Just down the street from 2001 Market, the tentative leasehold agreement to bring a Trader Joe’s to the Market and Noe Center (2280 Market) was set to expire May 7 absent a deal to relocate current Market and Noe tenant RadioShack.
And while the deal to relocate RadioShack still hasn’t been finalized, and May 7 has come and gone, Trader Joe’s has extended the expiration date on their agreement as the negations to move the Shack continue on.
Closer To Reality For 2001 Market Street [SocketSite]
Trader Joe’s Finalizes Lease For Castro Location (ETA: A Year) [SocketSite]
Out With Tower Records (Three Years Ago), In With Trader Joe’s? [SocketSite]
Obstacle remains for Castro Trader Joe’s [Examiner]

12 thoughts on “Trader Joe’s In The Castro Currently Stymied By A Shack”
  1. I have to assume “the Shack” is simply practicing corporate blackmail? It’s very annoying for those of us who would love to see Trader Joe’s open tomorrow.

  2. Not so fast curmudgeon. TJs is a great retailer and I can see how you’d want to remove obstacles as quickly as possible. However, I assume RS has a lease with options to renew, and that moving it will not only have known costs, but unknown costs as well. It is very difficult to identify in advance the impact that a move can have on sales, as some locations can work much better than others.
    There can be all sorts of differences here that are very hard to sort out. What will be fair compensation to RS to take the risk of the site not working out? Who will assume the risk of the new site not working as well as the old one? Who assumes the risk of being wrong?
    RS will likely have to sign a long lease at their new location – if it doesn’t work out, the impact can be long lasting.
    The landlord doesn’t usually want to pay much at all because they are not being offered much more than the lease on the two smaller spaces would bring individually. The new tenant doesn’t want to pay above market. So there is rarely much money being offered, yet the tenant being asked to leave can take a real economic hit. The landlord or incoming tenant usually just wants to pay a lump sum, which sticks RS with the risk.
    Is it fair to look at the last 5 years sales average and make the landlord pay the difference when the next 5 years may look very different from the last 5? You can see the problems. Thus, these buyouts are usually difficult to get all parties to agree to unless the tenant being asked to leave already wants to. I’ve been involved in businesses that receive a buyout offer and it’s usually insufficient to convince the tenant to move.

  3. Its seemingly shortsighted on RS’s part. Never mind the last 5 years sales, if a decent boycott gets going in the district (and it should) there might be very little in the next 5 years.
    Everyone else has accepted the owners offer except RS. Hopefully the Castro will set the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence on them.
    And WHO still shops at RS anyways?

  4. A quick Google search for “Radio Shack For Sale” brings up a lot of business news over the last 2-3 months about a sale of the company or merger with Best Buy.

  5. I’ve walked by this store nearly every day, before and after Tower closed, and have been in dozens of times myself. I’d be very surprised if the closing of Tower didn’t tank the Shack’s business just like every other tenant here (I knew Brad V., who owned a store in the building until he recently passed away, and his business was off significantly after Tower vacated). It just seems weird that the Shack is fighting valiantly to stay in a location where the traffic has tanked. Odds are they just see this as an opportunity to make up for the last 3 years of lost revenue by extracting as much as possible from the landlord and TJ’s — that’s a very logical business explanation for their intransigence.
    Of course, I’m just speculating. I could be way off. Could be they are doing gangbusters in that desolate location and feel that moving anywhere would be a serious threat to their future prospects. * eye roll *

  6. There sems to be much speculation and hardening of positions (pro and con) on a TJ’s at this location…has anyone seen a traffic study yet?
    Where will truck loading take place? Noe Street? Market Street? Neither seems very good.
    Radio Shack is made out to the big hurdle here…..but TJ’s still needs a Conditional Use Permit, and possibly a variance for no off street loading dock.
    Radio Shack would also need a new Conditional use permit to relocate.
    Lets all get more facts, discuss and see what seems best for the neighborhood.

  7. Drive along Noe across Market St. while you still can, once this opens it’ll be the last anybody ever tried anything silly like that again. I predict a parklet initiative at some point in the next two years in an attempt to calm the inevitable traffic INSANITY that is going to be a mainstay of this part of the universe. And I say this as a driver!

  8. OK, since we’re all predicting. I’ll predict:
    If TJ’s does eventually move to this location, the predictions about:
    o Parking INSANITY
    o The destruction of existing businesses
    o The catastrophe of evening loading off Noe
    o Other nightmarish scenarios
    Will all prove to be overblown and forgotten, with the only memory being how it sucked to have such a large vacant storefront right smack in the middle of our neighborhood for three years.
    * proffers $1 bill for the pool *

  9. Is this smart? Radio Shack is not the real issue. But there are about 20 insurmountable issues if folks are paying attention.
    Bottomline – we all know there is no real way to stop shoppers who love TJs from driving there. Period. Traffic is always THE issue with Trader Joe’s (e.g. Masonic) – regardless of visions of a “walkable store.” Convenient for some? A major problem for many.
    Envision dangerous backups of cars waiting for a car lot, blocking part of an already complicated intersection. How nice it will be for Cafe Flore and La Med sidewalk cafe diners to inhale the fumes of idling cars waiting curbside along Noe to enter the small garage? Is that setup even legal?
    Expect double-parking in front of storefront curbside lane. Bye-bye bike lane (or use your life.) The contingency plan for parking snarls? A perpetual arrangement with the Dept of Parking and Traffic? Unlikely. Expect rush hour (shopping hour) bottlenecks on a major crosstown artery.
    No loading zone means closing a pedestrian sidewalk in a busy nightlife area and drunks wandering into the street. Imagine a line of cars idling right beside the Farmer’s Market, or winding down Noe.
    Plus, a $7 billion chain store would put long established neighborhood corner grocers out of business.
    Other than that … it all sounds GREAT!

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