The Long Beach Press-Telegram wrote an article about Mother’s Market & Kitchen opening this weekend in Signal Hill. Continue reading below for more details.
Long Beach Press-Telegram, Local News
Mother’s Market to open in Signal Hill this weekend; more development, housing may be in store nearby
By Andrew Edwards, Posted 2/15/2018
A grand opening for Mothers Market grocery in Signal Hill is set for Saturday morning.
A grand opening for the new Mother’s Market & Kitchen grocery in Signal Hill is scheduled for Saturday morning.
The new grocery, at 2475 Cherry Ave., replaces a former Fresh & Easy store and is Mother’s Market’s first Los Angeles County store. A ribbon cutting for the new store is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Saturday, with an event set to include live music, food tasting and samples scheduled for 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Mother’s Market’s management also plans to give a recyclable grocery bag and $50 gift card to the first 100 customers in attendance.
The grocer’s arrival to Signal Hill also signifies an early milestone in a broader effort to develop adjacent land near the crossing of Crescent Heights Street and Cherry Avenue.
Signal Hill Petroleum, an oil company that has its own real estate development operations, is planning additional retail and residential construction for the adjacent land. The company calls its project Heritage Square, and may soon formally request approval for their plans from Signal Hill’s city government.
“They’ve been showing me conceptual plans and I would expect that they would embark on the more formal planning process shortly,” Signal Hill Community Development Director Scott Charney said.
Plans taking shape
Signal Hill Petroleum’s vice president of community relations and real estate operations, Debra Montalvo Russell, also said she expects a submission will be soon delivered to city planners. The company is first waiting to receive feedback from neighbors, but development concepts that may involve 30,000 to 60,000 square feet of new commercial space and some 200 residential units, she said.
Signal Hill Petroleum may require a year and a half to two years’ worth of additional work to bring Heritage Square to completion. Russell did not reveal any prospective tenants by name, but did say the company is seeking food service operators.
“We’re to talking to some local and well-known coffee shops and restaurant groups,” she said.
New territory for Mother’s Market
Mother’s Market has seven stores in Orange County, and management plans to open to venture further into Los Angeles County by opening another grocery in Manhattan Beach some time this summer.
The Signal Hill store has some 100 employees, according to a company announcement. The store also has a juice bar and cafe.
Mother’s Market positions itself as a healthier alternative to mainstream grocers, with offerings for consumers adhering to specialized diets, such as vegan, gluten-free or low-salt regimens. Mother’s Market stores do sell animal protein, and the company first added beef to its offerings until last year.
The store the new grocery is replacing, Fresh & Easy, started as British-retailer Tesco PLC’s attempt to compete in the western United States’ grocery space. Fresh & Easy’s small format stores began to open in 2007, but despite capturing considerable media attention upon arrival, the South Bay-headquartered Fresh & Easy ended up declaring bankruptcy in 2013.
Yucaipa Cos., a Los Angeles investment firm, subsequently acquired Fresh & Easy. In October 2015, the company announced the decision to close all 97 Fresh & Easy stores that were then open in California, Arizona and Nevada.
New operators have since taken over several former Fresh & Easy stores in and around Long Beach. Grocery Outlet established a presence in former Fresh & Easy stores in Long Beach, Downey and Lakewood, and Island Pacific Seafood Market, which specializes in Filipino food, took over a former Fresh & Easy at 3300 Atlantic Ave. in Long Beach.
The highly anticipated Mother’s Market & Kitchen is set to open in Signal Hill. We hope that everyone is as excited about the opening as we are! The official date has not been set, but the store’s goal is to be opened by the end of February 2018.
Mother’s Market will be replacing the former Fresh & Easy building located on the corner of Cherry Ave and Crescent Heights. We are proud to be bringing a fresh market to our amazing city. This business will be the first business to open as a part of our bigger development project, Heritage Square.
Keep a look out for the official opening date! Click on the link to learn more about Mother’s Market.
www.mothersmarket.com
The Long Beach Business Journal covered the approval of Mother’s Market & Kitchen (Mother’s) coming to Signal Hill. The boutique grocery store needed this final approval from the Signal Hill City Council to move forward with opening process. Mother’s will be moving into the former Fresh & Easy building located at 2475 Cherry Ave, and is expected to open by this year’s holiday season.
Click here to read more (see page 9).
At the most recent Signal Hill Planning Commission meeting the proposed site design plan for the new Mother’s Market was approved. To learn more about the project and the Planning Commission’s decision continuing reading the article below published by the Signal Tribune.
SH Planning Commission approves Mother’s Market site design
Anita W. Harris – Staff Writer 8/19/17
[…]
Mother’s Market
The commission approved proposed site design changes to the Mother’s Market and Kitchen location at 2475 Cherry Ave., formerly occupied by Fresh & Easy.
Senior Planner Colleen Doan presented the commission with detailed plans of the site’s design, including moving existing parking spaces to accommodate a new 1,011-square-foot outdoor eating area, abandoning two oil wells on the site and changing the signage.
Aesthetic changes to the building include a new roof design, brick accenting, additional external wall art (and retaining existing ceramic wall art) and mountain scenery in the windows.
Doan contextualized the site in terms of the City’s vision for a central business district.
“The subject site is part of a larger vision established by the City’s General Plan since 2001,” she said. “The General Plan vision is for Heritage Square, a unique downtown mixed-use central business district.”
The central business district was envisioned at that time to include specialty retail, public open space and residential development.
In 2010, a Fresh & Easy market was constructed on the site, becoming an anchor tenant for the development, until its corporate office closed the store in 2016.
In 2017, Doan said, the City refined the Heritage Square vision in conjunction with Signal Hill Petroleum (SHP), which owns part of the site, and the city council approved their updated plan.
“The refined vision continued to incorporate specialty retail, view restaurants, open space and a high-density residential component, and very earth-toned materials, such as stone, wood, metal and glass,” Doan said. “The design modifications for this existing building have taken into account the refined design theme.”
In addition to site design, Doan also shared a request with the commission that the conditional-use permit (CUP) for Mother’s Market include the sale of alcoholic beverages for on-site consumption. The CUP for Fresh & Easy had only allowed the sale of alcoholic beverages for off-site consumption.
The council adopted a resolution recommending that the city council approve this request. The council will evaluate the CUP at its Sept. 12 meeting, Doan said.
Representatives of Mother’s Market were on hand to express to the commission their keen interest in opening a Mother’s Market in the area. Several Signal Hill residents in the audience also publically voiced their support of the store, lauding the quality of its produce and prepared foods.
Debra Russell, vice president of community relations for SHP, said that the property had been left vacant since Fresh & Easy closed in 2016.
“Although we’ve had interest from other prospects, we have held out, without rent, to make sure that we bring the best use to our community, which we feel is Mother’s Market and Kitchen,” Russell said. “Bringing in a quality grocery store has been a top priority for our residents and visitors and businesses.”
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