Mart at the Crossroads shopping center.
Work is on schedule, but the developer says they are still looking for a lower floor anchor tenant to locate adjacent to Starbucks Coffee.
Todd says there has been plenty of small retail interest in the remaining space, but he says they are holding out for “the right tenant,” he said.
“We´re trying to be selective about who goes in there,” he said. “We want to compliment the rest of the center as best we can. It´s very much like the Applebee´s deal was when we started with the movie theater. We could have just as easily made that pad retail space as opposed to a stand alone restaurant, but that´s what we were holding out for.”
The three primary businesses for the building now include California Gold, Sonora accountant Sam Wheeler, and a large conference-meeting room, all upstairs, and Starbucks downstairs, he said.
A tentative agreement with a possible tenant for the downstairs space fell through, “So we´re still looking,” Todd said.
With or without the bottom floor spot leased, move in plans for the confirmed businesses are on target.
Todd says they are looking at a summer completion date for the building. Starbucks will begin their tenant improvement work May 1.
“We´re looking at the later part of June (to be open). It´s hard to say how the move in transition will go. But conceivably people could be open there anywhere from the middle of June to the first of July,” Todd anticipated.
