SHP helps bring new retail to Signal Hill

Signal Hill Petroleum helps bring in new retail to Signal Hill through its shopping center Signal Hill Gateway.

Economic Outlook 2014: The ‘Best’ Year Since The Great Recession

City Of Signal Hill

An exciting year lies ahead for Signal Hill, according to its Mayor Michael Noll. New retail stores and restaurants opening – Chipotle, Sprint, a drive-thru Starbucks and a Bank of America ATM – are just some of the additions to the city.

According to City Manager Ken Farfsing, what’s exciting about those new openings is that they fill what will become one of the biggest sales tax generators in Signal Hill – the Signal Hill Gateway shopping center at Spring Street and Atlantic Avenue. “I’ve been able to see it transform from a vacant lot to one of the better shopping centers in the area,” Farfsing told the Business Journal. “That’s exciting for the city. It’s 100 percent leased up. It carried us through the recession. There’s always something going on up there.”

The top sales tax generator for Signal Hill is its auto row. The city has plans to add a Fiat dealership along with a CarMax, though the two have not yet been approved as part of the former redevelopment property long-range management plan. “We hope that within a six-month period to no more than a year that we would have the California Department of Finance’s sign off to begin marketing the properties,” he said.

The major project kicking off 2014 in Signal Hill is the widening of Cherry Avenue to Pacific Coast Highway. The project recently received approval from CalTRANS and will soon be out for bid. Construction is expected to run through spring and summer, and a detour plan is being developed.

Noll said the multi-million-dollar project has been in the works for a decade and is funded through state and federal grants. “We’ve always had traffic bottleneck there,” Noll said of the Cherry Avenue narrow, which is technically in Long Beach. The cities partnered to make the project happen, according to Farfsing.